The Journey Begins
Part 1 of 3
Robots are awesome. I am going to build them.
My latest fascination is with fully autonomous quad copters. I built a small maze navigating robot about a year ago, but that is the current extent of my robotics knowledge.
Over the next year I plan on using a combination of Arduinos, Raspberry Pis, and a handful of integrated circuits (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnometer, etc.) to build a fully autonomous flying machine. My end goal is to use as few off-the-shelf parts as possible. I would like to 3D print the frame and to design and program the flight controller. (Ideally, I will build everything except the motors.)
To begin my journey, I will be building a hobbyist quad copter, a radio controlled quad copter using off-the-shelf parts. The hobbyist quad copter is not to be confused with a ready-to-fly quad copter like the Solo Smart Drone from 3D Robotics. In the case of the Solo Smart Drone, you pay 3D Robotics $999 and they ship you a quad copter that you can take out of the box and start flying immediately. With my hobbyist quad copter (let’s name it Dumbo), I will have to purchase each component (motors, electronic speed controllers, frame, etc.) separately, put all the components together (including soldering the electronics), and configure the entire system myself. In preparation for building my fully autonomous quad copter from scratch, by building Dumbo, I hope to better understand the aerodynamics and electronics of quad copters.
I have purchased all the necessary parts for Dumbo and am currently awaiting shipment.
Throughout this journey I will be using Medium as a platform to track my progress and provide updates.
Never stop building.
— Chris
For part 2:
