Multirotors

WHAT IS A MULTIROTOR/MULTICOPTER?

An aircraft with more than two rotors, typically designed for unmanned flight. The advantage of a multirotor is the simpler rotor mechanics for flight. Unlike conventional single or double rotored helicopters, a multirotor does not use a complex variable pitch rotor design, instead it uses a simple fixed pitch blade. It is able to control its motion by varying the speed of the propellers and hence the thrust produced by each propeller.

WHAT ARE ITS USES?

Multirotors are conventionally used in radio controlled aircraft and UAV projects. Recently their popularity has been witnessed by the film industry and a lot of renowned companies such as Xaomi, GoPro and DJI are focusing their effort to produce aerial photography/videography drones capable of autonomous flight. The governments of a lot of countries have also employed UAV’s of the multirotor kind for reconnaissance and surveillance. Sahevaan Taneja, our mentor on this project,  has developed autonomous drones which are currently being used by the DRDO and Forestry Departments.  Multirotors are also being used to educate students on a collegiate level about the dynamics of its flight.

Our project can be considered to be one of the first of its kind in India, given the fact that attempting to have a manned pilot on a drone, which is typically considered to be a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), is an idea that has not yet been explored to the extent that we wish to take it with this octacopter.