QUADCOPTER Department of Electronic Engineering ABSTRACT

Historically, helicopters with four rotors (quadrotors) have not been very common, mainly because most of the usual payloads could be lifted using one or two rotors. However, the quadrotor possesses some special characteristics that make it more attractive. One, of course, is the superior payload capacity. The other is the simplicity of its control system:Just by independently adjusting the speed of each rotor it is possible to control both the attitude and the horizontal/vertical motion. This system is particularly suitable for small UAVs, because it reduces the mechanical complexity of the rotors (saving volume and weight) and simplifies the control algorithms. In order to be successful in selecting the appropriate control algorithms it is essential to have a complete understanding of Quadcopter flight dynamics. The Quadcopter relies on standard helicopter theories, although these have been severely modified to account for the particularities of the Quadcopter. A Quadcopter consists of four brushless dc outrunner motors. This is because it mainly requires stationary thrust rather than high speed. The rotation speed of the motors are controlled by the respective ESC(electronic speed control). As the Quadcopter is controlled wirelessly it also consist of transmitterreceiver section. A RF transmitter-receiver using Frequency hoping spread spectrum is considered for Quadcopter to ensure a secure link. Number of propellers used are four and they are selected as such to get same thrust as the takeoff weight at about 3000-4500rpm. Accordingly size of the propeller is selected. Propellers are available in size of (10" x 4,5") , (10x3.8") and (12"x3.8") etc. LIPO i.e. Lithium polymer battery is used to supply power to the Quadcopter. They have a voltage of 11,1 V or 14,4 V.Normal sizes are 1200mAh/20C to 5000mAh/30C batteries. The Quadcopter can be successfully applied to applications like Camera Surveillance in which mobile surveillance is accomplished using aerial platform. Other applications include Remote Volcano Sensing, Air Pollution Sensor (Inner-city), Microwave Cavity Resonator ,etc.

Basic theory of Brushless motors

Disadvantages of Brushed Motors The brushes and commutator wear out The brushes and commutator must be cleaned periodically Friction from the brushes slow the motor down Friction from the brushes lead to shorter flight times and battery life. Friction from the brushes cause lower power to weight ratio
3.2 Brushless motors

Brushless RC motors work on the same principle as brushed motors, except the electromagnets(poles) are stationary and the permanent magnets are on the spinning portion of the motor. Since the electromagnets are stationary, there is no need for brushes! The electronic speed controller(ESC) takes care of switching the voltage of the electromagnets. It's important to know that a brushless speed controller and a brushed speed controller can not be used interchangeably. They perform completely different tasks. The quickest way to tell the difference between a canned motor and a brushless motor is to count the number of wire leads. All brushless RC motors have 3 wires. Canned motors have 2 wires. The third wire is used for feedback. Switching any two of these wires will change the rotation of the motor. 5 Inrunner and outrunners There are two types of brushless motors. Inrunners Inrunner brushless motors are set up very similar to the canned motor explained above, except the permanent magnets and electromagnets are in opposite positions. The faster a motor spins, the more efficient it is. Inrunner motors turn very fast and are much more efficient than outrunner motors. Inrunner brushless RC motors require a reducing gearbox between the motor and propeller of your RC airplane. For this reason, the output speed and torque of the propeller can easily be "tweaked" to facilitate different flying characteristics by using different size gears. The downside is added parts that can and do fail. The gears get stripped, and the gearbox shafts are easily bent. It can also be an obstacle when mounting the gearbox motor combination for your RC airplane neatly, especially under a cowling. Outrunners An outrunner brushless motor has the permanent magnets on the outside of the electromagnets. the outer hub holding the permanent magnets has the output shaft attached in the center. Outrunners Inrunners Low RPM's, high torque Less efficient than inrunners

 No gearbox required Narrow prop selection Silent High RPM's, low torque More efficient than outrunners Require a gearbox Wide prop selection Noisy

3.4 Motor Specifications Voltage Constant Kv is the "Voltage Constant". This is how many RPM's the motor turns for each volt applied. Actually, it's a tad less because even brushless motors aren't 100% efficient.For example, if you apply 12volts to a 200Kv motor, it will turn at just under (12 x 200) 2400 RPM's Torque Constant Kt is the "Torque Constant". For all motors, Kt= 1355/Kv. In a nut shell, this means the faster the motor spins for a given voltage (Kv), the lower the output torque will be (Kv). Outrunners generally have a lower Kv, which in turn produces more torque at a slower speed for spinning those larger props. The opposite is true with inrunners. No Load Current Io is the "No Load Current". This is the amount of current it takes to spin the motor with no prop. For example, if your motor is pulling 25Amps, and the Io is 2Amps, then you really only have 23Amps turning the prop. Terminal Resistance Rm is the "Terminal Resistance". This is the internal resistance of the motor measured in Ohms. The higher the Rm, the less efficient the motor is. Current and Power The maximum current and power is what determines how large of a prop and what size plane can be used with the motor. Simply multiply the current by the battery voltage to get power. The larger the propeller's diameter and pitch, the more current the motor will draw for a given RPM. For example, the 200Kv motor will run at 2400 RPM's regardless of whether it has a 10x6 prop or a 11x5 prop. But, the 11x5 propellers cause the motor to draw more current. Drawing too much current will destroy the motor. 3.6 Why brushless outrunners are used in Quadcopter The choice of the motor models heavily depends on purpose and takeoff weight of Quadcopter or quadcopter. Since a tri- or quadrocopter needs mainly stationary thrust and not a high maximum speed, its ideal to use slow running, big propellers with a low pitch. To avoid gearboxes (weight, clumsy, inefficient, noisy) it is highly recommended to use brushless outrunner motors with a low "kv" (RPMs per volts, about 1000kv are fine) rating. The revolutions per minute should be in the range of 3000 to 4500 when hovering.

Electronic Speed Controller

An Electronic speed controller (ESC) is what controls how fast the motors turns. The ESC plugs into the throttle channel of the receiver. The factors that determine what ESC to use include the type of motor you have, the size of the motor, and the type of batteries. Selection of Motor ( Brushless or Canned ) ESCs designed specifically for brushed motors will only work with brushed motors. Likewise, electronic speed controllers designed specifically for brushless motors will only work for brushless motors. There are a few ESCs that are designed to work with both. A brushless ESC has the added task of determining how each pole needs to be energized at any given time to keep the motor spinning. The brushless ESC needs to have feed back from the motor in order to perform this task.Without feedback, the ESC on a brushless motor has no idea where the permanent magnets are in relation to the electromagnets(poles). All brushless motors and brushless ESCs have three wires. Only two of the three wires are energized by the ESC at any given time. The pole that is not energized (coasting) will actually generate a small amount of voltage that is proportional to how fast the motor is turning. This small voltage is used by the ESC to determine how fast and in what direction the motor is turning at any given time. Size of motor Electronic speed controllers are rated for a maximum current. The more current an ESC is rated for, the more expensive and heavier it will be. Choose an electronic speed controller that is rated for slightly more than what your motor will pull at full throttle. Too much current will damaged an electronic speed controller very quickly. Battery Eliminator Circuit (BEC) The motor requires much more power than the receiver and speed controller. A battery eliminator circuit (BEC) converts the voltage from the motor battery to a lower voltage for the receiver and ESC. This eliminates the need for a separate low voltage battery for the receiver and ESC. The BEC also senses when the battery is getting low and cuts power to the motor while allowing the servos to function for a safe landing. The BEC is usually incorporated circuit board of the ESC for small to medium size electric airplanes. Large RC airplanes that require larger voltages to power the motor will require a stand-alone BEC, which is called a voltage regulator.

Propellers
A propeller is a type of fan which transmits power by converting rotational motion into thrust. A pressure difference is produced between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoil-shaped blade, and air or water is accelerated behind the blade. A pressure difference between the forward and rear surfaces of the airfoilshaped blade is produced and air or water accelerated behind the blade. Propeller dynamics can be modeled by both Bernoulli's principle and Newton's third law. We should choose propellers to get the same thrust as the takeoff weight at about 3000 to 4500 RPMs. If propellers are too small, the RPMs will be too high,

and efficiency and payload weight suffers. Also, flight time will decrease significantly, because of too high current consumption. If propellers are too big, the hovering RPMs are too low, so flight stability suffers.. Propellers are available in size of (10" x 4,5") , (10x3.8") and (12"x3.8") etc.If we have a good motor on a light frame then we can also use 3 blade propellers.

Battery
Lithium polymer battery (Lipo battery) Lithium-ion polymer batteries, polymer lithium ion, or more commonly lithium polymer batteries (abbreviated Li-poly, Li-Pol, LiPo, LIP, PLI or LiP) are rechargeable batteries (secondary cell batteries). Normally batteries are composed of several identical secondary cells in parallel addition to increase the discharge current capability. As batteries usually Lithium-Polymer batteries or LiPos are used. These types of batteries differ from other types by a light weight combined with high capacity. Handling these batteries is not without any danger, so some rules have to be kept in mind. These types need a special kind of charger, because the charging procedure differs a lot from other types (like NiCad and NiMh). The cells should not be overcharged, neither should they be unloaded to deeply. To keep the charge difference between cells to a minimum, a balancer must be used. This balancer might be integrated in the charger, or a separate balancer should be attached to the charger. All LiPo-packs have a connector for a balancer. For a Quadcopter LiPo-packs with three or four cells are used. They have a voltage of 11,1 V or 14,4 V. Depending on our Brushless Motors we will need a bigger or smaller battery. Normal sizes are 1200mAh/20C to 5000mAh/30C batteries.
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8.0 Principle and Operation

8.1 Diagrammatic Representation Figure :7 Quadcopter showing direction of each propeller As all the propellers are spinning at the same angular velocity, a yaw stabilising tail rotor like the one found on a standard helicopter is not needed. Yaw is achieved by increasing the torque produced by a pair of rotating motors either the clockwise pair or the anti-clockwise pair and decreasing the torque produced by the other pair. Similarly the pitch of the rotors need not be altered. Instead, movements in the pitch (forward/backward) and roll (left/right) axes can be achieved separately, simply by altering the thrust produced by a pair of motors and all this can be done without affecting the yaw of the vehicle. The front and rear propellers control the pitch of the vehicle while in flight and the right and left propellers control the roll of the vehicle.
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Motors , electronic speed controllers, and battery are connected as shown blow. Figure: 8 Quadcopter connections 8.2 Operation and flight control

The Flight Control (FC) is the main controlling board on the quadcopter and all the necessary sensors and microprocessors used to achieve and maintain stable flight are located on this board. Due to the nature of the project a strict power to weight ratio budget was designed. From initial estimations, maximum payload for the vehicle would be approximately 500-700 grams. The motors used in RC vehicles vary greatly so it was desired to find a light motor with low power consumption. The main requirement was that it provided 1000 rpm V^-1. A Brushless motor fulfils the specifications. Brushless motors are more complicated to operate because they need to changethe DC supply voltage of the battery into a phased AC (usually three phase) with controlled power output so that the speed of the motors can be accurately controlled. In total there are four Brushless Controllers (BL-Ctrl) one for each motor.
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To achieve a very stable level of flight it is desired to change the throttle value very rapidly (<0.5m). Control of the vehicle is achieved through use of a RF transmitter and receiver pair. A transmitter with a minimum of four channels is required to control the quadcopter in the various planes.. The receiver demodulates the instructions given by the pilot and converts them into electrical signals. A receiver with a summing signal is required for the MikroKopter (MK). This signal contains all of the channels sent by the transmitter and is made available to the FC for processing. The design of the frame is only limited by one factor: it must be as light as possible. The frame designed took on a basic cross shape similar to many open source projects . Bearing in mind that the frame must be lightweight some of the materials considered include: aluminium , carbon fiber or polystyrene; it is possible to have a combination of these. The most cost effective material for this project is aluminium or wood because it is readily available and cheap. The batteries needed to power all the onboard electronics have to have a low weight to power ratio so that maximum flight time may be achieved. The different types of battery considered suitable for use in RC vehicles are: Lithium polymer (Lipo), Nickel-cadmium (NiCd) and Nickel metal hydride battery (NiMh). The Lipo types are the most advanced and offer the most power. They are volatile and must be handled with care but they can have a capacity of over 10,000 mAh. NiMh batteries are a slightly older technology but they are still capable of capacities around 5000 mAh. However if a poor quality of battery is purchased then bad cells can develop quickly when the capacity is increased. NiMh batteries are cheaper than Lipo batteries and are also less volatile. NiCd batteries are the cheapest overall and have similar characteristics to that of NiMh but are unable to achieve an equal capacity. A decent flying time is desired to test the software and hardware which will be added and due to the powerful motors and large propellers the best weight to power ratio with a high capacity can be achieved using the Lipo batteries. The propellers play a major role on the takeoff weight and the speed that the

vehicle will fly at. The diameter of the propellers as well as their pitch must be considered. Due to the slow spinning motors a low pitch is desired.
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9.0 Project status

9.1 Work planned STAGE I: Determining the project and assessing the availability of the components of the hardware & deciding upon the feasible software for the purpose. STAGE II: Procurement of literature & literature review. STAGE III: Hardware: Designing the circuit diagrams Software: Designing basic flowcharts & algorithms. STAGE IV: Finalizing the basic design of the hardware Designing the PCB: PCB design is ready, components selected. STAGE V: Hardware: Testing & troubleshooting Software: Algorithms finalized. Coding begins. Code tested & troubleshooting solved. STAGE VI: Assembling the entire project, testing & troubleshooting it in entirety. Stage VII: Annexed features of levels, synchronization and flight control tested and troubleshooting solved. STAGE VIII: Entire unit encompassing all the features is tested & troubleshooting is solved, project is ready for display.
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9.2 Work Completed Quadcopter basic block diagram was designed and hence accordingly detailed research was done. Different designs of Quadcopter like tricopter and quadcopter wer e studied in detail. After thorough research we came to the conclusion that quadcopter design with four rotors is more stable. Components and their specifications were decided according to the requirement of the project. Theory of brushless motors and electronic speed controllers (ESC) were studied. Different circuits of ESC were searched and simulated on multisim . Different motors and propeller combinations were considered. Transmitter and Receiver circuits were decided which uses ASK modulation at frequency 433.92 MHz.
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10.0 Applications

A number of options were considered as a possible applications for quadcopter below is a list of some of the applications investigated and the reason why they were eliminated. 1] Camera Surveillance Possibly the most obvious use for an aerial platform would be as a mount for a camera so that it may be used as a mobile surveillance device. A decision was made to build the quadcopter/Quadcopter for use as a platform for a camera which would be wireless. The standardized connection could then be used to attach different devices and essentially enable the quadcopter to be used for a multitude of applications. 2] Remote Volcano Sensing Andrew McGonigle, a Scottish scientist working for the University of Sheffield, has developed a novel means for determining whether or not a volcano is due to erupt.It involves sending a Radio Controlled (RC) helicopter/Quadcopter into the crater of a volcano and measuring the level of various gases. This information can then be processed once the Helicopter returns. The sensors were the main reason this idea was abandoned. They were found to be too expensive and there was nowhere to test the vehicle i.e. a local active volcano. 3] Air Pollution Sensor (Inner-city) It was thought that the vehicle could be used to navigate a pre-determined flight path and measure several air pollutant levels en route. The resulting measurements could then be used as an indication of the air pollution in a particular area of a city. However, the idea was abandoned due to a problem with the measurement sensors i.e they were either both large and bulky or a passive measurement was needed. The passive measurement would once again be affected by the moving vehicle and is usually taken over a longer period. 4] Microwave Cavity Resonator An idea put forward by Dr. Ian Glover a strathclyde lecturer involved testing the reflectivity of a content in the boundary layer. The boundary layer is the first few hundred meters above the earth surface. The reflectivity of air affect the transmission of radio waves. The proposed method of measurement included building a microwave cavity resonator. The resonator chamber would allow to pass through it and by testing the capacitance of the air the reflectivity could be determined. The rotating propellers posed a problem because they would force air pass the cavity thus affecting the measurement. A different method was to actively monitor the temperature and humidity of the surrounding air and perform a calculation using the two variables. The problem with this is obtaining an Instantaneous and accurate measurement of the humidity. Once again the rotating blades would affect the measurement
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11.0 Conclusion
The control system demonstrates in simulation that reliable and controlled flight can be achieved. Tests have confirmed the functionality and range of wireless transmission. Theoretical calculations have determined that the desired amount of lift can be achieved. Experimental tests must be completed to verify these calculations. A complete and thorough test plan has been provided and can be

used by subsequent design teams to complete this project. This plan includes assembly diagrams and instructions as well as a complete bill of materials. Reflecting on this project, it was very aggressive for a five person design team. This project required an extreme amount of engineering to be done in a short amount of time. With respect to this aggressive nature of the project, its status at this point can be deemed a mild success. Since we have completed the entire study and research required for this project; our next step would be to design a working prototype. It includes building a light weight frame for Quadcopter, design of electronic speed controller circuit, and and mounting these components on Quadcopter frame with motors, battery and receiver circuit, and then performing test flights.