Designing and developing stable body flight in drones

Abstract

Drones are an ever-expanding field finding use and application in more and more area, such as construction, logging and transport. As a drone flies, it tilts its body in the direction of flight, however in some cases this tilting of the body is an undesired side effect of the drone’s movement and results in drones not being applied efficiently in such a field. Therefore, the question arises, “Can a drone be developed to allow for stable-bodied flight in order to provide a non-tilting platform for carrying payloads in the future?” The goal of this thesis is to find a solution to that question. By looking at drones that currently provide similar solutions, this thesis provides possible concept solutions and determines the best design for implementing this stable-bodied flight and then covers the components that would be required and the manufacturing process of such a drone. The analysis of the design show that drone designs with gimbal, whether it be the body or the propellers that are contained by the gimbals, allow for infinite degrees of freedom, which is useful in maintaining stable flight. Testing and design development, show that a drone where the propellers are gimbal rotated allows for the highest level of control, whereas turning the drone body into a gimbal, creates a simpler and aerodynamic design. Both designs are developed further, leading to the conclusion that the gimbal rotor drone is a more complex design, requiring machine learning to determine the optimal angles of attack and thrust for each of the propellers, in order to maintain stable flight. Due to this and the aerodynamic advantage of the gimbal body design, this drone is selected as a final design.