Project
| # | Title | Team Members | TA | Documents | Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Omnidirectional Drone |
Dhruv Satish Ivan Ren Mahir Koseli |
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| # Omnidirectional Drone Request for Approval Team Members - Dhruv Satish (dsatish2) - Ivan Ren (iren2) - Mahir Koseli (mkoseli2) # Problem The issue of aerial maneuvering has become an increasingly important consideration in the new age of drone deliveries, drone imaging, and necessity for automation in the fields of agriculture, construction, surveying, remote monitoring, and more. The current standard of drone technology remains limited to mostly quadcopters, a technology that has matured to enough of a degree to allow for complex directional motion, and extreme speed and stability. However, these vehicles have a notable issue of a lack of movement decoupling, with the translational and rotational motions being tied together. In a lot of speed-focused applications, this issue is trivial as most movement systems can compensate to move in 6DOF space by applying different amounts of power to different motor configurations. But in precision applications or in situations that require a certain orientation to be held, decoupling the rotational and translational degrees of motion allow for the drone to have unprecedented control. Just considering a few simple scenarios, for precise filming, construction, or especially sensitive natural or urban areas, a drone with full control over its movement means the ability to hold an angle for a shot, to apply paints at all angles and move around objects through very tight spaces, or to survey wildlife or urban areas without interfering with the natural environments. In any situation not prioritizing speed or power, an omnicopter would provide significantly improved flexibility and control. # Solution Our solution is inspired by the template of existing omnicopter designs such as the arducopter and ETH Zurich's project, but we plan to design, develop, and test our project completely independently. We will use existing resources to design the frame of the drone as either a 6 or 8 motor design. Aside from the frame, other components we plan to use are our own custom bldc motor controller, a custom flight controller board with telemetry from an IMU, GPS unit, and barometer, and potentially a regenerative breaking system. # Solution Components STM32466ZE (MCU) RP2040 (BLDC Motor Controller MCU) DRV8300 (Gate Driver) Neo M8N (Mosfets) ICM-42670-P (IMU) BMP390 (Barrometer) TLV493D (Gyroscope) Any 2200kV BLDC Motor 4s LiPo (Battery) # Subsystem 1 - BLDC Motor Controller The motor drive system will contain all required electronics to power and control the motors, including the ESCs, motors, current and voltage sensors, battery management system, and a central microcontroller that interfaces with the ESCs and remote controller. The system will be built to be modular, with each ESC and motor addition being its own module and being easily added to the overall electrical schematic to ensure flexibility with motor configuration, depending on power usage during testing. Within the motor drive system, the battery management system and regenerative braking feature will store away extra power produced by the large currents and wattages that spike up from the motor’s inductive nature. # Subsystem 2 - Frame The frame of the omnicopter will take the form of either a 6 or 8 motor configuration depending on power draw, stability, and feasibility testing after the electronics have been developed. The design will place an emphasis on easy fabrication using quick prototyping methods like FDM 3D printers, while also remaining lightweight and structurally sound. The goal here is for the drone to be easily manufacturable by hobbyists who would like a robust omni-directional drone with all required functionality and maximum tinkerability. On this end, we've already found research papers that document optimal motor placements for 6 and 8 motor omnicopter designs as well as the physics for powering these motors in various orientations. Subsystem 3 - Flight Control + Telemetry The controls and communications side will handle reading and writing data from the drone to the remote controller, as well as converting movement signals into different motor power combinations to enable separate translational and rotational movement. To do this conversion, we will write our own custom firmware that reads data from the gyroscope, IMU, barometer, and motor feedback to dictate the PWMs and direction for each individual motor. The remote controller will be a simple dual-joystick system with each joystick handling either rotational and translational motion. Depending on time constraints, trajectory planning and more can also be explored with this side of the project by using the drone’s initial position, motor velocities, and orientation. # Criterion for Success The final solution will consist of a multi-rotor drone capable of separate rotational and translational flight powered through onboard battery packs, responding to inputs from a remote controller through 2 joysticks controlling rotation and translation independently. |
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