This project aims at designing the flight computer for a small scale quad-copter. I would like to look into using cameras for obstacle detection to allow for autonomous avoidance and possibly mapping.

Some general goals of the project:

• Learn how to use STM32 microprocessors
• Learn how to fly a quad-copter
• Learn how to design control systems for fly-by-wire and eventually autonomous control
• Learn how to design PCBs that use FPGAs
• Learn how to process camera data, particularly to combine data from multiple cameras for depth measurements
• Make some cool renders in blender along the way

These goals are quite general, but it comes down to a number of steps:

• Design a flight computer and build a quad-copter capable of being controlled via fly-by-wire
• Design a camera board with an FPGA and connectors commonly used camera modules
• Design a Dedicated dual camera obstacle detection sensor board
• Build the final quadcopter making use of the flight computer (possibly requiring an updated version) and multiple obstacle detection boards facing in each direction

There are a number of extra steps that are probably going to be required. Firstly, that I should learn to fly a small quad-copter (probably one of the FPV ones). There may also need to be several iterations of the electronics, so I'll just have to see how it goes.

Current status: