Robotic quadcopter design help

Help & Support Robots & Kits
1

Hello all,

I’m new to this forum and to robotics in general. My name is Silas and I am currently studying Computer Engineering at Oklahoma Christian University. Recently, I have joined a robotics team at my school and we have been throwing around ideas on the easiest and most efficient way to complete a set of challenges with a robot.

I came up with the idea of using a quadcopter, and I’m starting to realize how little I know about them. There’s too many kits and designs out there, I’m worried I’d pick the wrong thing. I’ve done some googling and have found lots of kits and designs, but they’re either very expensive or don’t fit the qualifications :frowning:

The rules state that the robot has to fit within a 1 foot cube at the start of the challenge, must be capable of lifting 200 grams of payload at a time, and must be completely autonomous either with dead-reckoning (preprogrammed flight path) or with sensors. Either way doesn’t matter, and I don’t have a preference.

My team has some background with Arduinos, Vex, and many programming languages, so the programming shouldn’t be a problem, I’m just unsure of which kit I should be looking at.

Any suggestions you could offer would be awesome. I’m up for any ideas and will be happy to answer any questions. Cost is a factor though, so if the suggestions seem a bit pricey we may go with a different idea. This might even be a bad idea in general but I would very much like to try.

Thanks,

Silas

2

Haha, Aight. -_- well thanks a lot. We’ll probably go with a rover+crane design then.

3

Hello Sila,

If you build a quadcopter that fits within a foot cube and can lift 200g, then you would probably have built the state of the art in flying robots, We know of no robot capable of such a feat while being so small and carrying enough sensors and power to do any meaningful navigation. For a school project, this seems a bit over the top.

By no means be discouraged tough, it is good to be realistic about your expectations. We recommend browsing the Internet in order to learn about what is being done in the world of robotics before committing to a platform choice.

It your case, it seems that a small rover would be the most appropriate for your needs.