Modeling and Design of Tether Powered Multicopter

Seiga Kiribayashi1 , Jun Ashizawa1 , and Keiji Nagatani2

Abstract— Recently, micro unmanned aerial vehicles

(MUAVs), particularly multicopters, are expected to be used
for rescue missions and investigations all over the world.
However, their operating time for conducting actual missions
is currently quite short, typically 20 minutes or less. To extend
the flight time, and to prevent the multicopter from leaving
the flight area caused by incorrect operations, it is proposed to
use an electrical cable as a tether to supply electric power for
to the multicopter. To realize such a system, the cable selection
is critical. Therefore, in this research, we model the electrical
devices (motors and ESCs) on the multicopter, and discuss the
optimal cable selection. In this paper, we propose our cable
selection method, and introduce our power-feeding tether
system that can be carried by unmanned ground vehicles.

I. I NTRODUCTION Fig. 1. Tether winding system for multicopter that is mounted on UGV

A micro unmanned aerial vehicle (MUAV), typically a battery recharging system on our UGV, we did not use it. Ad-
multicopter, is very small, easy to control, and has a great dressing the latter problem, Prof. Kumar ʟs group succeeded
deal of flexibility for mounting sensing devices. Therefore, in developing a robust landing system for multicopters on
multicopters have recently been used for search-and-rescue the helipad of the UGV. However, it is difficult to guarantee
missions[1][2] and investigations of infrastructures[3] such success. We believe that a more reliable landing system is
as bridges[4]. However, due to its small propeller size, small required for practical use.
conventional rotary wing aircraft has disadvantages of low
To handle the above two problems, our research group
payload and short flight time (typically 20 minutes or less),
recently proposed a Multicopter-UGV cooperative system
generally caused by a decrease in efficiency.
with a t“ether”. The UGV provides a special helipad for
To solve this problem, we propose to use an unmanned
the multicopter that is equipped with a take-up power-
ground vehicle (UGV) as a carrier of the multicopter to
feeding tether. Fig.1 shows a concept of the idea. Once
save the multicopter ʟs battery. In 2011, we developed a
the multicopter does not need to carry its own batteries, its
UGV-Multicopter cooperation system with Prof. Kumar ʟs
operation time is limited instead by heavier batteries or a
group, and conducted a mapping experiment in a disaster
generator on the UGV. In addition, the multicopter can easily
environment[5]. In the experiment, the UGV traversed the
land on the UGV ʟ s helipad by forcibly winding up the tether.
target environment while carrying the multicopter. When the
Furthermore, the tether serves as a physical constraint on the
UGV could not enter an area, the multicopter took off from
range of flight of the multicopter, so it guarantees its safety.
the UGV ʟs helipad, explored the area, and returned to the
Because of these reasons, we have started development of a
UGV ʟs helipad. We confirmed that the proposed system
tethered multicopter system that can be carried by a UGV.
could map a large disaster area.
The choice of electric cable is crucial to the design of such
During the above system integration, we found two prob-
a power-feeding tether, because it has a decisive impact on
lems: short flight time and landing difficulty of the multi-
the flight capability of the multicopter. A typical multicopter
copters. To address the former problem, we explained that the
requires several hundred watts, and the voltage drop is not
multicopter could be recharged when the multicopter came
negligible in the power-feeding tether when the tether length
back to the helipad on the UGV. Theoretically, it is possible
is over 10 m. On the other hand, electrical cable is heavy, so
for the multicopter to conduct multiple flights with such
it is necessary to consider the weight of the cable. However,
a recharging system. However, practically, the recharging
thin and light cable typically has a large electrical resistance,
operation takes time, which extends the duration of the
and generates large voltage drop. Therefore, to ensure a
mission. Therefore, in our system, although we installed a
maximum flight height for a tether-powered multicopter, it
1 Seiga Kiribayashi and Jun Ashizawa are with the graduate school of is required to carefully consider the choice of cable.
Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-01, Aramaki-Aoba, Aoba-ku, Sendai, In this paper, we discuss a relationship between the electric
Japan seiga@frl.mech.tohoku.ac.jp cable and the flight height, in other words, the power loss in
2 Keiji Nagatani is with the New Industry Creation Hatchery Cen-
ter, Tohoku University,6-6-10, Aramaki-Aoba, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Japan the cable and the payload. Then, we propose a design method
keiji@niche.tohoku.ac.jp for the tether-powered multicopter, particularly for the tether
 Fig. 2. Appearance of Multicopter
selection, and evaluate the method with practical examples.
Finally, we show the current status of our development of a
tethered multicopter system that can be carried by UGV.
II. TETHER-POWERED MULTICOPTER
A. Proposal of tether-powered multicopter system
Typically, multicopters (multi-rotary-wing aircraft) require
high electric power to enable hovering. To obtain effective
flight performance, the diameter of the propeller is ideally as
large as possible. However, for use in indoor environments,
the size of the multicopter body is limited. One effective
way to extend flight time is to increase its battery capacity.
However, there is a limitation on the size and weight of the
battery for small multicopters.
To solve this problem, our approach is to use a multi-
copter with a power-feeding tether. To locate the battery on
the ground, we can use large-sized batteries and/or electric
power generators as the multicopter ʟs power source.
For a multicopter with power-feeding tether, the maximum
altitude is the same as the length of the tether. In case of
indoor environments, such as oil plants or disaster buildings,
the length of the tether should be more than 10 m. In such
cases, to attain the desired altitude, the issue of voltage
drop due to the electrical resistance of the tether cannot be
neglected. The power-feeding and flight performance largely
depend on the properties of power-feeding tether. Therefore,
the choice of tether is crucial for the development of a
multicopter system with a power-feeding tether.
In the following subsections, we model the electrical
properties of multicopters, estimate the current through the
power-feeding tether, and identify a cable selection method
to enable a desired flight altitude of the multicopter.
B. Small multicopter
To enable safe indoor flight, we chose a quad rotor
multicopter with 8 inch propellers for the discussion in this
paper. Its outer dimension is 470 mm on each side, shown
in Fig. 2. The weight of the airframe is 1,140 g (without
battery), and power for hovering is around 300 W. Usually,
this multicopter is flown using a battery with a voltage
Fig. 3. Appearance of Thrust Test Bench
around 12 V. In this case, the current for hovering requires
about 25 A from the mounted battery. Even if the target
multicopter is small, the current is quite large, and so we
should consider the electrical cable resistance for this case.
Typically, the electrical cable resistance increases in pro-
portion to the length of the power-feeding cable. According
to Ohm ʟs law, the voltage drop decreases with reducing
current in case of constant resistance. Therefore, to achieve
the same electrical power, the supply voltage should be large.
In fact,ʠ up-convert voltage on the power line ʡandʠ down-
convert at the destination ʡare used for commercial power-
feeding systems. It is possible to use such step-up/step-down
voltage devices for power-feeding tethers, and some research
institutes have recently used such systems. However, the
step-down voltage device is typically too heavy to use for
a small multicopter. Therefore, we decided to use a high
voltage (up to 32 V) motor driver, called ESC (electrical
speed controller), instead of mounting a voltage converter
on the multicopter side.
C. Performance measurement of standard motor and ESC
In order to choose an electric cable for the power-feeding
tether, it is important to understand the electric performance
of the motors and ESCs. Thus, at the beginning of this
research, we measured the performances of the motor and
ESC that were used in our target multicopter.
The motor used in our multicopter is categorized as a
brushless DC motor (BLDC). This type of motor rotates by
controlling a three-phase coil current from a motor driver.
In terms of controlling the coil current, the vector control
method is wellknown for its effective drive [6]. However,
this method requires higher calculating cost and uses for the
larger electrical circuit. Therefore, typical multicopters do
not use the vector control method. Instead, a square-wave-
drive method is used for ESC controllers mounted on hobby
use multicopters. This is a very simple method, so it is easily
implemented on small multicopters with inexpensive devices.
Generally, when a square-wave-drive method is used, the
properties of the BLDC are the same as those of a typical
(brushed) DC motor.
 ϭϰ Ϭ͘ϭϰ ϭ
ϭϮ΀s΁ Ŭƚϭ Ϭ͘ϵ
ϭϮ Ϭ͘ϭϮ
ϭϲ΀s΁ ŬƚϮ Ϭ͘ϴ
ϭϬ ϮϬ΀s΁ Ϭ͘ϭ Ϭ͘ϳ
Ϯϰ΀s΁ ΁
΁ Ϭ͘ϲ ΁
΀
Ϯ

ƚ ϴ Ϯϴ΀s΁ E
ͬ Ϭ͘Ϭϴ ͬE
Ŷ 
ƌĞƌ ϯϮ΀s΁ ͬ Ϭ͘ϱ ͬ
E E
΀Ϯ
Ƶ ϲ ΀ϭϬ͘Ϭϲ
 Ŭƚ Ϭ͘ϰ Ŭƚ

ϰ Ϭ͘Ϭϰ Ϭ͘ϯ
Ϭ͘Ϯ
Ϯ Ϭ͘ϬϮ
Ϭ͘ϭ

Ϭ
Ϭ Ϭ
Ϭ ϱ ϭϬ ϭϱ ϮϬ Ϯϱ ϯϬ ϯϱ
Ϭ Ϯ ϰ ϲ ϴ ϭϬ
ŵ΀s΁
dŚƌƵƐƚ΀E΁

Fig. 4. Measured Thrust v.s. Measured Current Fig. 6. Motor Voltage v.s. kt value

ϭϬ
Ϯ͘ϱ
ϵ ϭϲ΀s΁
ϭϮ΀s΁ ϭϲ΀s΁
ϮϬ΀s΁ Ϯϰ΀s΁ ϴ Ϯϰ΀s΁
Ϯ
Ϯϴ΀s΁ ϯϮ΀s΁ ϳ ϯϮ΀s΁
΁ ΁ ϲ

ͬ ϭ͘ϱ ΀ ϭϲ΀s΁Ɛƚ͘
E ƚ
΀ƚ Ŷ
Ğƌ ϱ Ϯϰ΀s΁Ɛƚ͘
Ŷ
Ğŝ ƌ
Ƶ
ŝĐĨ  ϰ ϯϮ΀s΁Ɛƚ͘
ĨĞ ϭ
Ž ϯ

Ϯ
Ϭ͘ϱ
ϭ
Ϭ
Ϭ Ϭ Ϯ ϰ ϲ ϴ ϭϬ
Ϭ Ϯ ϰ ϲ ϴ ϭϬ dŚƌƵƐƚ΀E΁
dŚƌƵƐƚ΀E΁

Fig. 7. Thrust v.s. Estimeted Current

Fig. 5. Measured Thrust v.s. Thrust coefficient

D. Proposal of ESC and motor model

To confirm the performance of a set of motor, propeller
and ESC, we measured the relationship between the current
and the thrust with various supply voltages and various PWM
signals. Our thrust measurement bench, shown in Fig.3, was
used for the experiment. It was equipped with a force-torque
sensor to measure the thrust force and the moment force.
Fig.4 shows the measured relationship between the out-
put thrust and the input current. According to the results,
surprisingly, the characteristics of the combination of the
BLDC motor and the ESC for the multicopter were quite
different from typical DC motors even when a square-wave-
drive ESC was used. To clarify this, we created a graph of
the relationship between the thrust per current and the thrust,
as shown in Fig. 5. Theoretically, in typical DC motors,
and typical BLDC with a square-wave-drive method, the
torque increases in proportion to the current, and the thrust
in turn increases in proportion to the torque [7]. Then, the
thrust should increase in proportion to the current, and the
thrust coefficient should have been constant. However, as
shown in the Fig.5, the thrust coefficient was not constant,
in our experiment. The trend was that when the PWM ratio
was increased, the thrust coefficient decreased. Because of
space limitation, we omit the results of combinations of other
devices (motors and ESCs), but all devices showed the same
trend.
According to the discussion in the previous sub-section,
a set of BLDC motor and ESC for typical multicopter does
not follow the model of a conventional DC motor. Thus,
it is important to model the properties of the BLDC motor
and the ESC to estimate the maximum flight height of the
multicopter. The relationship between the thrust and the
current shown in Fig. 4 can be expressed as a quadratic
approximation:
2
Im = kt1 Fm + kt2 Fm (1)
where Im is the motor current, Fm is the thrust, kt1 and kt2
are the members of the thrust coefficients.
Fig. 6 shows the relationship between the motor voltage
Em and the thrust coefficients kt1 and kt2 . The relationships
can be approximated by hyperbolic curves, as shown in (2)
and (3):
1
kt1 = (2)
kt11 Em + kt12
1
kt2 = , (3)
kt21 Em + kt22
where kt11 , kt12 , kt21 , and kt22 are constant values.
Fig. 7 shows a plot of the measured values and estimated
curves calculated by Eqs. 1-3. It indicates that our approxi-
 ϭϲ
ϭϰ
ϭϮ
ϭϬ
΁
s
΀ ϴ
ŵ

ϲ
ϰ It = nIm .
Ϯ In case of the quad-copter, n is equal to 4. Practically, during
Ϭ the attitude control of the multicopter, the current values for
Ϭ ϱ ϭϬ
/ŵ΀΁
Fig. 8. Measured Current v.s. Measured Voltage
mation is suitable for obtaining a relationship between thrust
force and current.
In addition, we propose a model of the relationship
between the voltage and current of the target motor based
on the measured results, shown in figure 8), for the case
where the PWM duty is 100 %. According to the results, we
assume that the motor voltage is proportional to the motor
current. Therefore, the relationships can be approximated by
the following equation (4):
Em = Im ki1 + ki2
where the ki1 and ki2 are obtained from the measured values.
E. Consideration of maximum flight altitude
We have now obtained a model of the ESC and BLDC
motor for our multicopters. The next step is an estimation of
the maximum flight altitude of the multicopter based on elec-
trical and physical constraints. At the following conditions
flight of the tether-powered multicopter is impossible:
1) The required thrust exceeds the maximum thrust.
Here, the required thrust is determined by the frame
weight and tether weight in the air. The maximum
thrust means the total maximum thrust generated by
all propellers. Of course, the multicopter cannot fly
when the maximum thrust is lower than the required
thrust.
2) The supplied motor voltage is lower than the required
motor voltage for flight.
When the multicopter is hovering at fixed altitude, the
required thrust is constant, and the required motor volt-
age can be calculated by the thrust. When the supplied
motor voltage becomes lower than the required motor
voltage for hovering becaused of the voltage drop in
the cable, the multicopter cannot keep flying.
3) The supplied motor voltage is lower than the minimum
rated voltage of the ESC.
Even if the supplied motor voltage is higher than
the required motor voltage for flight, it is impossible
for the multicopter to keep flying when the supplied
voltage is outside of ESC’s operating voltage range.
To judge whether the multicopter can fly, we obtain
parameters for the above conditions, as follows.
[Supplied motor voltage]
The total current of the motors on airframe It is obtained
by the number of motor n :
(5)
ϭϱ each motor are not the same. However, here we assume that
the values are the same for simplification.
The resistance of the electrical cable Rc is derived from
a resistivity ρr Ω/m and the cable length l m. The cable
includes positive and negative lines. Therefore, the total
length of the cable is assumed to be doubled, as follows:
Rc = 2ρr l. (6)
The supplied motor voltage Em can then be derived as
follows:
Em = Ev − Rc It , (7)
where Ev is the power supply voltage at the ground station.
[Required thrust]
(4) The required thrust is obtained from the flight weight. The
flight weight Wf is the sum of the airframe weight Wb and
the cable weight in the air Wc , as follows:
Wf = Wb + W c
= Wb + ρc h, (8)
where the ρc is the line density of the cable, and h is the
flight height, keeping in mind that h is not the same as the
total cable length l.
Therefore, the required total thrust Ftreq to keep flying is
expressed by:
Ftreq = gWf + T (9)
where g is the acceleration of gravity, and T is the cable
tension from the ground station in case that it exerts pulling
force for taking up slack in the cable (see section III). Then,
the required thrust for each motor Fmreq is obtained by the
following:
Fmreq = Ftreq /n
1
Fmreq = (g(Wb + ρc h) + T ) . (10)
n
[Maximum thrust]
Thrust Fm can be expressed by motor model and motor
voltage. Concretely speaking, we can obtain Fm by using
the inverse function of (1) and (11), as shown in equation
(11).
Equation (11) increasese monotonically when electrical re-
sistance of the cable is equal to zero. Practically, it becomes a
function that has a maximum value caused by the resistance.
The maximum value is the maximum thrust of the motors.
    2
kt11 (Ev − 2nρr lIm ) + kt12 kt11 (Ev − 2nρr lIm ) + kt12 Im
Fm = − + + (11)
2(kt21 (Ev − 2nρr lIm ) + kt22 ) 2(kt21 (Ev − 2nρr lIm ) + kt22 ) kt11 (Ev − 2nρr lIm ) + kt12

ϯϬ
ϭϰ
Ϯϱ ϭϮ

ϮϬ ϭϬ
㻭㼇
΁ ϬKŚŵ
㼇㻭㼠
΁
㼠㼚 ϴ
ϬKŚŵ

㼚㼑 ϭϱ 㼑㼞 ĂďůĞϭ
㼞㼞 ĂďůĞϭ
㼞㼡
㼡㻯 ĂďůĞϮ 㻯ϲ ĂďůĞϮ

ϭϬ
ĂďůĞϯ ϰ ĂďůĞϯ

ĂďůĞϰ
ϱ ĂďůĞϰ Ϯ

Ϭ
Ϭ Ϭ Ϯ ϰ ϲ ϴ ϭϬ ϭϮ
Ϭ ϰ ϴ ϭϮ ϭϲ ϮϬ Ϯϰ
㼀㼔㼞㼡㼟㼠㼇㻺΁
㼀㼔㼞㼡㼟㼠㼇㻺΁

Fig. 10. Thrust v.s. Current at 16V

Fig. 9. Thrust v.s. Current at 32V

of the substitution for the case in which the power supply

[Required voltage to obtain a certain thrust]
Finally, the required voltage for each motor Emreq to
obtain a certain thrust is calculated by (4) and the required
current Imreq . The Imreq can be obtained by (11) and the
required thrust Fmreq .
According to the above, we can obtain all parameters
needed to judge whether the tethered multicopter can fly.
F. Cable selection for the tether-powered multicopter
In this section, we discuss the tether selection for the
actual tether-powered multicopter system based on the ap-
proximated equations, shown in the previous section. Table
I shows the specifications of electrical cable candidates in
our laboratory. Cables 1 and 2 have a round cross-section,
the surface of which is covered by rubber. These cables are
suitable for the winding mechanism because of their round
profile. Cables 1 and 2 differ only in their diameter. Cable 3
is a twisted-pair cable. It is simply two single cables twisted
together. Therefore, it is very light. Cable 4 is a double
version of cable 3. It is twisted with four single cables.
Therefore, the cross-sectional shape is close to round, and
the resistance is decreased in comparison with that of cable
3.
For the evaluation of each cable, we simply substituted
the cable characteristics into Eq. 11, and observed the
relationship between Fm and Im . Fig. 9 shows the result
TABLE I
C ABLE S PECIFICATION
Item Resistivity Line density
[Ω/m] [g/m]
Cable 1 0.0255 96
Cable 2 0.015 119
Cable 3 0.03 13.75
Cable 4 0.017 27.5
voltage Ev is 32 V and the length of cable l is 10 m.
Practically, we need to consider the minimum rated voltage
of ESC as shown in section II-E, but we ignore this condition
here.
As shown in the graph, the relationship between thrust and
current is increases monotonically when the cable resistance
is 0 Ω. On the other hand, the thrust has a local maximal
value when the cable resistance is larger than 0 Ω. Also, the
maximum thrust tends to decrease as the cable resistance
increases. Fig. 10 shows the result for the case in which the
power supply voltage Ev is 16 V. The thrust coefficient at
16 V is smaller than at 32 V, and the current to obtain the
same thrust at 16 V is much larger than at 32 V.
Next, we consider the voltage margin and the thrust margin
from the equation of the required thrust at altitude h. The
voltage margin is the result of subtracting the required motor
voltage to keep its altitude from the supplied motor voltage.
The thrust margin is the result of subtracting the required
thrust to keep the altitude from the maximum thrust. Note
that the cable tension T for taking up slack in the cable is
set to 0.01N.
Figs.11 and 12 show the graphs of thrust margin and the
voltage margin.
According to the graphs, the thrust margin is simply
proportional to the flight altitude. It is obvious that cables
1 and 3 cannot generate enough thrust to take off in case
that the supply voltage is 16 V. At an altitude of 0 m, cable
2 has the largest thrust margin. However, the higher the flight
altitude, the better cable 4 becomes. That is because cable 2
is heavier than cable 4.
Cable
Dia.[AWG] The voltage margin has the same trend. Note that the
AWG18 calculation of the voltage margin was terminated when the
AWG16 thrust margin became 0. After that, the voltage became static,
AWG20 as shown in Fig. 12(c). Practically, because of the minimum
AWG20 x 2
rated voltage of the ESC, the ESC might not work even if
the voltage margin is greater than 0V.
 ϯϬϬϬ ϯϬϬϬ ϯϬϬϬ

ϮϱϬϬ ϮϱϬϬ ϮϱϬϬ

΁΁Ő ϮϬϬϬ ΁΁Ő ϮϬϬϬ ΁΁

ϮϬϬϬ
΀ ΀ ΀Ő
ŝŶ ŝŶ Ŷ
ƌŐĂ
Cable1
ƌŐĂ
Cable1 Őŝƌ Cable1
ϭϱϬϬ ϭϱϬϬ Ă ϭϱϬϬ
D Cable2 D Cable2
D
ƚƐ ƚƐ
Cable2
ƚƐ
Ƶ
ƌ Cable3 Ƶ
ƌ Cable3 ƌƵ Cable3
Ś Ś
d ϭϬϬϬ Cable4 d ϭϬϬϬ Cable4 dŚ ϭϬϬϬ Cable4

ϱϬϬ ϱϬϬ ϱϬϬ

Ϭ Ϭ Ϭ
Ϭ Ϯ ϰ ϲ ϴ ϭϬ Ϭ Ϯ ϰ ϲ ϴ ϭϬ Ϭ ϱ ϭϬ ϭϱ ϮϬ
ůƚŝƚƵĚĞ΀ŵ΁ ůƚŝƚƵĚĞ΀ŵ΁ ůƚŝƚƵĚĞ΀ŵ΁

(a) @ 32v, 10m (b) @ 16v, 10m (c) @ 32v, 20m

Fig. 11. Flight altitude v.s. estimated thrust margin

ϯϬ ϯϬ ϯϬ

Ϯϱ Ϯϱ Ϯϱ
΁s ΁s ΁s
΀ŶϮϬ ΀ŶϮϬ ΀ŶϮϬ
ŝŐ ĂďůĞϭ
ŝŐ ĂďůĞϭ
ŝŐ ĂďůĞϭ
ƌĂ ƌĂ ƌĂ
D D D
ĞŐ ϭϱ ĂďůĞϮ
ĞŐ ϭϱ ĂďůĞϮ
ĞŐ ϭϱ ĂďůĞϮ
Ăůƚ ĂďůĞϯ Ăůƚ ĂďůĞϯ Ăůƚ ĂďůĞϯ
sŽϭϬ ĂďůĞϰ
ŽϭϬ
s ĂďůĞϰ
ŽϭϬ
s ĂďůĞϰ

ϱ ϱ ϱ

Ϭ Ϭ Ϭ
Ϭ Ϯ ϰ ϲ ϴ ϭϬ Ϭ Ϯ ϰ ϲ ϴ ϭϬ Ϭ ϱ ϭϬ ϭϱ ϮϬ
ůƚŝƚƵĚĞ΀ŵ΁ ůƚŝƚƵĚĞ΀ŵ΁ ůƚŝƚƵĚĞ΀ŵ΁

(a) @ 32v, 10m (b) @ 16v, 10m (c) @ 32v, 20m

Fig. 12. Flight Altitude v.s. estimated voltage margin

According to the above, the flight condition of the tether-

powered multicopter is affected by the cable weight, the
cable resistance, and the power supply voltage, drastically.
Therefore, prior design of the tether is very important.
Comparing the four types of cables, cable 4 was the most
suitable for the tether-powered multicopter, because of its
light weight.
III. TETHER WINDING
HELIPAD-GROUND-STATION
In the last part of the paper, we discuss the current
development status of a helipad ground station that can wind
the tether attached to the multicopter. It is supposed that the
station will be mounted on an UGV in the near future.
Fig. 14 shows an overview of the system. One end of the Fig. 13. Winding and Tension Measure Mechanism
tether is attached to the multicopter, and the other end is
attached to the helipad ground station. The station is 500
mm wide, 500 mm long, and 350 mm tall. A feature of the some pulleys. Pulley 2 is mounted on the link mechanism
station is that it has a constant tension control system to that rotates freely. In response to an increase of the cable
remove the slack of the tether. The function resides at the tension, the link rotates gradually in one direction by a pull
ground station end, so that the multicopter can use the system spring. The link axis has a potentiometer that measures the
in both manual and automatic controls. The main functional angle of the link. Therefore, the tether tension is measured
elements of the station are the tension detection part and the by the link length, the spring rate, and the angle of the link.
winding mechanism. To enable the winding function of tether, rubber-pasted
To realize a constant tension control system to remove the pulley 1 shown in Fig. 13 is actuated by a DC motor.
slack of the tether, the tension detection mechanism is very The tether can be both a rope and an electrical cable. The
important. Fig. 13 shows a hardware CAD image of the tether electrical cable becomes hot because the multicopter needs
winder. As shown in the figure, the tether is guided through a high current through the cable. Therefore, from the point
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research is supported by research grants from the
NSK Ltd.
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IV. CONCLUSION [7] Samir Bouabdallah. Design and control of quadrotors with application
to autonomous flying. PhD thesis, École Polytechnique federale de
In this paper, we focused on the availability of a tether- Lausanne, 2007.
powered multicopter. Particularly, we discussed the selection
of the power cable for this system.
The resistance of the power cable is one of the important
factors for selection of the cable. Therefore, at the beginning
of this research, we focused on modeling the motor and ESC
in the multicopter. Our experiments showed that the thrust
coefficient was not stable, unlike the typical DC motor for
hobby-used ESC. Therefore, we modeled the motor and ESC.
Based on the model, it is possible for us to consider the
influence of cable resistance on the motors.
The airframe of our multicopter is lightweight, and the
weight of the power cable affects the thrust capability. When
the required thrust increases, the required current increases
also, as does the voltage loss in the cable. Therefore, in
this research, we conducted an analysis of the actual tether-
powered system with four types of real cable characteristics
based on the motor model and cable parameters. We found
that the possible flight height was drastically affected by the
cable weight and resistance, and it was very important to
choose a suitable cable for the design of a tether-powered
multicopter system. In future work, we will discuss the cable
heat that is currently ignored. Furthermore, to validate the
results of our estimations, we will fly our multicopter in a
tether-powered mode.
In addition, we plan to implement a vector control method
for the ESC to increase the efficiency of the multicopter
flight. The resistance of the power cable is one of the
important factors for selection of the cable. Therefore, at
the beginning of this research, we focused on modeling the
motor and ESC in the multicopter. Our experiments showed
that the thrust coefficient was not