THE GEEKAY WORLD SCHOOL

RANIPET

A Project Report

On

Quadcopter

Submitted by
VISHAL HARISH
Grade XII
2017-2018

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 BONAFIDECERTIFICATE

Certified that this physics project report titled Quadcopter is the bonafide
work of VISHAL HARISH who carried out the research under my supervision.
Certified further, that to the best of my knowledge the work reported herein does
not form part of any other project report.

SIGNATURE
Mr.A.Sajjath Ahmed M.E., B.Ed,
Physics Facilitator
The GeeKay World School
Ranipet.

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE
Ms.Mujeeba M.Com, M.A., M.Phil. B.Ed, Dr.PraseedhaSreekumar M.A, B.Ed,
Ph.D.

CBSE Coordinator The Principal,

The GeeKay World School The GeeKay World School
Ranipet. Ranipet.

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I first offer my thanks to the almighty who has given me the strength and good
health during the course of this project.

I express my profound gratefulness to my Principal Dr. Praseedha Sreekumar

who has been motivational and inspiring us always. Thank you mam for
always being supportive and guiding us in all our endeavours.

I also express my gratitude to my Coordinator Ms. Mujeeba who has been

always encouraging and supportive. Thank you mam for giving us space, time
and opportunity to discuss about the project in school.

I am also thankful to Mr. Sajjath Ahmed, Physics Facilitator, for his continual
support, assistance and encouragement throughout the project. The project
wouldnt have been a reality without his support. Thank you sir, for your
support and encouragement.

I also thank all my faculty members who were instrumental in the completion
of this project and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who
have been motivational and supportive towards completing this project
successfully.

Vishal Harish

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

Content Title Page No

No
1 What is Quadcopter 5
2 Objective 7
3 Materials used 7
4 History 8
4.1 Early attempts 8
4.2 Recent developments 11
5 Applications 12
5.1 Research platform 12
5.2 Military and law enforcement 13
5.3 Photography 14
5.4 Journalism 15
5.5 Drone-delivery 15
5.6 Art 15
5.7 Sport 16
6 Flight dynamics 17
6.1 Coaxial configuration 19
6.2 Vortex ring state 19
6.3 Mechanical structure 19
6.4 Autonomous flight 20
7 Model Diagram 23
8 References 24
9 External links 24

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1. What is Quadcopter?
A quadcopter, also called a quadrotor helicopter or quadrotor, is
a multirotor helicopter that is lifted and propelled by four rotors. Quadcopters are
classified as rotorcraft, as opposed to fixed-wing aircraft, because their lift is
generated by a set of rotors (vertically oriented propellers).

A Maker Faire quadcopter in Garden City, Idaho

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 A quadcopter being recovered after photographing the Head of the Charlesregatta
in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A quadcopter, also called a quadrotor helicopter or quadrotor is

a multirotor helicopter that is lifted and propelled by four rotors.

Quadcopters generally use two pairs of identical fixed pitched propellers;

two clockwise (CW) and two counterclockwise (CCW). These use independent
variation of the speed of each rotor to achieve control. By changing the speed of each
rotor it is possible to specifically generate a desired total thrust; to locate for
the centre of thrust both laterally and longitudinally; and to create a desired
total torque, or turning force.

At a small size, quadcopters are cheaper and more durable than conventional
helicopters due to their mechanical simplicity. Their smaller blades are also
advantageous because they possess less kinetic energy, reducing their ability to
cause damage. For small-scale quadcopters, this makes the vehicles safer for close
interaction. It is also possible to fit quadcopters with guards that enclose the rotors,
further reducing the potential for damage. However, as size increases, fixed propeller
quadcopters develop disadvantages over conventional helicopters. Increasing blade
size increases their momentum. This means that changes in blade speed take longer,
which negatively impacts control. Helicopters do not experience this problem as
increasing the size of the rotor disk does not significantly impact the ability to control
blade pitch.

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2. Objective
To design Quad-copter that can control wirelessly.
To design graphical user interface to communicate and control quad-copter.
To test the performance of designed quad-copter.

3. Materials used

Frame
Motor
Electronic speed controller
Power distribution board
Flight controller board, Battery
Transmitter
Receiver.

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4. History

4.1 Early attempts

A four-rotor helicopter designed by Louis Breguet. This was the first rotary wing
aircraft to lift itself off the ground, although only in tethered flight at an altitude of
a few feet. In 1908 it was reported as having flown 'several times', although details
are sparse.

Etienne Oehmichen experimented with rotorcraft designs in the 1920s. Among the
six designs he tried, his helicopter No.2 had four rotors and eight propellers, all
driven by a single engine. The Oehmichen No.2 used a steel-tube frame, with two-
bladed rotors at the ends of the four arms. The angle of these blades could be varied
by warping. Five of the propellers, spinning in the horizontal plane, stabilized the
machine laterally. Another propeller was mounted at the nose for steering. The
remaining pair of propellers functioned as its forward propulsion. The aircraft
exhibited a considerable degree of stability and increase in control-accuracy for its
time, and made over a thousand test flights during the middle 1920s. By 1923 it was
able to remain airborne for several minutes at a time, and on April 14, 1924 it
established the first-ever FAI distance record for helicopters of 360 m (390 yd). It
demonstrated the ability to complete a circular course and later, it completed the first
1 kilometre (0.62 mi) closed-circuit flight by a rotorcraft.

Dr. George de Bothezat and Ivan Jerome developed this aircraft, with six-bladed
rotors at the end of an X-shaped structure. Two small propellers with variable pitch
were used for thrust and yaw control. The vehicle used collective pitch control. Built
by the US Air Service, it made its first flight in October 1922. About 100 flights
were made by the end of 1923. The highest it ever reached was about 5 m (16 ft
5 in). Although demonstrating feasibility, it was underpowered, unresponsive,

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mechanically complex and susceptible to reliability problems. Pilot workload was
too high during hover to attempt lateral motion.

This unique helicopter was intended to be the prototype for a line of much larger
civil and military quadrotor helicopters. The design featured two engines driving
four rotors through a system of v belts. No tailrotor was needed and control was
obtained by varying the thrust between rotors. Flown successfully many times in the
mid-1950s, this helicopter proved the quadrotor design and it was also the first four-
rotor helicopter to demonstrate successful forward flight. Due to a lack of orders for
commercial or military versions however, the project was terminated.
Convertawings proposed a Model E that would have a maximum weight of 42,000 lb
(19 t) with a payload of 10,900 lb (4.9 t) over 300 miles and at up to 173 mph
(278 km/h). The Hanson Elastic Articulated (EA) bearingless rotor grew out of work
done in the early 1960s at Lockheed California by Thomas F. Hanson, who had

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previously worked at Convertawings on the quadrotor's rotor design and control
system.

The Curtiss-Wright VZ-7 was a VTOL aircraft designed by the Curtiss-

Wright company for the US Army. The VZ-7 was controlled by changing the thrust
of each of the four propellers.

They are relatively cheap, available in a variety of sizes and their simple
mechanical design means that they can be built and maintained by
amateurs.

Flying prototype of the Parrot AR.Drone

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4.2 Recent developments
In the last few decades, small-scale unmanned aerial vehicles have been used for
many applications. The need for aircraft with greater maneuverability and hovering
ability has led to a rise in quadcopter research. The four-rotor design allows
quadcopters to be relatively simple in design yet highly reliable and maneuverable.
Research is continuing to increase the abilities of quadcopters by making advances

in multi-craft communication, environment exploration, and maneuverability. If

these developing qualities can be combined, quadcopters would be capable of
advanced autonomous missions that are currently not possible with other vehicles.

Some current programs include:

The Bell Boeing Quad TiltRotor concept takes the fixed quadcopter concept
further by combining it with the tilt rotor concept for a proposed C-130 sized
military transport.

AeroQuad and ArduCopter are open-source hardware and software projects

based on Arduino for the DIY construction of quadcopters.
Parrot AR.Drone is a small radio controlled quadcopter with cameras attached to
it built by Parrot SA, designed to be controllable by smartphones or tablet
devices.

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 Nixie is a small camera-equipped drone that can be worn as a wrist band.

Several camera-drone projects have turned into high-profile commercial failures:

Zano (drone) - a high-profile Kickstarter project to build a quadcopter-camera

drone, Zano failed after delivering only a small fraction of their orders in a
partially nonfunctional state.
Lily Camera - a startup attempting to make a quadcopter-camera drone, sued by
the San Francisco District Attorney after they closed down without fulfilling any
of their pre-orders.

In July 2015, a video was posted on YouTube of an airborne quadcopter firing a

pistol four times in a wooded area, sparking regulatory concerns

Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 take-off, Nevada, 2012

5. Applications
5.1 Research platform
Quadcopters are a useful tool for university researchers to test and evaluate new
ideas in a number of different fields, including flight controltheory, navigation, real
time systems, and robotics. In recent years many universities have shown
quadcopters performing increasingly complex aerial manoeuvres. Swarms of
quadcopters can hover in mid-air, fly in formations, and autonomously complex

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flying routines such as flips, darting through hula hoops and organising themselves
to fly through windows as a group.

There are numerous advantages to using quadcopters as versatile test platforms.

They are relatively cheap, available in a variety of sizes and their simple mechanical
design means that they can be built and maintained by amateurs. Due to the multi-
disciplinary nature of operating a quadcopter, academics from a number of fields
need to work together in order to make significant improvements to the way
quadcopters perform. Quadcopter projects are typically collaborations between
computer science, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering specialists.

5.2 Military and law enforcement

Quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicles are used for surveillance and reconnaissance
by military and law enforcement agencies, as well as search and rescue missions in
urban environments. One such example is the Aeryon Scout, created by Canadian
company Aeryon Labs which is a small UAV that can quietly hover in place and use
a camera to observe people and objects on the ground. The company claims that the
machine played a key role in a drug bust in Central America by providing visual
surveillance of a drug trafficker's compound deep in the jungle (Aeryon won't reveal
the country's name and other specifics).

After a recreational quadcopter (or "drone") crashed on the White House lawn early
in the morning of January 26, 2015, the Secret Service began a series of test flights
of such equipment in order to fashion a security protocol against hostile quadcopters.

During the Battle of Mosul it was reported that commercially available quadcopters
and drones were being used by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as
surveillance and weapons delivery platforms using improvised cradles to drop
grenades and other explosives. The ISIL drone facility became a target of Royal Air
Force strike aircraft.

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5.3 Photography

The largest use of quadcopters in the USA has been in the field of aerial imagery.
Quadcopter UAVs are suitable for this job because of their autonomous nature and
huge cost savings. Drones have also been used for light-painting photography.

2016 model DJI Phantom 4 quadcopter with a high definition 4k stabilized video
and still camera, GPS stabilization and automatic obstacle avoidance.

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5.4 Journalism
In 2014 The Guardian reported that major media outlets have started to put serious
effort into exploring the use of drones for reporting and verifying news on events
that include floods, protests and wars.

Some media outlets and newspapers are using drones to capture photography of
celebrities.

5.5 Drone-delivery

In December 2013, the Deutsche Post gathered international media attention with
the project Parcelcopter, in which the company tested the shipment of medical
products by drone delivery. Using a Microdrones md4-1000 quadrocopter, packages
were flown from a pharmacy across the Rhine River. It was the first civilian package
delivery via drones.

5.6 Art

Quadcopters have also been used in various art projects including but not limited to
drone photography. They may be used in performance art with new degrees of
positional control that allows for new uses of puppets, characters, lights and cameras.
They have also been used in light shows including most prominently in the 5
February 2017 Super Bowl LI halftime show in which Lady Gaga, in a pre-recorded
segment, was accompanied by a swarm of 300 LED-equipped Intel "Shooting
Star" drones forming an American flag in the sky.

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 Very Large Telescope image taken using a quadcopter

5.7 Sport

Quadcopters are used all over the world for racing (also known as "drone racing")
and freestyle events. Racing and freestyle quadcopters are built for speed and agility.
Racing and freestyle drones tend to be relatively small in size, with 250mm between
the propeller shafts and/or 5-6 inch props being the usually upper end of the size
scale.

Most pilots race and freestyle quadcopters smaller than 250mm down to the "Tiny
Whoop" size as small as 50-60mm between the propeller shafts.

Racers race in both indoor and outdoor events typically following a course defined
by ground markers e.g. rope or "witches hats", "gates" and flags.

Gates are arches or other shaped frames that a quad must fly through. Flags must be
flown around.

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There are at least two international drone racing organisations/promotions including
the Drone Racing League and Multi GP.

Freestyle involves flying aerobatic tricks, many of which are not possible with other
craft. While freestyle and racing drones appear fairly similar, and a freestyle drone
can be used for racing and vice-versa, they are actually two different classes of drone
and two different though related sports, with many pilots participating in both.

Although commercially ready to fly (RTF) and almost ready to fly (ARF) sport
drones are becoming more common, most racing quadcopters are custom built by
their pilots who weigh a wide variety of factors into their component selection to
balance speed, agility, weight, and cost.

6. Flight dynamics
Each rotor produces both a thrust and torque about its center of rotation, as well as
a drag force opposite to the vehicle's direction of flight. If all rotors are spinning at
the same angular velocity, with rotors one and three rotating clockwise and rotors
two and four counterclockwise, the net aerodynamic torque, and hence the angular
acceleration about the yaw axis, is exactly zero, which mean there is no need for a
tail rotor as on conventional helicopters. Yaw is induced by mismatching the balance
in aerodynamic torques (i.e., by offsetting the cumulative thrust commands between
the counter-rotating blade pairs).

Quadrotor flight dynamics

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6.1 Coaxial configuration

In order to allow more power and stability at reduced weight, a quadcopter, like any
other multirotor can employ a coaxial rotor configuration. In this case, each arm has
two motors running in opposite directions (one facing up and one facing down).

Quadcopter coaxial - OnyxStar FOX-C8 XT Observer from AltiGator

6.2 Vortex ring state

All quadcopters are subject to normal rotorcraft aerodynamics, including vortex ring
state.

6.3 Mechanical structure

The main mechanical components needed for construction are the
frame, propellers (either fixed-pitch or variable-pitch), and the electric motors. For
best performance and simplest control algorithms, the motors and propellers should

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be placed equidistant. Recently, carbon fiber composites have become popular due
to their light weight and structural stiffness.

The electrical components needed to construct a working quadcopter are similar to

those needed for a modern RC helicopter. They are the electronic speed
control module, on-board computer or controller board, and battery. Typically, a
hobby transmitter is also used to allow for human input.

6.4 Autonomous flight

Quadcopters and other multicopters often can fly autonomously. Many modern
flight controllers use software that allows the user to mark "way-points" on a map,
to which the quadcopter will fly and perform tasks, such as landing or gaining
altitude. The PX4 autopilot system, an open-source software/hardware combination
in development since 2009, has since been adopted by both hobbyists and drone
manufacturing companies alike to give their quadcopter projects flight-control
capabilities. Other flight applications include crowd control between several
quadcopters where visual data from the device is used to predict where the crowd
will move next and in turn direct the quadcopter to the next corresponding waypoint.

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 Autonomous flight of a simulated quadrotor using ROS Movelt
Schematic of reaction torques on each motor of a quadcopter aircraft, due to
spinning rotors. Rotors 1 and 3 spin in one direction, while rotors 2 and 4 spin in
the opposite direction, yielding opposing torques for control.

A quadrotor hovers or adjusts its altitude by applying equal thrust to all four rotors.

A quadrotor adjusts its yaw by applying more thrust to rotors rotating in one
direction.

A quadrotor adjusts its pitch or roll by applying more thrust to one rotor and less
thrust to its diametrically opposite rotor.

Quadcopters differ from conventional helicopters, which use rotors that are able to
vary the pitch of their blades dynamically as they move around the rotor hub. In the

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early days of flight, quadcopters (then referred to either as 'quadrotors' or
'helicopters') were seen as possible solutions to some of the persistent problems in
vertical flight. Torque-induced control issues (as well as efficiency issues originating
from the tail rotor, which generates no useful lift) can be eliminated by counter-
rotation, and the relatively short blades are much easier to construct. A number of
manned designs appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. These vehicles were among the
first successful heavier-than-air vertical take off and landing
(VTOL) vehicles. However, early prototypes suffered from poor performance, and
latter prototypes required too much pilot work load, due to poor stability
augmentation and limited control authority.

In the late 2000s, advances in electronics allowed the production of cheap

lightweight flight controllers, accelerometers (IMU), global positioning system and
cameras. This resulted in the quadcopter configuration becoming popular for
small unmanned aerial vehicles. With their small size and maneuverability, these
quadcopters can be flown indoors as well as outdoors.

At a small size, quadcopters are cheaper and more durable than conventional
helicopters due to their mechanical simplicity. Their smaller blades are also
advantageous because they possess less kinetic energy, reducing their ability to
cause damage. For small-scale quadcopters, this makes the vehicles safer for close
interaction. It is also possible to fit quadcopters with guards that enclose the rotors,
further reducing the potential for damage. However, as size increases, fixed propeller
quadcopters develop disadvantages over conventional helicopters. Increasing blade
size increases their momentum. This means that changes in blade speed take longer,
which negatively impacts control. Helicopters do not experience this problem as

22
increasing the size of the rotor disk does not significantly impact the ability to control
blade pitch.

Due to their ease of construction and control, quadcopter aircraft are frequently used
as amateur model aircraft projects.

7. Model Diagram

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8. References

1. http://www.rchelicopterfun.com/quadrocopter.html
2. http://andrew.gibiansky.com/downloads/pdf/Quadcopter%20Dynamics,%20
Simulation,%20and%20Control.pdf
3. popular-for-research/
4. http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-21975-7_16#page-3
5. http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/robotics-software/pendulum-
balancing-quadrotor-learns-some-new-tricks
6. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/planes-uavs/armed-
quadrotors-are-coming-10720086
7. http://www.gizmag.com/3d-robotics-iris-gps-guided-quadcopter-
drone/28818/
8. http://robots.dacloughb.com/project-3/quadcopter-software/
9. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1924/1924%20-%200047.html
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadcopter#cite_note-25

9. External links

1. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wuascopter
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oL4fpdDvAs
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vMEG1UH2Co
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5FeRAypRtc

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