Final Drone Assembly
Concept Drone
As part of our Robotics class we had to design a working drone and build it from scratch. I worked on a team of three. The other two teammates worked on the wiring and program side of the drone while I designed the chassis of the drone. This was a render of my first concept design for the chassis.
At the beginning of the project our team agreed to try to make a tricopter drone instead. To configure the balance for the chassis I laid out the propellers and motors over an isosceles triangle. By giving the models the mass that the actual parts had I was able to find the center of mass, the black and white dot in the middle. I also laid out the heavier components of the tricopter, the battery and motor controllers, and designed housing for the components to keep them in place.
After numerous problems with the programming end of the tricopter we scrapped the idea and I used the same concept as before to create the base for our quadcopter.
Printed Version 1
Before even leaving the ground the arms snapped off.
After numerous problems with the programming end of the tricopter we scrapped the idea and I used the same concept as before to create the base for our quadcopter.
The previous joint also was weak so I replicated the joint on the bottom and added a diagonal support. I also added the tabs to glue on so that the arms slid on and locked with the tabs.
With the weight of the motors on the previously unsupported motor mounts the arms sagged and also broke at that point.
Printed Version 2
We were able to do multiple tests for flying it by the end of the year. In the end we were able to make it take off and steer it. Due to an unfortunate programming error the drone took off when we were not prepared and smashed into the side of a building, thus ending the project. This project taught me the process of prototyping and combining design, electronics and programming.
Best and Last Drone Flight Test
