Low cost quad rotor helicopter

• Main Author: Sng, Chin Guan.
• Other Authors: Tan Su Lim
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Control and instrumentation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/38889
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Research interest for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) has been rapidly growing in recent years as they have proven to be a cost effective approach in elevating surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities while reducing risk in both military and commercial applications. However, there is a void in current search and rescue UAVs. Being optimized for forward flight, conventional fixed wing and helicopter based UAVs lack the agility needed to conduct close range exploration of disaster sites such as indoor navigation in collapsed structures. This void is especially apparent in the wake of recent earthquake disasters around the globe such as the 2010 Chile and 2010 Haiti earthquakes. Quad-rotor helicopters, on the contrary, are desirable for these specific applications since they have the ability to move in all directions without turning, navigate in treacherous terrains, perform vertical takeoff & landing as well as deliver small payloads of aid such as water to trapped victims in the rubble. However, this idea was previously impractical due to 2 reasons. Firstly, pilot workload was too huge to control the 4 individual rotors during hover since the airframe’s Pitch/Roll and Yaw systems are correlated, unlike conventional aircraft. Secondly, the classic Quad Rotor Helicopter design cannot be operated indoors due to the hazard of 4 spinning rotors which may potentially collide into objects. By incorporating an auto pilot as well as redesigning the airframe, these disadvantages can be negated. Thus, this project addresses both the inherent flaws of the classic Quad rotor helicopter as well as the needs of an indoor search and rescue UAV by developing a low cost Quad Rotor UAV which has the ability to navigate indoors, withstand bumps to the airframe during flight and is inherently onmidirectional, eliminating the need to turn or steer altogether. Aircraft stability is centrally managed by an auto pilot to significantly reduce pilot workload during flight. In addition, the Quad is also upgradable to cater to different needs for different groups of rescue teams.