Remote Controlled, PC interfaced UAV

Abstract

Since 1940s numerous attempts have been made by companies and individuals in creating a VTOL capable aircraft. Many designs have been put up at the drawing boards but only a handful entered production. An investigation of both manned and unmanned aircrafts as well as amateur built VTOL capable models is performed. With the data collected from these models and employing classic design methods an attempt to select suitable airframe. Several designs were considered during the concept evaluation, with each concept compared with the design requirements. A final concept was selected on the basis of performance and task handling capability and that was Quad-copter. This project consists of constructing a four propeller helicopter, called Quad-copter. The airframe is built out of Aluminum sheet, with lift legs of 3.5 inches ground clearance. The helicopter should in finished state be able to hover on a beforehand chosen altitude and transmit video on the wireless base station. Base Station in our project will be a PC or laptop with video receiving and recording option for record keeping purpose. This project could help in real time video transmission. For the controls of the Quad-copter, we will use joystick controllers to operate all the four motors. As we planned to keep the flying machine light weight, we used dc battery to provide current to the motors, rather than use a fuel engine and compatible wings. The motors used are BLDC Motors; therefore we used Electronic Speed Controllers to convert DC to AC as an input to the motors.