Modeling, Controlling, and Flight Testing of a Small Quadcopter

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicles are an increasingly important technology that supports people’s daily life and military activities. In my capstone project, I worked on the control aspect of a quadcopter (Parrot Mambo) from around February 2021 to June 2022. This report documents what I completed in this time frame and serves as a technical reference guide for future researchers. In particular, in this report, I will provide detailed instructions on how to use MATLAB and Simulink to model the quadcopter and connect it to the computer, demonstrate how control theories can be successfully applied to improve the quadcopter performance in simulation, and discuss the challenges and possible steps for improving the quadcopter performance in practice. This video presentation (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O5Wv9dBhHiE7o4SoghGz2Rq2djJWhdEH/view) is a high-level overview and is roughly parallel to the document. Note 2023-07-10: I continued to work on this project after completing my Honors Capstone. To view the final version of the documentation, please visit https://github.com/David-davidlxl/modeling-controlling-and-flight-testing-of-a-small-quadcopter.