Drone Development from Concept to Flight

Learn and apply the principles behind building and flying drones using components like BLDC motors and speed controllers, AeroGCS ground software, Ardupilot and PX4 open-source flight stacksalong with examples and best practices

Key Features

• Get to grips with multicopter physics (roll, pitch, and yaw) and 3D dynamics for defining a drone's flight
• Optimize drone performance with powerful propulsion systems such as BLDS motors, lipo batteries, and ESCs
• Build a custom survey drone to learn vital aspects of drone assembly, configuration, testing, and maiden flight
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

Unlock opportunities in the growing UAV market where drones are revolutionizing diverse sectors like agriculture, surveying, and the military. Using the vast experience of the author in drone domain, this book provides step-by-step guidance through the complete drone development life cycle, from concept to pilot stage, prototyping, and ultimately, a market-ready product, with domain-specific applications.

Starting with an introduction to unmanned systems, principles of drone flight, and it's motion in 3D space, this book shows you how to design a propulsion system tailored to your drone’s needs. You’ll then get hands on with the entire drone assembly process, covering airframe, components, and wiring. Next, you’ll enhance drone connectivity and navigation with communication devices, such as RFD900, Herelink, and H-16 Pro GCS and hardware protocols like I2C, and UART. The book also guides you in using the open-source flight software Ardupilot and PX4, along with firmware architecture and PID tuning for advanced control. Additionally, you’ll go learn about AeroGCS, Mission Planner, and UGCS ground control stations, tips for maiden flight and log analysis for optimizing performance while building a custom survey drone with a 60-min endurance, 10km range, live video feed, and photography options.

By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with all you need to build and fly your own drones and UAVs.

What you will learn

• Explore the design principles for multicopter flight and its physics of motion
• Grasp terminologies associated with UAV flight systems
• Implement power trail, communication, and propulsion conceptsin drone design
• Use IMUs and sensors in flight controllers, and protocols like I2C, SPI, and MAvlink
• Familiarize yourself with open-source drone flight stacks and ground control station software
• Apply the control law used in multicopter and the basics of PIDs
• Delve into modes of flying with remote controllers and analysis of flight logs

Who this book is for

This book is for beginner-level drone engineers, robotics engineers, hardware and design engineers, and hobbyists who want to enter the drone industry and enhance their knowledge of the physics, mechanics, avionics, and programming of drones, multicopters, and UAVs. While not a prerequisite, a basic understanding of circuits, microcontrollers, and electronic instruments like multimeter, camera, and batteries, along with fundamental concepts in physics and mathematics, will be helpful.

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started with UAV and Drone Engineering
2. Understanding Flight Terminologies and Physics of Motion
3. Learning and Applying Basic Command and Control Interfaces
4. Knowing UAV Systems, Sub-Systems and Components
5. Sensors and IMUs with Their Application in Drones
6. Introduction to Drone Firmware and Flight Stacks
7. Introduction to Ground Control Station Software

(N.B. Please use the Read Sample option to see further chapters)

Sumit Sharma has rich experience in Unmanned systems with specialization in Drones architecture development and testing for different applications. He is experienced in Drone Mechanics, Avionics, Design and manufacturing. In his early career, he was involved in the development and testing of the first approved agriculture drone and later getting it approved by the DGCA. Along with this, he has contributed to the development of a Survey drone for Aerial Surveys. He was also involved in the development of high speed and long range surveillance drones for defence tenders. Sumit has been involved in early agriculture spraying pilot projects and was a part of Aerial Spraying on the Locust which hit Rajasthan in 2020.