Module 1: Quadrotor Basics

Unit 0: Introductions

Goal: Introduce instructors & students, objectives for the course, assign teams, and understand individual responsibilities

Lectures:

  1. Course Introduction

  2. Team Roles and Responsibilities

  3. Intro to Unix/Bash

  4. Intro to Version Control

Practicals:

  1. Project Workflow

Advanced Topics:

  1. In-Depth: Linux & Bash

  2. In-Depth: Vim

  3. In-Depth: git & GitHub

  4. Accelerating your workflow - A tutorial on SSH multiplexing, tmux, ~/.ssh/authorized_keys, and VSCode Remote usage

Unit 1: Embedded Drone Architecture

Goal: Each student will have high-level, cursory understanding of the hardware and software involved with communication, sensing, flight control, high-level processing and how these components interact. We will understand how communication is passed between processes running on the drone by practicing use of ROS and MAVROS messages. We will see how to access and inspect streams of information from the embedded cameras and sensors.

Lectures and Reading:

  1. Embedded Architecture

  2. Intro to ROS2 - Reading

  3. Intro to ROS2 - Video

Practicals:

  1. Drone Architecture Review

  2. Communication Pipeline

  3. Accessing Video Streams

  4. Inspecting Sensor Feeds**

  5. Simulated Offboard Mode

Advanced Topics:

  1. ROS2 How-To-Guides

  2. Exploring PX4 Firmware

** You can skip this practical. We will circle back once the drones are built.

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