Drone Development from Concept to Flight: Design, assemble, and discover the applications of unmanned aerial vehicles

Learn and apply the principles behind building and flying drones using components like BLDC motors and speed controllers, AeroGCS ground software, Ardupilot and PX4 open-source flight stacksalong with examples and best practices

Key Features
Get to grips with multicopter physics (roll, pitch, and yaw) and 3D dynamics for defining a drone's flight
Optimize drone performance with powerful propulsion systems such as BLDS motors, lipo batteries, and ESCs
Build a custom survey drone to learn vital aspects of drone assembly, configuration, testing, and maiden flight
Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook
Book Description
Unlock opportunities in the growing UAV market where drones are revolutionizing diverse sectors like agriculture, surveying, and the military. This book walks you through the complete drone development life cycle, from concept to pilot stage, prototyping, and ultimately, a market-ready product, with domain-specific applications.

Starting with an introduction to unmanned systems, principles of drone flight, and it's motion in 3D space, this book shows you how to design a propulsion system tailored to your drone’s needs. You’ll then get hands on with the entire drone assembly process, covering airframe, components, and wiring. Next, you’ll enhance drone connectivity and navigation with communication devices, such as RFD900, Herelink, and H-16 Pro GCS and hardware protocols like I2C, and UART. The book also guides you in using the open-source flight software ArduPilot and PX4, along with firmware architecture and PID tuning for advanced control. Additionally, you’ll go learn about AeroGCS, Mission Planner, and UGCS ground control stations, tips for maiden flight and log analysis for optimizing performance while building a custom survey drone with a 60-min endurance, 10km range, live video feed, and photography options.

By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with all you need to build and fly your own drones and UAVs.

What you will learn
Explore the design principles for multicopter flight and its physics of motion
Grasp terminologies associated with UAV flight systems
Implement power trail, communication, and propulsion conceptsin drone design
Use IMUs and sensors in flight controllers, and protocols like I2C, SPI, and MAvlink
Familiarize yourself with open-source drone flight stacks and ground control station software
Apply the control law used in multicopter and the basics of PIDs
Delve into modes of flying with remote controllers and analysis of flight logs
Who this book is for
This book is for beginner-level drone engineers, robotics engineers, hardware and design engineers, and hobbyists who want to enter the drone industry and enhance their knowledge of the physics, mechanics, avionics, and programming of drones, multicopters, and UAVs. While not a prerequisite, a basic understanding of circuits, microcontrollers, and electronic instruments like multimeter, camera, and batteries, along with fundamental concepts in physics and mathematics, will be helpful.

Table of Contents
Getting Started with UAV and Drone Engineering
Understanding Flight Terminologies and Physics of Motion
Learning and Applying Basic Command and Control Interfaces
Knowing UAV Systems, Sub-Systems and Components
Sensors and IMUs with Their Application in Drones
Introduction to Drone Firmware and Flight Stacks
Introduction to Ground Control Station Software
Understanding Flight Modes and Mission Planning
Drone Assembly, Configuration, and Tuning