System identification and control design of a quadcopter

Description

This project entails mechanically and mathematically modelling a conventional quadcopter platform. The mechanical design is to focus on a low-cost physical solution, where components are also ideally sourced locally. Following assembly of the quadcopter, low-level testing of the system capabilities will be explored to determine key system parameters, such as the quadcopter’s estimated inertia, motor time constants, and thrust/torque profiles. This information will then be used inform robust control design of the quadcopter, in order to perform six-degree-of-freedom maneouvres autonomously. The proposed control solution will initially be implemented in a simulation environment and ratified prior to its execution on the physical quadcopter.

Key skills/interests:

Mathematical modelling, mechanical modelling, control design, MATLAB and Simulink.

Expected outputs:

1x MSc (Eng), 1x Journal/Conference paper in a leading publication.

Supervisors:

Arnold Pretorius and Natasha Botha