A critical analysis of small but heavy-lift multirotor and their flight controllers

Abstract

Multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gone from a single rotor to multiple rotors. Multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are now used for surveillance and rescue operations. These are used for surveillance over disastrous areas and to perform necessary rescue action. The capacity of multirotor UAVs to carry heavy payload is less with small and limited propellers. Therefore, the number of propellers have been increased, and ultimately the size of multirotor UAV has also been increased. The rotor arrangement is fundamental in the thrust of multirotor UAVs. The opensource software has been developed to integrate with the flight controller hardware. The current focus of research is to reduce the size of multirotor UAVs and increase the payload capacity of multirotor UAVs. The thrust has been reduced in case of overlapping rotor configuration, such as in coaxial and half propeller overlap configuration. These configurations are adopted to reduce the size of multirotor UAV. In this study, different multirotor UAV configurations have been studied for selection of best configuration for small but heavy-lift multirotor. The overlapping configurations have been found to increase the payload and reduce the size of the multirotor. The thrust has been increased to about 90% in the case of some propeller overlap configuration with a rotor plane angle. For coaxial configuration, the rotor thrust was about 76% of the thrust of the independent rotor. The thrust generated by the flat configuration is more than the coaxial and less propeller overlap configuration. The flight controllers are responsible for the stability and control of UAVs. Many flight controllers are working on the latest technology and can be programmed for various features. The flight controllers also contribute to increasing stability. Mostly open-source software is available to integrate with the flight controller hardware. The ARM-based flight controllers like Pixhawk flight controllers are the best to control the multirotor. These flight controllers can be programmed quickly and can be installed on the multirotor.