QUADCOPTER

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 Parts of a Quadcopter

Frame
Frame is the skeleton of the quadcopter in which the motors, flight system board and battery’s
are mounted. Quadcopter frames come in a variety of sizes and weight ratings. Most have the
same basic appearance – a vague X shape. For hobbyists wishing to mount something with
additional weight such as a camera, a sturdier frame rated for more weight is
recommended. However, adding a sturdier material typically creates more weight itself,
causing you to require longer propellers and a stronger motor to create the lift necessary to pull
up the weight. There’s always a delicate balance played by the manufacturers between flight
speed, manoeuvrability, and flight time.

Design for strength: The frame should be constructed in such a way that it can withstand
the weight of the drone and the thrust produced by the motors. Carbon fibre is one of the best
materials to manufacture frames due to its high strength to weight ratio .

Design for assembly and disassembly: The frame of the quadcopter should be made
such that we can easily assemble and disassemble the parts. Slots should be provided on the
frames so that the electronic components can be easily mounted on it.

Design for aesthetics: It should be able to visually attract the viewers. The cables should
be incorporated properly inside the frame. Led lighting can be provided to improve the visual
appearance, which also helps to identify the quadcopter during night fly. Hooks and pipes can
be provided in order to manage the cables.

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 Propeller
propeller is a fan that converts rotational motion into thrust due to the pressure difference
created between the rear and forward surfaces of the aero foil shaped blades. It is designed
according to Bernoulli's theorem and Newton's third law.

Propellers largely effect the speed at which the

quadcopters fly, the load that they can carry, and the
speed at which they can manoeuver. To effect these
various attributes, they normally range from 8-12 inches
in chord length. you can increase or decrease the length
of the propellers and the pitch of the propeller. The pitch
is the shape and slant of the propeller.
Longer propellers can achieve stronger lift at lower RPM
than a shorter propeller, but take longer to speed up and
slow down. Beyond a certain size, they’re literally unable
to fly. For heavier weights, you’ll typically see
manufacturers add more arms onto the frames (hex copter/octocopters).

Shorter propellers allow the quadcopter to change speed quickly and do tend to
produce better manoeuvring capabilities, however they require more energy to
spin them. This causes excess strain on the motors, which may lead to shorter life

Design for strength: The propeller should be able to withstand the thrust
due to lift and rotation of the shaft. Material of the propeller is preferably carbon
fibre due to its high strength to weight ratio.

Design for maintenance: The propeller should be designed such that

easily removable and can be replaced without any tools. We should be able
easily maintain the propeller.

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Design for safety: Sharp edges of the propeller
are avoided and replaced with blend edges. Propeller
guards can be provided for preventing any accidents.

Design for assembly/disassembly: The propellers come in as a single piece varying

from a minimum of 1 to more than 3 blades per propeller. These are connected to the motors
via a single slot making assembling process simple.

Design for reliability: Blades are made of carbon fibre’s which are well known for its
resistive characteristics. This the blade will perform for long period without wear.

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 Motor
Motors are the elements which provide the necessary rotational
energy to the propellers. They either provide high thrust at low
rpm or low thrust at high rpm depending on application. A
quadcopter consists of 4 brushless dc (BLDC) motors. These
motors should provide a minimum thrust of double the weight of
the entire quadcopter, i.e.the thrust to weight ratio should at least
be two. Its efficiency depend on the thrust to power ratio. power
ratings vary from 15-80 watts with power increasing with an
increase in overall weight. A high efficieny motor will carry high
weights but will have less control while smaller efficient quads
promote agility while discouraging weights. Each motor has KV
rating denoting the rpm it can produce per unit volt. A motor
having lessnumber of poles will have higher KV rating and hence
high speeds and
.
vice versa The higher the kV, the faster the motor can spin A faster motor spin requires much
more power from the battery, causing your flight times to decrease. More RPMs also decrease
the life of the motor over the long run

Design for Assembly: Each motors are independently

introduced to the slots provided in the frame of the
quadcopter. Hence no tools are required to remove or attach
the motors. The motor mount should have slots to install the
propeller. It is designed such that the propeller can be easily
attached and detached without any tools.

Design for quality: It should be ensured that the

winding’s are made of good material such that it imparts
less friction. It should have a long life and able to withstand the impacts during collisions.

Design for safety: Motors in the motor slots are completely sealed and protected from
external factors and can withstand shocks.

Design for manufacture: Motors with specific ratings are easily available. One should
only mention the power, voltage and KV rating.

Mushtaq Mohammed Ameen (parts)

Thomson Johnny (Design aspects)
20/8/2017

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Flight System Board & Battery
ESC (Electronic speed controller)
An ESC supplies the proper modulated current to the motors, which in turn produce correct
rates of spin for both lift and maneuvering. There are fewer things to consider with an ESC
than with other components since they’re a fairly standard part, but there are two small
factors. Most ESCs come with the SimonK firmware, which is designed for the precision
timing of multiple rotors which a quadcopter uses. This is a standard feature in most ESC
designs now. Usually ESCs also come with a battery eliminator circuit (or BAC), which allows
the flight control and transceiver components to connect to the ESC rather than directly to the
battery.

Battery voltage: 2S to 3S (7.4v to 11.1v)

Sustained current: 30A


Burst current for 10s: 40A

Flight controller
The flight controller is basically the little computer which controls the craft, and interprets the
signals the transceiver sends to guide the quadcopter. For builders of quadcopters, choosing a
flight controller is more of a personal choice in many ways, not unlike choosing from various
PC processors in the same power range. Each have various options that each manufacturer

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wants and may or may not be customizable. If this is something that needs to be fixed, start
reading the forums and listen to hobbyists who recommend affordable, reliable controllers
which work with most components easily.

This consists of a component which connects to the flight controller, to receive signals, and a
controller to transmit them. There are a lot of very slick receivers which work quite well with
standard quadcopter flight controllers. However the key is to be sure that it supports at least
four channels if not as high as eight or nine.
A channel is a control input. If your quadcopter had no channels, it would just hover in
place. A minimum of 4 channels is required to get the quadcopter to move. 2 channels would
be available for each stick on the transmitter. Each additional channel allows you to add
controls for accessories (like gimbal control) onto the transmitter. If you’re going to stay with
this hobby for a while, then it makes sense to invest in a good transmitter now, something that
has up to 8 or 9 channels.

Radio Receiver

This consists of a component which connects to the flight

controller, to receive signals, and a controller to transmit them.

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 Battery

Battery is used to power the quadcopter, which is typically a LiPo (Lithium Polymer)
battery. LiPo batteries use a C rating, which stands for it’s capacity to discharge. You’ll
typically see a LiPo battery have “20C”. So if you see a 25C 4000mAh LiPo battery, it means
that you can get a maximum of 25C * 4 = 100A (A standing for Amps). The power of the
battery is usually dictated by the energy draw required from the ESCs. For example if you
motor’s maximum draw is 19A, at the very least you’ll want a 30A ESC to be safe. Now
multiply that by the number of propellers you have (4 in this case) and you’ll get the maximum
draw for your entire quad – 4 * 19A = which is 76A. 4000mAh 25C LiPo would definitely be
enough for a quad copter.

Design for reliability: The weight of the battery should be made as small as possible to
reduce the overall weight of the quad thereby allowing the propellers to create a larger thrust
to weight ratio which is essential for stable flights.

Design for safety: It should be taken care that the power rating on the motors should
always be less than the power rating on the battery to prevent overheating or even explosion.

Design for assembly: a central slot is provided in the main frame to include the battery
which doesn’t require skills. Velcro strap is used to attach the battery to the frame.

Nithin Babu K
20/8/2017

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 Dynamics of Quadcopter
The quadcopter is controlled by adjusting the angular velocities of the rotors which are spun
by electric motors

Lift of the quadcopter is given by

𝐿 = 1/2𝜌𝑉 2 𝐴𝐶𝐿

𝜌: 𝐴𝑖𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 ≈ 1.2𝑘𝑔/𝑚3

𝑉: 𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝐴: 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟
𝐶𝐿 : 𝐶𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦

Flight operations

1: Take off and landing

In a quadcopter two rotors (1&3) rotates in clock wise direction and
another two (2&3) in counter clockwise direction which makes the net
aerodynamic torque zero. And if the thrust produced by the rotors are
greater than the weight of the quadcopter it will elevate and if the thrust
produced if less it will drops .

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2: Hovering
When the net thrust of all the rotors is equal to 0, the quadcopter maintains
a state of constant altitude also known as hovering. The direction of
rotation of a pair of rotors at each axis is always the same.

3: Pitch
Pitch is the tilt produced in the quadcopter which results in the
forward and backward motion of the quadcopter . Pitch can be
controlled by increasing thrust on one of the motor and reducing
thrust on the diagonally opposite side.

4: Roll
Roll is the tilt produced in the Quadcopter which results in the leftward and rightward motion
of the of quadcopter. Roll can also be controlled by increasing thrust on one of the motor and
reducing thrust on the diagonally opposite side.

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5: Yaw
Yaw is the left and right rotation of the drone. Positive yaw will
make the drone turn to the right and negative yaw will make the
drone turn to the left. Yaw in a quadcopter can be controlled by
applying more thrust in one direction

Mohammed Asif N
19/8/2017

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Reference:
[1] Hoffmann, G.M.; Rajnarayan, D.G., Waslander, S.L., Dostal, D., Jang, J.S., And Tomlin,
C.J. (November 2004). ""The Stanford Testbed Of Autonomous Rotorcraft For Multi Agent
Control (Starmac. )
[2] Büchi, Roland (2011). Fascination Quadrocopter.
[3] ―Arducopter ---- Arduino----Based Autopilot For Mulirotor Craft, From Quadcopters
To Traditional Helis ---- Google Project Hosting"". Code.Google.Com.
[4]How stuff works
[5] INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 8, AUGUST 2014 ISSN 2277-8616 Quadcopter Flight Dynamics
[6]Wikipedia

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