INTRO
After a few weeks of deliberating, contemplating & rattling they old grey matter I have finally decided on my next project........a Quad-copter! (major influence from the RCGroups forum on the subject here).
The design is obviously a 4 motor/rotor design, and with a sophisticated electronic control board & RC receiver in the centre and an array of sensors including thermal and gyro's used to stabilize the aircraft.
The advantages of the current generation of quad rotor designs, versus comparable scale helicopters, are as follows. First, Quad-copters do not require mechanical linkages to vary rotor angle of attack as they spin. This simplifies the design of the vehicle, and reduces maintenance time and cost. Second, the use of four rotors allows each individual rotor to have a smaller diameter than the equivalent helicopter rotor, for a given aircraft size, allowing them to store less kinetic energy during flight.
With a good & properly setup design they can virtually fly themselves, something I am looking to attain as I want to be able to concentrate on flying FPV, meaning I'll have a video camera attached and wearing video goggles!
Much of the following details & photos I have gleaned from RCGroups, there's is a veritable plethora of information & guys there will to help on your build.
EXAMPLE VIDEOS
