Newbie...Kits or plans out there?

[gooroo363]

Hey All, I'm a college student looking to build a UAV for a college project / fun. I've been looking around on the net and i cant find anything for kits or plans for UAV's, I love the way the Cypher looks, and I like the UAV posted here

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=435915

I have an idea of what I could do, but I would rather have input from people who have been around this type of work for a while. Thanks all :D :)

[kd7ost]

By definition, we tend to figure it's a UAV if it has some measure of autonomous flight characteristics. This is fairly straight forward to achieve in a stable and conventional airframe. By conventional I mean wings, tail section and the ability to fly with pitch, roll, thrust and yaw. You can also do it with tailess aircraft like flying wings. They can do it without the yaw component but it takes more expensive and elaborate systems to make them autonomous. It is being done to great success though.

Are you a modeler now? Fly what? Fixed or rotor wing? Not many guys are getting rotor wings to fly autonomously. It's a different set of flight dynamics especially in the hover mode. If you're just starting out with this and want to custom design a rotor wing UAV, you picked a very tough and lonely path to follow. One that few if any of us are attempting. It will be much easier and considerably cheaper to get a small electric powered glider flying autonomously. There is a fair amount of support as well as off the shelf components that will help you achieve success with that.

Dan

[gooroo363]

well currently I dont fly anything, but i'm looking for non wing design. I want to end up building a UAV thats computer based. Since it would be wingless its prob going to need a coaxial motor or something of the sort. If you haven't seen the Cypher, type "cypher uav" in google and you can see what it looks like. Kind of like the robot in the Robin William's Flubber movie, but not that cartoonish.

[kd7ost]

I see. A shrouded fan. Sorry I can't help you as I don't mess with that type of platform. Good luck with it.

Dan

[gooroo363]

I was thinking about those ducted fan units too, but i dont know how much thrust i can get out of them

[kd7ost]

Check out what this guys doing. Maybe he would be a better information source for you too.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=446459

Dan

[gooroo363]

thanks dan i'm going to check it out

[gooroo363]

I'm thinking along the lines of this

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=640713

I cant figure out how do they sell hollow shafted motors so you can place one shaft in the other while they counter rotate? :confused:

[kd7ost]

Very cool but in my opinion, just novelties.

In order to overcome gravity that way you need a lot of thrust for weight. Big helicopters lift well because they have really big blades to move pretty huge volumes of air. Little blades turning fast are not as effecient as big blades turning slower. I think you have a pretty big undertaking to make a UAV out of something like you showed there. It needs to be big and light with a very good power to weight ratio. Otherwise you'll still maybe end up with a very cool living room toy.

Dan

[gooroo363]

hahaha yea i think i know how i'm going to do it, a slow moving thing like the guys that you showed me

[HELModels]

I cant figure out how do they sell hollow shafted motors so you can place one shaft in the other while they counter rotate? :confused:

I have a small brushless motor that uses a "hollow" shaft as a motor mount.
The hollow tube attaches to the stator, which remains stationary while the magnet housing spins @ 7000 rpm. Most outrunners by definition run this way and vary by size and type of mount. A carbon tube of the correct I.D. could hold a brushless motor and prop on either end. 2 Brushless speed controllers wired to spin in opposite directions could provide the counterrotation. That is just one very simple type of counterrotator. The simpler the better, unless youre real clever with gearboxes.

The toy vectron uses a simple styrofoam outer prop driven by the thrust provided by the inner prop. The outer prop serves as a shroud/duct and has alot of pitch. Put 2 of those together and you have a hovering ball with counterrotating hemispheres.

Gobrushless.com has several types of motor kits -very easy to build.

[copperclad]

hi
i've been flying models since the 80's and would like to get into UAV's too , but with something new it's a good idea to take small steps , heres a link to a UAV truck that i thought i would try , to get my feet wet , and i thought i would post the link as it might be a good way for you too :) , dana

http://www.stoneflyers.com/gps_guided_truck.htm