Course: EW456 Autonomous Vehicles

3 Credits – 2 Recitation Hours – 2 Laboratory Hours

Course Description:

Advanced topics in dynamics, control and estimation as they apply to unmanned vehicles. Introduction to specifics of aerial, marine and ground vehicles. Laboratory exposure to navigation hardware and an open ended project.

Pre-requisites:

1/C ERC or ERCH major, or Dept Chair Approval

Course Coordinator:

Prof. Piper

Textbook:

There are no required textbooks for this course. While not required, recommended supplemental texts are:

• Small Unmanned Aircraft by Beard ISBN: 978-0-691-14921-9

• Applied Mathematics in Integrated Navigation Systems (2nd Edition) by Rogers ISBN: 1-56347-656-8

Course Objectives:

1. This course investigates advanced topics in dynamics, navigation and control associated with unmanned vehicles

2. Upon completion of this course students will attain experience and proficiency with:

(a) Coordinate systems and transformations

(b) Vehicle dynamics

(c) Common navigation and control sensors

(d) Filtering

3. Students will gain insight into the characteristics of ground, air, and marine vehicles

Topics:

1. Vehicle Kinematics

• Coordinate Systems

• Transformations

• Orientation representation

• Euler Angles

• Quaternions

• Angular rates

• Velocity & acceleration of a point

2. Vehicle Sensors

• • IMU Principles & Technology

  • Magnetic Sensors

  • GPS

  • Optical Flow

  • Filtering & Estimation

3. Vehicle Dynamics

• • Rigid Body Dynamics

  • Simulation

  • Linearization

4. Vehicle Control

• Quadrotor Dynamics

• Control Architecture

• Control Loop Design