William, Great work here! The most stable Y-copter I have seen. Thanks for posting at http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13217558#post13217558 Cheers, Jim
Very nice job ! As I do own already 2 mikrokopters (1 for fun flight with no option and an other for aerial photo/video and FPV), I am ery interrested to your tricopter.
Summary: FPV racing multirotors with side force generators (SFGs), will drift less during turns, making them potentially faster on race tracks (watch the video comparison here). But the SFGs need the be carefully placed and dimensioned, so that aerodynamic centre and centre of mass are at the same position. Otherwise it will not work.
Introduction
Recently, I was thinking about how to improve the handling of racing copters. I noticed since quite a long time, that different copters behave quite differently in fast turns: Some drift quite a lot (especially when they carry a larger battery or an action cam), others drift less. I was always preferring copters that drift as little as possible. That is also why I am trying to reduce the weight of my copters as much as feasible.
The amount of drift depends on the weight of the copter and the lift and drag of the fuselage for sideways air streams (side-slip). The larger the lift and drag, the more side force the fuselage produces at a given…
Idea
Ever wondered what propeller or what motor performs best for your needs? Here is a simple way to determine the performance of different propellers (or motors) directly in flight, using your multirotor, the blackbox and some math. In the past, a lot of static thrust tests have been done to determine the current, thrust and efficiency of multirotor propulsion systems. However, they don't tell you anything about the propeller or motor performance in fast forward flight. Aerodynamics in forward flight and with a non-uniform inflow of the air are very different from static measurements.
My questions were: What propeller has the better acceleration?(acceleration performance of propellers is theoretically closely linked to the 'grip' during turns. Because turning is also just an acceleration, see this post)What propeller will reach the higher top speed? And which one decelerates better when throttle is cut?
Method
My idea was to mount one kind of propellers on the left side…
About a month ago, I was presenting an idea to make drones faster on race tracks: The so called ‘side force generators’ (SFGs) enable racing drones to drift less during turns, making them potentially faster. The placement of the ‘wings’ is very critical and mentioned in more detail in my earlier post on SFGs. Some people tested the SFGs and confirmed the enhanced flight characteristics. Other people didn’t try and didn’t believe that SFGs could help. I must agree that the concept of the SFGs is not so easy to understand. That is why I will explain it in more detail here.
Let’s start with something that everyone knows (figure 1). When you are going through a fast turn with your car, then your car needs to provide two forces to stay on the track (grey line): The ‘thrust’ (green) of your car needs to equal its aerodynamic and friction drag (yellow). When the car turns, then there needs to be a constant force towards the centre of the turn, called ‘centripetal force’ (red). This force is …
Why future racing copters really should look different.
by Dr. William Thielicke aka Willa aka Shrediquette
ABSTRACT
In this article I try to demonstrate why FPV racing multirotors need to look different. Some small modifications to the frame would (in theory…!) result in 70 % higher top speed! All that needs to be done is to align the arms parallel to the propeller flow, and to tilt the main body of the copter by about 40 degrees. I am presenting a very simple and robust racing copter design that incorporates these ideas. Furthermore, I am calculating the aerodynamic drag of different copter concepts using basic equations. The aim of this article is to make you realize the importance of aerodynamics and to stimulate people to design more innovative racing frames.
INTRODUCTION
Until recently, multirotors were mainly used as a “hovering device” and the top speed of these copters did hardly matter. Now, multirotor racing has become popular and all competitors are seeking for very fast…
Introduction
In part 1 of this article on multirotor aerodynamics, some ideas on how to reduce the aerodynamic drag of racing multirotors was presented. I was also designing a tilted-body racing quadrotor called "Shrediquette DERBE". There were not yet any flow measurements of multirotors flying at high speeds. Therefore, I had to make quite a number of assumptions on the aerodynamics of a racing copter. This time, I am presenting some flow measurements, along with some potential optimizations for the next version of the "Shrediquette DERBE"
Methods
Recently, I had the opportunity to do some flow visualizations in a large wind tunnel at the Bremen university of Applied Sciences / Dept. of biomimetics (which is the place where I worked one year ago). I brought the Shrediquette DERBE and mounted it inside the wind tunnel. Prior to the measurements, I did some tests to determine a realistic flight speed and the appropriate pitch angle.
The measurements were performed…
William,
ReplyDeleteGreat work here! The most stable Y-copter I have seen. Thanks for posting at http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13217558#post13217558
Cheers,
Jim
Very nice job ! As I do own already 2 mikrokopters (1 for fun flight with no option and an other for aerial photo/video and FPV), I am ery interrested to your tricopter.
ReplyDeleteResults are quite nice !