The Phone in the Sky ---- Quad-copter for Aerial Video

With the development of aircraft model technology, quadcopters equipped with cameras are used for aerial video more and more frequently. Cell phones, moreover, allow people to share photos online immediately, so many people prefer to take photos or videos by cell phones instead with expensive cameras. Thus, the purpose of this project is to design and build a light weight quadcopter frame and select the system components that allow the quadcopter to fly smoothly while carrying a cell phone for aerial video. The method for creating the quadcopter is separated into three steps: design, build, and test. The design part includes frame design on the SolidWorks and Thrust/Weight ratio calculation with a safety factor of 1.0 to 1.5. The build consists of a center plate made of carbon fiber plate, and aluminum sheet metal arms are formed into a U-shape and attached to the plate. The drill press, treadle shear, and manual turret punch are used during the building process. The remaining parts, such as cellphone carrier, battery, motors, speed controller, and control board among others were purchased after the analysis. The frame and electric parts were assembled with screws, nuts, and glue. During the testing section, two different propellers are tested to determine which size and type provide maximum thrust with the least battery consumption. Additional testing will evaluate stability of flight and payload capacity.https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/cwu_met/1027/thumbnail.jp