No discussion of flying machines is complete without considering the most recent advances in quadcopters and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). While most of our course is about fixed-wing aircraft, we’ll take this unit to look at quadcopter design and flying. Over the course of the unit, you’re expected to learn the following
- How UAVs and quadcopters are used in the world today
- What key components go into quadcopter design to make a functioning quadcopter
- How quadcopters can be modified and adapted to increase functionality or stability
While many of the planes and gliders we’ve studied so far have required pilots on-board, UAVs and quadcopters are flown by remote control. As you investigate flight navigation, you’ll go through three major steps:
- STEP 1: Investigate the types of UAVs that are being used today
- STEP 2: Build a quadcopter and learn to fly it
- STEP 3: Design and build your own quadcopter from scratch
When you’re all done, you will have learned how quadcopters and other UAVs are used by professionals. You also will have built two quadcopters and practiced flying them.
To get started with our unit on quadcopters and UAVs, we first need to understand how they work and how they’re being used. You’ll start with the basics of how quadcopters fly and what forces keep them in the air. Once we’ve covered the basic vocabulary, the conversation will turn to how quadcopters have been used in research and other applications in recent years. Before we move on to building our first quadcopter, we’ll also take a little time to fly a professionally-built quadcopter just to get used to the controls and the idea of flying around our classroom!
GRADING & PROCESS
Take 1 full page of detailed notes on how Quadcopters and other multicopters work
Take 1 full page of detailed notes on UAVs and Quadcopters and how they’re used today
Have Mr. Benshoof confirm your notes on UAVs and Quadcopters
Quadcopter Forces
Quadcopter Research
Cool Quadcopter Applications
Now that we’ve seen different applications of quadcopters, it’s now time to design our own. Taking the concepts that make quadcopters fly and applying them in our own way will be a big challenge. Completing this challenge will require some careful planning, hard work, and persistent trial-and-error.
For this final part of the unit, your job will be to take the raw components for a small quadcopter, and use them to design and build your own quadcopter. The model you design and build will need to be able to carry things eventually – so make sure it’s trimmed and balanced.
GRADING & PROCESS
Identify components and plan your quadcopter design & construction
Make a detailed diagram in your engineering notebook of the quadcopter you want to build
Build and test your quadcopter
Complete the Quadcopter Design Challenge
Complete construction reflection
Have Mr. Benshoof confirm your build & reflection