My UAV Project: Part 5

A Quick Update

In my last post, I had my fun and played around with 3 different areas of the problem space: bluetooth enabled transponder + Android app, custom PCB printing, and control theory. That was back in mid September. From then until about mid November, I had spent my time on this project continuing to read up on control theory. I was able to get through about a third of this wonderful book on controls. The Math is all very enjoyable and exposes some beautiful truths if you look just below the surface.

I've gotten through understanding the impact of controlling poles, zeroes, etc.. I know how to classify systems w.r.t. their steady state error via system types (type 0, type 1, type 2, etc..). Control block algebra is a piece of cake. And with all this, I'm able to understand the analysis and pitfalls of the basic, yet highly generic and typically effective, PID controller. Everything makes sense at a theoretical level now, which is great! I just need to get through the section on dealing with digital controllers, as discretization and quantization throw a wrench into the works (albeit a wrench that can be studied analytically!).

Aviation

I've still been flying, of course! Though I haven't been in the past couple of winter months as my instructor is off in South Africa teaching in the warmer climates that the southern hemisphere has to offer right now. I'm a weekend away from flying the nest, however, which is pretty damn exciting!

**Be sure to watch this in 1080p

Mid Nov. - Late Dec.

This past month and a half has seen a pause in progress for this project as I've had to tend to my personal life a bit. I've just picked up a rental property! It's a fun side-side-project that will hopefully require a minimal amount of time after it's set up properly. Then I can resume spending the majority of my side-project time on this lovely/blasted quad again.

Next Steps

Forget what I said last post, I need to understand more theory first! Once I'm done with understanding how digital controllers affect control, that knowledge will guide the overall requirements for latency, processing power, etc... That, in turn, should feed nicely into the technical work I still have to do to get the quad in the air (quaternion library, etc...). I will also need to understand LQR controllers, or so I'm told, as they are better controllers for quadrotors.

** Edit **

It took a bit more than a year to renovate the rental property. I learned a ton but it ate into ALL of my side project time. I haven't really had a "normal job" (read: a 9-5 with an employer who wasn't myself) since the project concluded, so I haven't gotten back to this quad yet. Really looking forward to picking it up again in the future though.