Drone Construction/Flight
Flight is looked at in different ways, someone can simply think of a bug when they think of flying. The drone, however, is a flying aircraft, and is not a toy. Whenever someone hears the word “drone” they probably think of a military drone, which is a UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle) and is a high state of the art flying vehicle. The ‘home drones’ are actually called quadcopters, which 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. The quadcopter is an RC, however, it is a very high powered and very long distant RC, and is currently the most expensive RC in the markets, other than fuel powered RC’s.
I got interested in flying drones by watching a bunch of YouTube videos and seeing what they really were and how they worked. Over time I got extremely interested in them and how they worked, so I threw it on my Christmas list and ended up getting one. My drone is the Syma X5C-1. I learned how to fly it and had a lot of fun. YouTubers soon gave me a secret obsession with drones that made me want to learn so much more about them. I originally planned on just making a homemade drone and go from there. In the iLab, I was doing magic and didn’t really know what else I could do to advance my learning.
The term drone is thrown around in a haphazard manner these days. Originally, drone referred to an unmanned aircraft preprogrammed with a flight plan, in which the aircraft would fly in either a straight line or around in circles until the engine would run low on fuel, and then the drone would land.
The term ‘drone’ is thrown around in a different kind of manner these days. Originally, drone referred to an unmanned aircraft preprogrammed with a flight plan, meaning the aircraft would fly in either a straight line or around in circles until the engine would run low on fuel, and then the drone would land. Nowadays, a drone has evolved into a catchall term including any unmanned robot either preprogrammed or remotely controlled. This includes robots designed for water, land, and air use. Robots themselves do count as a drone, because it is unmanned. There are different types of air drones, Helirotor — 1 set of rotor blades, Dualrotor — 2 sets of rotor blades, Trirotor — 3 sets of rotor blades, Quadrotor — 4 sets of rotor blades, Pentirotor — 5 sets of rotor blades, Hexirotor — 6 sets of rotor blades, and Octorotor — 8 sets of rotor blades. The only difference is that they have more blades (propellers) that make the flight stable in different ways. The more blades there is on a drone, the more power and momentum will go into it. Being more advanced with these drones, different drones are used for different reasons. This will be put into a somewhat list for a better understanding.
Attack drones are used only by the military, these drones are equipped with lethal weapons and used for controlled air strikes in hostel or inaccessible areas.
Crowd control drones are equipped with non lethal weapons such as tear gas or sound cannons, these drones are used to stop crowd riots or crowds that are ‘partying too hard’. These drones are strictly used for law and military use.
Delivery drones were originally developed for the military to deliver goods and resources to ground troops, these drones are equipped with a claw or similar delivery system and are able to remotely drop items or gently place items in an area without harming the items. Some big shipping companies like DHL and Amazon are starting to implement these types of deliveries to minimize shipping times, overhead costs, and dangerous driving conditions.
Monitoring drones are important for public areas. Equipped with both standard and infrared cameras as well as sensitive weather instrumentation, these drones are used to monitor a variety of areas. For example, drones equipped with these cameras and instruments are used to help prevent street crimes or spotting someone injured and prevention of forest fires. These drones are also used for missions as well as other military applications.
Photography/videography drones are your main drone, these drones are becoming more popular in the art world. Prior to drone technology, aerial photos and videos had to be taken from an airplane or helicopter, and this process was very expensive. Now that commercial drones have become available, photographers and videographers of all kinds can get those stunning shots without the big budget, which I come to enjoy myself with my Syma X5C.
The gyroscope and accelerometer are a key part of how a drone can stay stable and fly. Think of the drone as being a different plate balancing on top of a very, very tall stick. The accelerometer tells the drone how fast it is falling off the stick, and the gyro tells the drone which way it is tipping over. The drone then applies just the right amount of power to the motors spinning the rotors to balance the drone. All of this happens several hundred times a second.
A normal drone is made of light composite materials to reduce weight and increase maneuverability. This composite material strength allows military drones to cruise at extremely high altitudes. Drones are equipped with different state of the art technology such as infra-red cameras, GPS, and laser all used by military only. Drones can be controlled by remote control system or a ground cockpit (military purposes). Drones come in a wide variety of sizes, with the large drone mostly used for military purposes such as the Predator drone, other smaller drones which can be launched by hand, to other unmanned aircraft which require short runways. An unmanned aerial vehicle system has two parts, the drone itself and the control system.
Taking flight can be pretty simple in certain circumstances, you start with the controller. The controller is a game pad like layout, making it easy and comfortable for your hands. On the left of most controllers is the throttle, choosing how high you would like your drone to go. Pushing the throttle higher up will makes the propellers put more force into the air, causing a greater lift.
When landing a drone, it will be caught in that previous lift you have created – making it harder to land and more sensitive. When landing, all of the air you have previously pushed out will be put right through your propellers again, reversed only. That is why when you land, you go down faster than you went up. Rather than creating lift, you’re ‘removing’ it.
Picture a bird. Now picture how the birds wings work, they push down to create the same force, which is caused by air movement going under the wing and then being forced down – that is the same for what propellers do only with a curved propeller instead of a wing. The heavier the bird, the bigger wings the bird will need. A drone is exactly like this, with a bird with bigger wings, comes drones with bigger propellers. Depending on the size of the drone, propeller sizes vary. You can’t lift a bigger drone with small propellers because of the force – smaller drones don’t need such large propellers because they don’t need as much force. Larger drones, however, need to have larger propellers for a larger and stronger force.
Personally, this project has helped me with a lot more than I was expecting for it to when I began. I now learn what flight is, what causes lift in propellers, and basically everything inside and out of a drone. This project has also come to help me with being safe with my flight, which is very important. I wish to learn a lot more about drones, in my own time. Drone construction and flight has given me the ability to be able to repair things I didn’t think I could repair, on more than just a drone. I am really interested on the mainframe and building technical things – like drones and robots. My plan for next year is to have a project about robotics.