Hello, blog author here. I agree the math appears overkill. I wrote this as a learning aid for myself with the benefit of hindsight of having worked with some drone sims. I wanted to dispel any doubt in my mind that I could derive drone physics from basic principles, instead of copy-pasting state equations. I went further and tried to motivate transport theorem, rotational analog of F=ma etc from scratch.
In summary: I take F=ma and extend it for rotational motion. (1) Calculating linear motion when the vehicle containing sensors is rotating. (2) Calculating rotation of the vehicle itself due to thrust/yaw force acting about its center of mass.
I'll echo what the other commenter said: this is no way PhD math. It may appear so - but I'm only being verbose with simpler concepts like cross products and rotation matrices.
Ok man, for me it's PhD math. Waaaay above my high school level math.
Perhaps you will write a version for layman like me, without advanced math and rather with more verbal explanations and animations.
In summary: I take F=ma and extend it for rotational motion. (1) Calculating linear motion when the vehicle containing sensors is rotating. (2) Calculating rotation of the vehicle itself due to thrust/yaw force acting about its center of mass.
I'll echo what the other commenter said: this is no way PhD math. It may appear so - but I'm only being verbose with simpler concepts like cross products and rotation matrices.