quadcopter help

[newbie_teach]

Hi guys,
Today one of my friends came running to my house and told me that he has given our name in an exhibition.We have to chosen to make a quadcopter.
now to start, the frame motors everything will be bought. except for the controller so there is no mechanics or machining involved, i wish to make the controller on my own,of an ardruino, so simply software part is ours.
now questions,
I have heard people using something called as "kalman filter".I have no idea what's that
Is that absolutely necessary?
the obvious necessity is PID control to keep the quad stable.
Any other considerations on behalf of the software?
P.S. :- My electric bicycle project will wait till then. http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=17987.0

[mklrobo]

  Hello!
Parallax.com has  quadcopters for sale, based on their microcontroller products.
When you buy from them, they have support, software, and the parts you will need. I bought
one myself. It is simple to build, but the flying is a job in training.
Tower hobbies has cheaper quadcopters for sale, and easier to fly.
You got me on the Kalman filter, have no idea; will have to look up.Good luck!   

[Schlayer]

Hello again!
I too have no idea what a Kalman Filter is, but I do know how to look stuff up

http://biorobotics.ri.cmu.edu/papers/sbp_papers/integrated3/kleeman_kalman_basics.pdf
This is one of the more... confusing articles I've read.
http://www.mathworks.com/help/dsp/examples/estimating-position-of-an-aircraft-using-kalman-filter.html
This seems to at least give something of a plain English explanation, though with lots of jargon.
http://www.linushelgesson.se/2012/04/pitch-and-roll-estimating-kalman-filter-for-stabilizing-quadrocopters/
This is mostly plain English and understandable.
http://quad-nextgen.hagenberg.servus.at/content/kalman-filtering
This one actually has some code samples.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUxU7jsCa-U
Seems to at least show what all those other articles was talking about.

Good luck!

[newbie_teach]

Thanks a lot!
Just found that there are awesome online open source projects and software ready available
due to time contrains ill use aeroquad, this software will be developed later.
thank you for sharing the information though.
learnt that google twice before asking a question