Arduicopter : design and development of an Arduino controlled quadrotor

• Main Author: Adi Hafriz Azman
• Other Authors: Ling Keck Voon
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Control and instrumentation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54414
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Multicopter or Multirotor is designed to be an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV. It is a flying machine that was invented by the military however they dropped the technology due to insufficient support from the commercialize company. Hobbyist and engineers took the technology and improved on the engineering aspects of the machine. Nowadays, multicopter have evolved to many kind of designs and they can be equipped from 3 to 8 motors depending on the purpose of the machine. This report is based on the development of Arduicopter. Arduicopter is a Quadcopter where this flying machine is equipped with 4 motors and other functions. Arduicopter is design not only to achieve flying capability however it will have some purpose and brings the technology to another level. Arduicopter will be attached with different functions such as wireless camera, which can turn 180° and the camera have the ability to face forward or downward to give better angle view. Second function is that it will be attached with mechanical gripper with laser indication. The purpose of the gripper is to grip on things and with the help of the Arduicopter the item could be transport to the destination without the hussle of people doing it. The last function is that air quality sensor will be attached to the Arduicopter. The purpose of this is to detect and measure the toxicity of surrounding air. Despite all the features that have been mentioned, weight is the main factor to Arduicopter therefore, weight is the main challenge to this project. There are several steps to minimise the overall weight such as using a polycarbonate plates instead of steel plates, drilling holes into the aluminium boom and using materials that are lightweighted. Heavier machine require higher thrust motor, which leads to higher current consumption therefore, calculating the current in-take is very important as to avoid any over-discharging of the current source. Arduicopter shows that Quadcopter technology can be used to many different usages. The implication of this technology will be determine by the commercialize company. Nowadays, Quadcopter is very useful to photographers and videographers because this technology could give them another angle, which is the aerial view.