Hi - we’re developing a single impeller drone platform and need some flight controllers to test out. The architecture of the frame is a single impeller motor for vertical thrust. This is similar to a helicopter but the impeller will not have individual blades that change their pitch every cycle (swash plate). It will have fixed vanes, similar to a turbine engine , directed straight down. This propulsion motor will vary speed to affect lift thrust. Directional control will be achieved via valves/shutters porting some of this thrust in various directions. However, we have a second motor with a mass attached to it (we’ll call it a disc) that will be used to counteract the rotational inertia of the spinning impeller. The disc drive motor will be oriented concentrically to the lift motor and will counter rotate. The flight controller’s job would be to fix the lift thrust at a given RPM on the impeller (via an ESC), and then using accelerometers or gyros or a combination, it needs to vary the disc drive motor to achieve non rotation of the entire flight frame or alternatively pointing control to achieve a controlled rotation to re-direct the air frame. Attached is a simple free-body type of diagram illustrating the principle.
So my question is: can you recommend the type of controller (or more than 1 for testing) that we would need to address these two motors to achieve the flight characteristics we’re looking for.
I appreciate any support you can give, including product recommendations.
With thanks,
Scott Carter
p.s. Is it possible to download 3D models of your motors and control boards, etc. Planning/designing the airframe would be a bit easier with models
Hi Scott,
This is a highly custom system, it might require you to build your own flight controller. (code)
A good start would be to look at the PixHawk and supported boards:
CubePilot on RobotShop
https://www.robotshop.com/en/cubepilot.html
PixHawk by RadioLink on RobotShop
https://www.robotshop.com/en/catalogsearch/result/?q=pixhawk&order=relevance&dir=desc&general_brand[]=Radiolink%20electronic
All the best…!!
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