1 Introduction to Quadcopters A Brief History of Multirotor Helicopters A Matter of Definition How Are Quadcopters Used? Design of the Elev-8 Quadcopter Main Electrical/Electronic Elev-8 Components Summary 2 Quadcopter Flight Dynamics Flight Basics Flight Axes Basic Quadcopter Configurations Flight Controls Quadcopter Controls PID Control PID Theory Tuning LabVIEW PID Simulation Summary 3 Building the Elev-8 Introduction Safety Tools and Additional Materials Bill of Material Additional Materials Optional Additional Materials Beginning the Build Motor Set Screws Solder the Motor and ESC Connectors Motor Mount Assembly Boom Accessories Attach Motor/Boom Assemblies to the Bottom Chassis Plate Solder the Power Harness Together Installing the Quad Power-Distribution Board Configure Your Transmitter Programming the Electronic Speed Controllers Connect the Motors and Synchronize the ESCs Chassis Top-Plate and Control-Board Assemblies Mount the Control-Board Assembly onto the Chassis Control-Board Connections Mounting the Propeller Blades Mounting the Battery A Few More Comments 4 Programming the Parallax Propeller Chip Introduction Prop Architecture Prop Software Spin Language Propeller Spin Tool Porting to the Propeller QuickStart Board Clock Timing RC Oscillator Operations Crystal Oscillator Operations Reducing Dependence on Absolute Clock-Cycle Times Pulse-Width Modulation and Servo Example Summary 5 Quadcopter Propulsors Introduction Motors Electronic Speed Controller ESC Waveforms Propeller, Motor, and ESC Experiment Running the Experiment Experimental Results Battery Eliminator Circuit Propellers Comprehensive Quadcopter Analysis ESC_Motor_Control_Demo Analysis A Brief Introduction to the C Language Summary 6 Radio-Controlled Systems and Telemetry Introduction Evolution of Model R/C Systems Carriers and Modulation Noise Direct-Sequence Spread Spectrum Automatic Selection of Dual Transmit Channels Switching Channels for Every Data Frame Transmitted Transmission of SOP and PN Packets Transmission of Two Sets of Cyclic Redundancy Checks Transmission of the GUID Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum Binding or Pairing Experimental R/C System Demonstration Measuring R/C Channel Pulse Width and Rate with the BOE BOE Pulse-Width Measurements BOE Pulse-Rate Measurements Telemetry Summary 7 Servo Motors and Extending the Servo Control System Introduction Exploring a Standard R/C Analog Servo Motor The Digital Servo Continuous Rotation Servos R/C Signal Display System Elev-8 LED-Lighting Controller Tilting Mechanism for a First-Person Viewer Summary 8 GPS and a Real-Time Situational Display Introduction GPS Basics Brief GPS history How GPS Functions Quadcopter GPS Receiver GPS Receiver UART Communications Initial GPS Receiver Test NMEA Protocol Latitude and Longitude Formats Parsed GPS Message Propeller Mini Radio-Frequency Transceiver Module XBee Hardware XBee Data Protocol XBee Functional Test XBee Range Check Complete GPS Systems Portable Display Mounting the Transmitter XBee Node Moving Map System Monitoring the Quadcopter Position with the Google Earth Application Summary 9 Airborne Video Systems Introduction GoPro Hero 3 Camera System Hero 3 WiFi-Range Test Ground Station Economy Video System Post-Processing Software RoboRealm Field Test of the RC310 System with Post Processing Higher Resolution Test Image Geotagging GoPro Hero 3 Photos Geotag Test Run Summary 10 Training Tutorial and Performance Checks Introduction Developing Fundamental Quadcopter Piloting Skills The Trainer Cable Running the SIM The Buddy Box Wireless SimStick Pro Performance Measurements Determining Maximum Payload Test Results Kill Switch Estimating Flight Time Summary 11 Enhancements and Future Projects Introduction Position Location and Return to Home Operation Electronic Compass Module Computing Path Length and Bearing Using Latitude and Longitude Coordinates Computing Longitudinal Length Computing Bearing Return-to-Home Flight Scenario Swarm or Formation Flying Motion Capture Close-Proximity Detection Near-to-Ground Altitude Measurements Ultrasonic Sensor Concerns Maneuvering the Quadcopter to Maintain Its Formation Position Other Close-Proximity Sensors Writing to the EHO-1A LCD Screen Communicating with Peripheral Modules Autonomous Behavior Artificial Intelligence Some Basic FL Concepts Quadcopter FLC Applications Matlab® ViewPort(tm) Fuzzy Logic Functions Summary Index.