Flying Car and Autonomous Flight — Udacity (Nano Degree)

This repository collects Udacity FCND projects for Backyard Flyer, Motion Planning, Controls (C++), and Estimation (C++). Below is a short summary of each project, where to find the detailed README and report, and visual highlights (GIFs) included from each project's results/ folder.

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Projects Included

• Backyard Flyer

  • Location: Introduction to Automonous Flight/FCND-Backyard-Flyer
  • Files: README.md, Report.md
  • Summary: Implements the simple state-machine based mission (arming → takeoff → fly square → land). See backyard_flyer.py for mission logic and callbacks.

  • Visual

    

• 3D Motion Planning

  • Location: Planning/FCND-Motion-Planning

  • Files: README.md, Report.md, motion_planning.py, planning_utils.py

  • Summary: Implements grid & graph A* planning, reading global home from colliders.csv, converting between geodetic and local coordinates, supporting diagonal moves (cost = √2), and waypoint pruning.

  • Visuals

    Grid Search

    Grid (No Diagonal)	Grid (Diagonal)

    Graph Search

    Graph (No Diagonal)	Graph (Diagonal)

• Controls (C++)

  • Location: Controls/FCND-Controls-CPP

  • Files: README.md, Report.md, src/QuadControl.cpp, config/QuadControlParams.txt

  • Summary: Full 3D controller implementation (body-rate, roll/pitch, altitude with integrator, yaw, motor mixing). See Report.md for gain tables and scenario results.

  • Visuals:

    Intro	Attitude

    Position	Non-idealities & Robustness

• Estimation (C++)

  • Location: Estimation/FCND-Estimation-CPP

  • Files: README.md, Report.md, src/QuadEstimatorEKF.cpp, config/QuadEstimatorEKF.txt

  • Summary: Extended Kalman Filter implementation for pose estimation (IMU integration with quaternions, prediction step, magnetometer and GPS updates). See Report.md for step-by-step rubric mapping.

  • Visuals:

    Sensor Noise	Attitude Estimation

    Prediction Step	Covariance Prediction

    Magnetometer Update	GPS Update

    Final Evaluation

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Rubric Mapping (high level)

• Backyard Flyer

  • Implemented state transitions and callbacks for arming_transition(), takeoff_transition(), waypoint_transition(), landing_transition(), and disarming_transition() (see Introduction to Automonous Flight/FCND-Backyard-Flyer/Report.md).
  • Flight: the script commands the vehicle to fly a square and land near the start point.

• Motion Planning

  • Reads colliders.csv first line to set global_home and converts between global/local coordinates.
  • Start and goal are computed from geodetic coordinates; A* supports 8-connectivity (diagonals cost √2).
  • Path pruning implemented to cull unnecessary waypoints (see Planning/FCND-Motion-Planning/Report.md).

• Controls (C++)

  • Body rate, roll/pitch, altitude (with integrator), yaw, and motor mixing implemented in src/QuadControl.cpp.
  • Tested across multiple scenarios; gains and results in Controls/FCND-Controls-CPP/Report.md.

• Estimation (C++)

  • Sensor noise quantification, quaternion-based IMU integration, EKF predict/update, magnetometer and GPS updates implemented in src/QuadEstimatorEKF.cpp.
  • Performance and plots in Estimation/FCND-Estimation-CPP/Report.md.

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How to Use this Repository

• Browse each project folder for its specific README with setup and run instructions:

  • Introduction to Automonous Flight/FCND-Backyard-Flyer/README.md
  • Planning/FCND-Motion-Planning/README.md
  • Controls/FCND-Controls-CPP/README.md
  • Estimation/FCND-Estimation-CPP/README.md

• GIFs used in this main README are references to the images in each project's results/ directories. If you move files, update paths accordingly.

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