The Physics of Drone Flight: Exploring Control Mechanisms

[mxchapz]

Now this may be quite an odd request but would it be possible for any of you to give me an insight into drone/quadcopter flight. I am building a drone for my school project and I am also focusing on the flight of it. I have found papers on drone flight however I am struggling to come up with any hypotheses relating to it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

[Moderator's note: Moved from a technical forum and thus no template.]

 

[phinds]

Summary: Could I have some help please

Now this may be quite an odd request but would it be possible for any of you to give me an insight into drone/quadcopter flight. I am building a drone for my school project and I am also focusing on the flight of it. I have found papers on drone flight however I am struggling to come up with any hypotheses relating to it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

That's an extremely broad question. Can you be more specific about what you are looking for.

 

[mxchapz]

If this is less broad (I don't know much about this stuff so please tell me if I need to explain more), I am asking for help with my hypotheses that are related to drone flight, such as any laws/principles of physics or maths that are associated with the flight and that I could somehow measure. Preferably not the most complicated aspects as I am only doing A level maths and physics.

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to the PF, @mxchapz

Since this is for a schoolwork project, your thread may end up getting moved to the Homework Help forums, where most schoolwork-type questions should be asked. We can leave it here for the moment, as long as you show us your best efforts.

What reading have you done so far about flight in general and drones in particular? There are many good resources of basic information available to you, and you will be needing to include such references in your report about the project anyway (in the form of a Bibliography).

I would start with reading articles about flight and drones on Wikipedia, and then follow some of the more specific references in the Bibliographies of those Wikipedia pages. Please do that, and report back with what you have found. If you have specific questions about that reading, we should be able to help with those.

Also as a hint, the concept of stability is very important in most versions of flight, and especially so for helicopters and VTOL drones. Be sure to spend some extra time in your reading to learn more about stability.

 

[FactChecker]

There are several types of drones. You should pick one type and focus on it, at least initially. There are some like airplanes and some that are more like helicopters. The airplane types must maintain a forward velocity to stay up, but the helicopter types (actually quadcopter) can hover and go in any direction.

(I know that you mentioned quadcopters, but it is not clear to me that you are limiting your question to that.)

 

[fresh_42]

One idea is to measure the energy efficiency. Let the drone lift weight to a certain height and compare the energy needed for the lift or many lifts, with the different levels of fuel, before and after. Or measure distance and gas.

If the drone carries a camera, you can also do optics and investigate perspectives.

 

[DEvens]

There is too much to start guessing what you are trying to approach. What specific things are you trying to understand? For example: Are you trying to understand what power the motors put out and how that relates to motion of the drone? That might get you some idea of efficiency, for example. Are you trying to understand the electronics and control software? Are you trying to understand stability? Recovery from an upset? GPS locating? There are many more possible topics.

 

[FactChecker]

If the drone carries a camera, you can also do optics and investigate perspectives.

It's my experience that the stability of the camera and directing it to point somewhere while the stability remains active is a subject in itself.

 

[mxchapz]

So far I haven't done a huge amount of research, I have found multiple papers but I've only started using one. https://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/nph120/meteo/DroneFlight.pdf . Apologies for this but I talked to my teacher and he told me I don't necessarily need hypotheses, I just need to focus on the drone flight and building.

 

[phinds]

So far I haven't done a huge amount of research, I have found multiple papers but I've only started using one. https://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/nph120/meteo/DroneFlight.pdf . Apologies for this but I talked to my teacher and he told me I don't necessarily need hypotheses, I just need to focus on the drone flight and building.

OK, so you've changed subjects somewhat. AGAIN, what exactly are you looking for from this site? You keep asking very broad questions which is not helpful. Are you looking to maximize the height of the flight? The stability of the drone? The stability of the camera? Ease of building? Types of material? Longest battery life? What ?

 

[FactChecker]

So far I haven't done a huge amount of research, I have found multiple papers but I've only started using one. https://homepages.abdn.ac.uk/nph120/meteo/DroneFlight.pdf . Apologies for this but I talked to my teacher and he told me I don't necessarily need hypotheses, I just need to focus on the drone flight and building.

That looks like a reasonable place to start if you are interested in hovering, quadcopter drones. It might discuss more about the physics of flight than you need. If you are interested in building one, the parts available might direct you toward parts with enough capability. One subject that I do not see in your article is control. That is a large and important subject. You need the program and communication to control the drone.

 

[mxchapz]

OK, so you've changed subjects somewhat. AGAIN, what exactly are you looking for from this site? You keep asking very broad questions which is not helpful. Are you looking to maximize the height of the flight? The stability of the drone? The stability of the camera? Ease of building? Types of material? Longest battery life? What ?

I am trying to focus on primarily simple concepts relating to it. So far from my research I am looking at focusing on three main aspects of the flight 1) Climbing 2)Hovering 3)Forward/General motion (and possibly control of the drone that FactChecker talked about above). This may change as I research more but my broad premise is focusing on how the drone moves, as I said I am knew to this type of physics so apologies if this still isn't specific enough.

 

[phinds]

I am trying to focus on primarily simple concepts relating to it. So far from my research I am looking at focusing on three main aspects of the flight 1) Climbing 2)Hovering 3)Forward/General motion (and possibly control of the drone that FactChecker talked about above). This may change as I research more but my broad premise is focusing on how the drone moves, as I said I am knew to this type of physics so apologies if this still isn't specific enough.

Excellent. This is a good foundation. I think you need to take out the "possibly" in front of "control of the drone"

After all, how do you get forward / General motion without control?

 

[FactChecker]

(and possibly control of the drone that FactChecker talked about above). This may change as I research more but my broad premise is focusing on how the drone moves,

This is a very reasonable approach. In the airplane world, the subject of control is often (usually?) divided into two parts:
1) The control surfaces and mechanics needed to stabilize and control the plane. They must have enough speed and power to handle any flight condition that can be anticipated.
2) The communication and algorithms required to command the control surfaces to achieve the desired stability and maneuvers.
In your example, it is very reasonable for you to concentrate on the first part. The second part may be delt with by other people or by you at a later time. Of course, you may not have control "surfaces", but rather some other mechanism using the propellers and motors.