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Design of A Quad Copter and Fabrication

Article in International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology · September 2014

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 International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology (IJIET)

Design of A Quad Copter and Fabrication

Anudeep M
M.Tech Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Prasad V Potluri Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Vijayawada

G Diwakar
Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Prasad V Potluri Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Vijayawada

Ravi Katukam
Convener of Innovation
Cyient Limited, Hyderabad

Abstract- Quadcopters are the unmanned air vehicles and these are playing a predominant role in different areas like
surveillance, military operations, fire sensing and some important areas having many complexities. To deal quadcopter
weight is the main constrain which is important and play a predominant role in these un manned vehicles. The main
objective of the paper is to deal with the design of the "Quad copter" the regular design of the quadcopter is modified and
the static analysis is done on frame to sustain the loads generated in these vehicles and concluded that small deformation
occurred on the center plates are safe and within the limit.

Keywords – Quadcopter, Unmanned air vehicle, RBE3,RBE2.

I. INTRODUCTION
A Quadcopter is a quadrotor helicopter which is having the four motors, but it is entirely different where as the lift
force is produced by the four motors. The similarity exist between the helicopter and the quadcopter is the vertical
takeoff and landing. These quadcopters are controlled by using a remote control for that reason they can be used in
three area such as military to do spying on enemy camps, to avoid loss of man power these are unmanned aerial
vehicles[1] ; searching in place where the human cannot serve and recently in transportation of goods such as
medicines etc. These quadcopter are classified into two types micro air vehicle and mini air vehicles this
classification mainly depending on the size and weight of the quadcopter. Each rotor has its own significance in
creating thrust, torque and direction. The propellers which create the thrust to the Quadcopter is not alike two of
them are clock wise act as pullers and other two are anti clockwise act as pushers. As consequence , the resulting
torque is 'Zero'. In order to define an aircraft’s orientation (or attitude) around its center of mass, aerospace
engineers usually define three dynamic parameters, the angles of yaw, pitch and roll as shown in the figure1 and by
varying the speed of the motors the direction of the quad varies as shown in the figure2

Figure1 Yaw, pitch and roll rotations of a common quadrotor

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 International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology (IJIET)

Figure2 Illustration of the various movements of a quad rotor

II. MOTIVATION
These Quad copters are having so many applications due
• No gearing required between the motor and the rotor
• No variable propeller pitch is required for alternating quadrotor
• Minimal mechanical complexity
• Low maintenance
• Less loads on the center plates
• Payload augmentation

III. LITERATURE REVIEW

Quadcopters had an incredible evolution in 21st century. Universities, students and researchers continuously work
to introduce more robust controllers and modeling techniques, so that they can provide detailed and accurate
representations of real-life quadrotors. This section introduces some of the work presented in recent years. Hardik
Modh [1] published the work on frame design and they had evaluated the theoretical, analysis and testing results
and they compared the results for different cross sections. Pounds et al. deals about fundamental dynamics analysis
and control approaches through the design of a large-size quadcopter with total weight of 4kg and capable of lifting
a 1kg payload which was deemed necessary for the computers and sensors of the time [2;3]. Swee King Phang, Kun
Li, Kok Hwa Yu, Ben M. Chen and Tong Heng Lee[4] deals the systematic design and construction of the small
quadcopter they had done analysis on the frame by taking the thickness and different shapes of the frame. Antonio
DiCesar[5] had proposed a frame in which they just concentrated on the autonomous flight and reduction in the
weight. Kalpesh N. Shah [6] work on the quad copter arm with different cross sections

IV. QUADCOPTER CAD MODEL AND ELECTRONICS USED

The CAD model prepared for the construction of the Quadcopter is as shown figure3 and the total assembly of the
Quad copter in figure4

Figure3 CAD model of Top and Bottom Plates

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 International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology (IJIET)

Figure4 CAD and Fabricated Model of the Quadcopter

a) Brushless Motor:Brushless motors give the 1:1 speed ratio. In quad copter four rotors with brushless
motors are used to get high efficiency for less power and low weight. Motor performances and 1200kv brushless
motor used for this paper is as shown in the fig(5).performance graph is taken form drive calculator software

Figure5 Brushless motor and Performance curve of brushless motor

b) Propeller: Propellers are used to generate the thrust for the quad copter hover or lift. These are in different
variants which are classified based on their diameter and pitch by which they travel. To create maximum thrust we
use to have two "standard rotation" and two "right hand rotation" propellers. The propeller size 8045 is used
which are shown in the fig(6)

Figure6 propeller set and Performance curve of propeller 8045

c) Electronic Speed Controllers: Electronic speed control convert the available 2phase battery current to the 3-
phase power and also regulates the speed of brushless motor by taking the signal from the control board.
d) Control Board: Control board is the main system which is connected to the receiver and Electronic Speed
Controls which is pre loaded with different set option from single copter to octocopter. This board is used to
different operations performed by the quad copter like roll, pitch and yaw. This board is suitable for the 4channel
transmitter and one auxiliary port to control such as sensors etc.
e) Receiver And Remote Control: These Quad rotors are controlled by using a 2.4Ghz transmitter and the
receiver has been connected to control board
f) Lithium Polymer Battery: It is a constraint of weight so we use a lithium polymer battery in which hi power due
to that reason we use these batteries for these micro air vehicles. these are available in different variants from
1000mah to 10000mah.
g) Servo Leads: Servo leads are the connection cables between the receiver - control board and between
Electronic speed control - control board these are having three leads which is connect the signal, power(+) and
earth(-) connection

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V. FEM MODEL OF QUADCOPTER

The CAD model is prepared and converted to the IGES or STP format and imported into a pre processor PATRAN
to create the FEM model. Depending on the Swee King Phang [2] the CAD model is meshed with respective to their
degrees of freedom they suppose to have the meshing structure. As shown in figure7 and8

Figure7 2D shell mesh on TOP and BOTTOM PLATES

Figure8 C Beam meshed rods and solid meshed clamp

The connection in assembly are connected by using the different connectors as shown in the fig9. they are C Bush,
RBE3, RBE2. C BUSH is the replacement for the fasteners the stiffness coefficients in this assembly is only axial
stiffness
K1 = E*A / L

Here E: young's modulus; A:Area of fastener; L:Length

Figure9 Fully meshed Assembly

A. Material properties
In this assembly the major parts are done by using the carbon fiber which is cured in EPOXY at 1200 C. The carbon
fiber used in this process is the Fabric, for clamp is Aluminum is used. The following Table(1) represent material
properties of carbon fiber and aluminum.
Table1 Carbon fiber and Al properties
Carbon Al
Property
fiber
Young's modulus(GPa) 70 70

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Poisson's ratio 0.1 0.33

Ultimate tensile strength(MPa) 600 550
Ultimate compressive strength(MPa) 570 469
Density(gram/cc) 1.6 2.86
The resultant forces are transferred from the propeller to rod ,rod to clamp and the clamp to the top and bottom
plates.
For testing the static strength the forces applied on the Rod are the thrust, centrifugal force and the moment created
by the propeller.
Centrifugal force(Fc) : mω²r Newton
Here m:mass of propeller Kg
r:Radius of the propellers m
ω: Angular speed (2∏N/60) rad/sec
N:speed of the propeller rotating(rpm)
Moment: Fc*(Perpendicular distance b/w prop centre and rod surface) in Newton
Thrust force(Fv): created by the propeller in Newton
B. CALCULATIONS
Centrifugal force(Fc) : m rω²
:010* .1016*(2*∏*10000/60)2
: 11.319KN
Moment (M):11316*.05
:569N-m
Thrust (Fv):6.54N
The forces calculated in the above is applied on the respective arm as shown in the fig(10)

Figure10 Loading of the rod at end

Application of loads for the clamp and plate are shown in the fig.11 and the loads are tabulated in table3
Table 3 Forces applied
Force applied Fx Fy Fz Mx My Mz

On clamp 8.19E+00 -1.14E04 0.00 2.6E-14 1.8E-17 -1.5E+02

On Top &bottom
3.7E+00 3.16E+01 -1.2E-02 -2.7E-17 1.1E-05 3.23E-02
plate

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Figure11 Loading and constraints Of Clamp And Top Plate

VI. RESULTS
The obtained resultants of von mises and principal stress are as tabulated in the table(4) and result plots for the both
von mises and the principle stress are as shown in fig(12-14)
Table4 Comparison of ultimate stress to the obtained
PART Ultimate stress Von Mises obtained Principal stress obtained

ARM 600MPa 330MPa 330MPa

Clamp 550MPa 547MPa 532MPa

Top & Bottom Plate 600 MPa 3.24MPa 3.69MPa

Stress plots for the Quadcopter components

Figure12Von Mises and principal stress plot for the Arm

Figure13 Von Mises and principal stress plot for the Clamp

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 International Journal of Innovations in Engineering and Technology (IJIET)

Figure14 Von Mises and principal stress plot for the TOP PLATE

VII. CONCLUSIONS
The maximum stress obtained in the all the parts are below the ultimate strength we conclude that the frame is
statically sustained and also It was found that very low loads are obtained in the top plate. By that by changing the
shape of the base plate the performance of the Quad copter cannot be that there is a reduction 50% in the weight
of the base plate so that the power consumption is reduced.
REFERENCES
[1] Hardik Modh "Quadrotor – An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle" in journal IJEDR Volume 2, Issue 1 pp. 1299-1303 in 2014
[2] P. Pounds, R. Mahony, and P. Corke, “Modelling and Control of a Large Quadrotor Robot,” in Control Engineering Practice, vol. 18, pp.
691 – 699, 2010.
[3] P. Pounds and R. Mahony, “Design principles of large quadrotors for practical applications,” in Proceedings of the IEEE International
Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 3265 –3270, May 2009
[4] Swee King Phang, Kun Li, Kok Hwa Yu, Ben M. Chen, Tong Heng Lee "Systematic Design and Implementation of a Micro Unmanned
Quad rotor System" pp1-21, World Scientific Publishing Company,Vol. 2, No. 2 (2014)
[5] Antonio DiCesare , Kyle Gustafson, Paul Lindenfelzer "Design Optimization of a Quad-Rotor Capable of Autonomous Flight"
WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE; 2012.
[6] Mr. Kalpesh N. Shah1, Mr. Bala J. Dutt2, Hardik Modh3 "Quadrotor – An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle"Volume 2, Issue 1 | ISSN: 2321-9939
adamone.rchomepage.com/calc_thrust.htm

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