Project Summary
The Quadcopter R&D project consists of two ongoing research efforts centered around autonomous flight and experimental aerial vehicle development. The primary objective is to develop a modular research platform that can be used to teach the fundamentals of quadcopter design, system integration, flight control, and autonomous programming. The first project investigated whether a commercial DJI Inspire airframe could be successfully retrofitted with an open-source ArduPilot flight controller to create a stable autonomous research platform. The second project explores the development of a custom hub-style motor and propeller system designed to evaluate the feasibility, physics, and flight characteristics of an alternative propulsion concept for small unmanned aerial vehicles.
