Drone Mechanical System

Drone Mechanical System

Mechanical

Parts of a Drone System


Figure 1-6. Mechanical parts of a drone

The  system is basically the enclosures, form factor, or simple ID (industrial design) of the drone. The ID determines the exterior and appearance of the drone. The ID of the drone will usually have numerous mechanical parts in a complicated assembly with electrical parts interconnected through mechanical or thermal interconnects.

The most popular drone, seen in Figure 1-1, has a quadcopter built from an X-frame or H-frame with four servo motor/propeller units on each end with numerous other mechanical parts along with the PCBA enclosed in plastic.

A drone with frame as a base includes propellers, motors, landing gear, body (usually PCBA, flight controllers, and motor drivers), and a battery.

Note :

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Heavier drones are powered using alternate fuels other than batteries, such as solar power or gasoline. Drones operating with these fuels are not only heavy but they use different technology and are designed for different purposes.

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The PCBA is usually considered a single mechanical part of a system. The PCBA is the energy consuming part of the system and dissipates heat while doing the operation, so it needs a cooling system.

A typical electronics hardware setup will have a heatsink to spread the heat generated by the integrated circuits, which is often accompanied by a fan on the head to blow out the excess heat. The fan needs separate, additional power on top of the system power and this kind of cooling is termed as “active cooling,” whereas heatsink-based cooling without a fan is called as “passive cooling.” Passive cooling doesn’t need any extra power.

For a very low-power system, the ground layers of the PCBA spread the heat and become self-sustaining without any extra cooling system/mechanism. Figure 1-6 shows the discrete mechanical parts of an ID excluding enclosures. Most mechanical parts are customized for the design, which can be designed in-house or can be created using third-party mechanical expertise designers. Some mechanical parts like motors, screws, and cables will be available off the shelf and can be purchased directly from third-party vendors.

Ground-Based Controllers and Accessories

Ground-based controllers and accessories are essential items required for a drone to operate, just like any other electronic gadget available on the market.


Figure 1-7. 

Typical accessories for a drone

The most important accessory is the RF-based remote controller for the drone, which helps to control the UAV from a remote  location.  Alternatively, the drones can also be controlled through a smartphone, thanks to the latest advancement in the technologies, but only if the drones are capable of connecting to the 3G/LTE mobile network.

Other functions like video streaming and capture can be done through a smartphone application or GUI (graphics user interface) from a host controller.

The majority of the drones today are battery operated; a charger/ power  adapter is the other most important accessory of the system.

Other optional accessories are the USB data cable and docking station. 

Figure 1-7 shows the typical accessories of the commercial drone, if the system design supports them.

Summary

The intent of the book is to cover the basics of system design with the primary focus on the electrical hardware system design. A drone system will be used as an example to drive the concepts.

A drone is a complex electromechanical system with multiple discrete components connected directly or indirectly. Critical subsystems of a drone are presented as a starting point. Further details of many subsystem designs will be covered in the following chapters.




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