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Udacity

Flying Car and Autonomous Flight Engineer

via Udacity Nanodegree

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Overview

Take flight in the world of autonomy as you design and program cutting-edge aerial systems. Learn drone robotics, advanced controls, and write real software for real aircraft.

Syllabus

  • Welcome to the Nanodegree Program
    • Welcome!
  • Introduction to Autonomous Flight
    • In this course, you will get an introduction to flight history, challenges, and vehicles. You will learn about our quadrotor test platform, work in our custom simulator, and build your first project—getting a quadrotor to take-off and fly around a backyard!
  • Planning
    • Flying robots must traverse complex, dynamic environments. Wind, obstacles, unreliable sensor data, and other randomness all present significant challenges. In this course, you will learn the fundamentals of aerial path planning. You will begin with 2D problems, optimize your solutions using waypoints, and then scale your solutions to three dimensions. You will apply these skills in your second project—autonomously navigating your drone through a dense urban environment.
  • Controls
    • In the previous course, we implemented 3D path planning but assumed a solution for actually following paths. In reality, moving a flying vehicle requires determining appropriate low-level motor controls. In this course, you will build a nonlinear cascaded controller and incorporate it into your software in the project.
  • Estimation
    • In this course, we will finish peeling back the layers of your autonomous flight solution. Instead of assuming perfect sensor readings, you will utilize sensor fusion and filtering. You will design an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to estimate attitude and position from IMU and GPS data of a flying robot.
  • Congratulations!
  • [Optional] Fixed Wing
    • While quadrotors are the ideal test platform for aerial robotics, flying cars and other long-range aircrafts leverage the aerodynamic efficiencies of fixed-wing flight. In this course, you will learn how to adapt the concepts you’ve learned so far and successfully fly a fixed-wing aircraft in simulation.
  • Autonomous Systems Interview
    • This course, "Autonomous Systems Interview," provides students with essential skills and strategies to excel in interviews focused on autonomous technologies. Participants will engage in practical exercises and role-playing scenarios under the guidance of industry experts. The curriculum emphasizes key topics such as the principles of autonomous systems, problem-solving techniques, algorithm optimization, and current trends in the field. By the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of potential interview questions and effective response techniques, preparing them to confidently showcase their knowledge and skills in real-world interviews.

Taught by

Nicholas Roy, Angela Schoellig, Sebastian Thrun, Raffaello D’Andrea, Sergei Lupashin, Jake Lussier, Andy Brown, Chris K., Raoul N., Joseph D., Andrija E., Jason S. and Hussain A.

Reviews

5.0 rating, based on 1 Class Central review

4.7 rating at Udacity based on 127 ratings

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  • Profile image for Antonio Patriarca
    Antonio Patriarca
    The name is slightly misleading as it is mostly about flying quadcopters, i. e. drones. However, I really enjoyed the course. The lessons were explained well, the content was interesting and the projects were well thought out. The main cons of the course are the lack of written content or notes and the fact the projects were not testing some of the more advanced topics covered in the lessons.
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