Introduction

This book provides a solid foundation to the exciting world of aerial autonomy, with a focus on their rigid-body dynamics, sensing and state estimation, and low-level stabilization.

It discusses low-speed, propeller-driven flight typical of Uncrewed Aerial Systems. A tensor approach to 3D modelling allows for a very general modelling approach, which is then also translated into easy-to-use equations (e.g., for coding a state estimator).

Stability and Control

Stability theory and simple control approaches are developed from first principles, and again applied to, and illustrated with, examples in flight.

Concepts in Aerial Dynamics

Concepts central to the practising aerospace engineer, such as rotation formalisms (rotation matrix, quaternions) and the dynamics of rotation are treated in depth.

Target Audience and Prerequisites

The book is aimed at those interested in aerial autonomy or robotics and requires only fundamental mathematical background in linear algebra and differential equations.

Additional Resources

Problems are provided throughout the text to evaluate knowledge.