M N Faruqui Innovations Centre

Abstract : 1. Introduction: A quadcopter or quadrotor is a multirotor helicopter that is lifted and propelled by four rotors. It is classified as rotorcraft, as opposed to fixed-wing aircraft, because its lift is generated by a set of rotors. It is cheaper and more durable than conventional helicopters due to their mechanical simplicity. Quadcopters and other multicopters often can fly autonomously. Many modern flight controllers use software that allows the user to mark "way-points" on a map, to which the quadcopter will fly and perform tasks, such as landing or gaining altitude. The modular drone represents a great addition both for hobbyists, professionals and researchers due to the great potential it possesses. Equipped with modern and electronic devices such as GPS, IMU, SONAR, Pressure Sensor, Camera, Video transmission Unit, Compass, Wifi, Bluetooth and other IoT sensors and with advanced algorithms and techniques such as Image Processing, Digital Signal Processing and Filtering, Localization, SLAM etc. quadcopters encapsulate the capabilities which can serve in a multitude of applications. Major applications include: 1. Military applications 2. Early Warning Systems – Warning about Natural Disasters and Calamities 3. News Reporting 4. Rescue Operation and Surveillance during Disasters 5. Security systems and Spying applications 6. Farming and Agriculture 7. Sporting and gaming etc. 2. Motivation: All the above and many other applications of drone present some general requirements and expectations to be fulfilled in order to produce valuable outputs. They require the drone to be robust, agile, easily maneuverable, possess good processing power, be compatible with many sensors etc. There has been a lot of research on these and currently there exist many multirotor platforms delivering the best out of them. Still, because the multirotors involve the usage of motors running at high speeds, their power consumption is quite high. They have low flight time of the order of a few minutes and require frequent recharge. Each motor can draw a huge amount of current depending on the size of the multirotor in the range of several tens of amperes. Thus, the issue of low battery life and small flight time remains unsolved for multirotors. For applications such as continuous wide area monitoring like farms, transport of goods and deliverables over long distances etc. the multirotor platforms are not currently suitable.

Closing Date : 31-08-2016