I am a student working on building a UAV for photogrammetric purposes, and i was woundering what where some of the Pro's and Con's that you guys have seen to the different UAV builds.
1. Helicopter
2. Quadcopter
3. Blimp
4. fixed winged
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1. Heli
pros: easy to obtain, transferrable experience (from RC flying), optimized platform, VTOL
cons: expensive in both maintenance hours and cash, fragile, lethal if used "properly", low endurance (tens of minutes)
2. Quad/Multicopter
pros: cheap parts, low maintenance, great versatility, danger of spinning rotors can be mitigated with guards/cages/ducts, quiet and efficient, easier integration of UAV gear (since it's already a flying computer), VTOL, simple design = easy to modify
cons: takes more effort/tinkering to get flying, low endurance (tens of minutes, although usually more than #1)
3. Blimp
pros: reasonably safe, sort-of VTOL, scalable, payload weight has no direct effect on hover time
cons: weak, unable to combat strong winds/other elements (hence "sort-of VTOL"), gets very large very fast, expensive flying (helium)
4. Fixed
pros: good payload capability, high endurance (hours), great part and frame availability, probably the fastest and cheapest way to a solid UAV thanks to ArduPilot, experience transferrable from RC flying
cons: not VTOL