Make: Drones

Chapter 10. Mode and Mix

In a car, you turn the wheel and hold it to make the car turn at a constant rate. In a fixed-wing plane, you turn the control wheel for a few seconds until the plane has rolled far enough, then return the wheel to nearly zero to hold the roll position. The roll angle determines the rate of turn, and the control wheel determines this indirectly by controlling the rate of roll. In the language of drones, we might call the car “angle mode” and the plane “rate mode.” Interestingly, drone pilots will use both of these modes and several others, sometimes switching between several in a single flight.

The current mode determines what the sticks on the transmitter mean. Combine this with our attitude, and the mode code outputs ...