hello all!My name is Brandon and i am a student in la hoping to put together a simple but reliable quadrotor for a research project this summer. I have been flying rc helis for a couple years now and have gotten intimately familiar with the variable-pitch setup. After flying a few novelty 'toy' quadrotors i was left impressed with how easy it was to fly but quite unimpressed with the overall maneuverability of the crafthere are my goals for the build and the research project:Super Stable AND maneuverable-we are going to be mounting a camera setup on top of the copter. As a result, I am hoping to put together a large, super stable platform. I am working on getting my 6 axis imu working properly and would like to take advantage of the sensor package's speed with hardware that can respond quicker than simply an rpm change. Ideally, the craft would go into a "throttle hold" while hovering where all the motors maintained an appropriate rpm and only minute changes were made to the pitch of the blades to keep the platform stable and prevent drift.Larger Payload- I hope hoping to carry along a bunch o' batteries and a pretty extensive electronics suite for autonomous, vision-guided navigation.Initial technical thoughts:1) I want to minimize the moment of inertia as much as possible by moving the motors to the middle of the quad and run belts or shafts to the blades.2) All electronics including motor controllers and a propeller micro controller are going to be implemented on a custom controller board3) will contain a 6-axis imu and gps for stability4) I would like to use brushless motors with an attached planetary gearbox for maximum torque.I'm having a really hard time finding tail units. I'm looking for something similar to the unit below but it needs to be LIGHT!!! Originally I was considering a two-bladed design, but after some research I'm not sure If it would produce the trust I'm hoping for.
Please provide some feedback-I'm all ears.thanks!-Brandon
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Caleb, I've got to question your assertions. I've seen quadrotors get near 30 min of flight time, something I have not seen in an electric heli (maybe they can get there, but I doubt they can do much better). And while they might not match a 3d heli for maneuverability, I think they'd match anything you'd dare put an autopilot in. As for stability, they are inherently unstable, but seem if anything to be easier to electronically stabilize. From everyone I've spoken to, they're as easy to pick up as coaxial helis, if not easier.
I dont mean to attack you, but I see these points brought up fairly frequently and dont really know where the facts are that back them up.
I do agree though that removing the mechanical simplicity of a quad likely isnt a great idea. It's kind of its selling point. I would be looking for some MAJOR benefits before I'd consider doing that.
Around here we're mostly interested in autonomous systems & not model building for its own sake, so in terms of an autonomous system, the fact that it's a quad rotor isn't the limiting factor in maneuverability.
I don't fly Quads but I intend on building one, and one of the things that bother me about them is the lack of maneuverability. I see a bunch of videos of them but I end up thinking...: boring (except for the FPVs).
That's another reason why I want to build a tilt-rotor quad (more reasons and discussion here: http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/tilt-rotor-quadcopter-for).
I think Michael is right on saying that it adds another layer of complexity, but maybe you can reach an equilibrium between complexity and efficiency. It's worth trying.
What's the current status for your project?
Sound very cool, but from a systems safety approach i can see MANY points of failure and a very complex system and I think it would end being heavier and less efficent than just having the motors out on the booms, there are some light motors out there now.
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I want to upgrade my Heli to a 5 blade rotor head, but i was wondering if i have to change the tail rotor to.
Example of a quad being rather maneuverable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74SxyuJgkKk
I dont mean to attack you, but I see these points brought up fairly frequently and dont really know where the facts are that back them up.
I do agree though that removing the mechanical simplicity of a quad likely isnt a great idea. It's kind of its selling point. I would be looking for some MAJOR benefits before I'd consider doing that.
That's another reason why I want to build a tilt-rotor quad (more reasons and discussion here: http://diydrones.com/forum/topics/tilt-rotor-quadcopter-for).
I think Michael is right on saying that it adds another layer of complexity, but maybe you can reach an equilibrium between complexity and efficiency. It's worth trying.
What's the current status for your project?