Autonomous Drones I: Hardware, Ardupilot, MAVLink

Do you want to build and program autonomous drones from scratch? This book is your complete guide to mastering the technological foundations of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

Written for junior engineers, advanced makers, and robotics students, Volume 1 covers the three essential pillars:

Chapter 1 - Essential Hardware

- Select and calibrate motors, batteries, and electronic components.

- Design a high-performance 250mm X4 quadcopter.

- Understand aerodynamics, frames, and power systems.

- Hands-on projects: propeller balancing, thrust calculations.

Chapter 2 - Ardupilot

- Install and flash the most popular drone firmware (4.5 Stable).

- Calibrate sensors: IMU, compass, barometer.

- Master PID tuning for stable flight.

- Configure flight modes: Manual, Stabilize, Loiter, RTH.

- Create autonomous missions with QGroundControl.

Chapter 3 - MAVLink Communications

- Understand the drone telemetry protocol.

- Analyse MAVLink packets in real time.

- Integrate telemetry in Python with pymavlink.

- Diagnose and troubleshoot connections.

- Solid foundation for ROS2 (Volume 2).

Key Features:

- Hands-on approach with real code (Python, Bash).

- 262 pages of professional technical content.

- Quick-reference tables and visual diagrams.

- Compatible with Pixhawk 6C and similar hardware.

- Preparation for Volume 2 (ROS2, Computer Vision, AI).

If you are looking to work with drones seriously, this is your starting point. From physics to firmware, everything you need to build professional UAVs.

All examples, practices, exercises and exams are solved and available on GitHub:

https: //github.com/DroneBooks/AutonomousDrones