A Critical Analysis of Small But Heavy-Lift Multirotor and Their Flight Controllers

A critical analysis of small but heavy-lift multirotor and
their flight controllers

Muhammad Sohaib Dr Syed Irtiza Ali Dr Ali Javed Dr Nafees Mumtaz Nadeem Hussain
Khan Shah Qadri
Department of Department of Department of Department of Department of
Aerospace Aerospace Aerospace Aerospace Aerospace
2021 International Bhurban Conference on Applied Sciences and Technologies (IBCAST) | 978-1-6654-0516-4/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IBCAST51254.2021.9393264
Engineering Engineering Engineering Engineering Engineering

CAE, National CAE, National CAE, National CAE, National CAE, National
University of Science University of Science University of Science University of Science University of Science
and Technology and Technology and Technology and Technology and Technology
Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan Pakistan
mshoaib.ms12ae@stu irtiza@cae.nust.edu.pk salijav@hotmail.com m.n.mumtaz.qadri@ca nadeemhussain@cae.n
dent.nust.edu.pk e.nust.edu.pk, ust.edu.pk
Abstract – Multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) Index Terms – Rotor configurations, flight controllers,
have gone from a single rotor to multiple rotors. Multirotor components selection, propeller, battery.
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are now used for
surveillance and rescue operations. These are used for I. INTRODUCTION
surveillance over disastrous areas and to perform necessary There are mostly wireless drones used for different purposes.
rescue action. The capacity of multirotor UAVs to carry Multirotors have mostly fixed pitch blades. This concept was
heavy payload is less with small and limited propellers. presented in 1923 by De Bothezet [1]. In ancient times, the
Therefore, the number of propellers have been increased, work could not be carried out in proving the concept due to the
and ultimately the size of multirotor UAV has also been instability of the multirotor because of the unavailability of
increased. The rotor arrangement is fundamental in the flight controllers. With the development of MEMS sensors,
thrust of multirotor UAVs. The opensource software has motors, electronic speed controllers (ESCs), LiPo battery, then
been developed to integrate with the flight controller the development of multirotor advanced. These are radio-
hardware. The current focus of research is to reduce the size controlled drones and able to bear about two kg of the payload
of multirotor UAVs and increase the payload capacity of during flight [2]. Nowadays, multirotor is being used for many
multirotor UAVs. purposes. Multirotor application includes surveillance, rescue
The thrust has been reduced in case of overlapping rotor operations, and other operations. Multirotor drones are more
configuration, such as in coaxial and half propeller overlap stable drones due to advancements in flight controllers and ESC
configuration. These configurations are adopted to reduce [3]. Multirotor is the current research platform. Many
the size of multirotor UAV. In this study, different multirotor types include bi-copters, tri-copters, quadcopters,
multirotor UAV configurations have been studied for hex copters, and octa-copter [3]. By considering the types of
selection of best configuration for small but heavy-lift multirotor, the robust frame structure, which is also simple in
multirotor. The overlapping configurations have been dynamics, is the quadcopter configuration UAV [4]. Hex
found to increase the payload and reduce the size of the copters and octa copters are used to lift heavy payloads so that
multirotor. The thrust has been increased to about 90% in they are used for aerial photography or broadcasting when used
the case of some propeller overlap configuration with a in media [5]. The above UAV configurations have been
rotor plane angle. For coaxial configuration, the rotor considered and then found out that hex copter configuration is
thrust was about 76% of the thrust of the independent better in terms of rescue and surveillance operations.
rotor. The thrust generated by the flat configuration is more
than the coaxial and less propeller overlap configuration. II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The flight controllers are responsible for the stability and In 1926, a Spanish man named Juan data Ciera successfully
control of UAVs. Many flight controllers are working on the developed a rotating wing aircraft, which was used for flight
latest technology and can be programmed for various and lifting the aircraft upward. He called this aircraft autogyro.
features. The flight controllers also contribute to increasing Its flight was slow in the forward direction, and it could hardly
stability. Mostly open-source software is available to take off and land. This aircraft was under development in
integrate with the flight controller hardware. The ARM- Europe and America until 1936. During this period, it reached
based flight controllers like Pixhawk flight controllers are some advancements. Due to economic depression and over the
the best to control the multirotor. These flight controllers publicity of this aircraft led it to a break, and it remained
can be programmed quickly and can be installed on the standstill [1].
multirotor.
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Autogyro development brought it to a successful helicopter. In for torque counteraction. The blades were free from flapping in
1937, Focke in Germany made a side by side two rotating such a way that when one blade flapped upward, then the other
propeller aircraft successfully. In 1941, Sikorsky presented a blade flapped downward. The tail rotor was not connected with
VS-300 helicopter, which was a single rotor aircraft having a the main rotor; therefore, there was a difficulty in maintaining
vertical tail rotor to deal with torque production[1]. the rotation of the tail rotor and its synchronization with the
A. Helicopter Development main rotor. This rotorcraft had a gross weight of 2000 lbs and
Before the days of the Roman Empire, the Chinese constructed never flew more than a foot or two feet from the ground. In
a thing which was named as “Chinese Top.” It was used to spun 1929, this project was banned due to a bad crash during
between two hands to fly it. flight[1].
In the 15th century, a man named Leonardo da Vinci presented In 1930, Dr.d’Ascaino from Italy developed a coaxial
a screw-type propeller for attaining a vertical lift. In 1929, a helicopter. It was developed successfully. The blades had been
whalebone and clock spring was driven by some elastic pivoted at the hub, and the pitch was variable. The blades were
substances by Sir George Cayley, England. These things flew free to flap. The helicopter flew up to 54 feet in five minutes.
vertically up to 90feet. In 1842, a helicopter model was During 1930-1936, Reve Braquet, a French man, developed a
constructed in which these were three propellers that were coaxial configuration of the helicopter, and the blades had 54
driven by a steam-driven engine. One propeller was used to lift feet diameter. A cyclic pitch controlled the blades. For turning
the model, and the other two were used to steer the helicopter. the fuselage, the rotational torque of one rotor had been
W.H. Philips, England, developed it. The weight of this model increased than the other.
was 20 pounds[6]. In 1937, Dr. Heinrich Focke of Germany built a plane having
In 1968, a steam engine driven model had been constructed, and two rotors on sides. The rotors had been tilted inward to provide
its weight was only 7.7 pounds, and an Italian civil engineering dihedral stability. The blades had been tilted and connected to
professor developed it. the root. Forward and backward movement had been achieved
1n 1978, Thomas Edison of the United States developed many by tilting the rotors by using swashplate. When the pitch of one
electric motor-driven propellers and tested in the laboratory. He rotor had been increased, then the lateral movement had been
realized that he would need a lightweight engine to drive the achieved. There was a rudder, and a tail that was perpendicular
propellers. So, he started using gun cotton as a fuel, and it was to the rudder, and the rudder was vertical. It was the first
banned after a severe explosion in his laboratory. In 1907, Paul helicopter and was able to fly for one hour and twenty minutes
Corun of France developed a single beam rotor aircraft having with a weight of 2200 pounds. Its speed was 75 miles per hour
a propeller at either end, which was driven by a 24-horsepower and travelled a distance of 143 miles at an altitude of 11,200
engine through aa belt. In 1908-1929, Emile and Henry Berner feet[7].
of the United States worked a lot on the development of During 1935-1943, Antoine Flattener of Germany built a
helicopter[1]. rotorcraft having one main rotor and two side rotors. These
In 1909, they built a rotorcraft with two engines and two rotors were used for counter torque. One rotor pulls the aircraft
propellers. Both propellers rotate in the opposite direction so in the forward direction, and the other propeller pulls the
that the machine was able to lift a pilot untethered. After some aircraft in the rearward direction. The Pitch of these rotors is
time, this family built an aircraft in which there were two rigid also varied for counter torque. In 1937, Flutter introduced an
propellers made of wood. Those propellers were able to rotate extreme intermeshing of two rotors and abandoned side-by-side
and become equivalent to the fuselage. After this configuration, configuration. It was called a synchropter. These rotors made
the aircraft was able to hover and take off forward flight slowly. an angle of 24 degrees with the fuselage through the centreline
In 1921, De Bothezat of the United States developed a larger from the root of the blade. This rotorcraft was able to carry two
rotorcraft that was able to carry three passengers, and its gross passengers with a speed of 90 miles per hour. Flutter developed
weight was 4000lbs. It consisted of four rotors, and each rotor twenty-two air machines. The selected aircraft used two blades
had six wide blades. A 180-horsepower engine drove these instead of using three blades. The machine was called XR-8 and
rotors. The pitch of the blades was adjustable. To go forward, XR-10 that was the recent American synchropter developed by
the pitch of forwarding blades was decreased, and rear blades Kaman aircraft corporation. One blade generates torque and the
were increased. The pitch also varied for side movements. To other blade acts as an antitorque blade. The two blades were
go upward, the pitch of all rotor blades was increased suddenly. synchronized in such a way that they do not collide with each
During 1919-1925, Raoul Pescara of Spain developed a coaxial other during rotation. Their rotation was adjusted to avoid the
helicopter having biplane rotors. Ten biplane rotors were collision. These are shown in fig 1 and fig 2.
connected to the shaft. A negative pitch was achieved for
power-off flight.
During 1924-1929, Von Baumhauer, which was a Dutch
scientist, developed a single rotor helicopter in which a 160-
horsepower engine rotated a 25 feet rotor blade with 10 degrees
of twist. A smaller engine of 80-horsepower had rotated a
propeller blade on the other end of the tubular truss containing
the main and smaller rotors. This smaller blade had been used
Juan de La Cierva was the man who was working on the
development of autogyro. He used his funds, and also, the
Spanish government gave him funds for his work on autogyro.
He built a wind tunnel and tested his model in it. He found out
that the autogyro was working well when the rotors were
slightly tilted back in the wind direction. It gave a better lift and
slow speed [1].
Cierva successfully flew his autogyro in 1923. There was a
main rotor on the fuselage. The rotor was used to push and pull
the rotorcraft in the wind. It was controlled by tilting the
rotorcraft in the direction of the lift. In 1904, Cierve developed
the autogyro by using the principle of Renard, a French man.
This principle was about the use of flapping blades.
In 1932, Pitcairn and Kellet aircraft companies thrived autogyro
in which controls had been achieved by tilting the rotor blades.
Figure 1 XR-8 synchropter [8]
Other rotors had achieved the forward flight as in conventional
aircraft. Directional controls had been achieved by the
rudder[1].
The final phase of autogyro was the development of jump take-
off. In this aircraft, the rotors got increment in speed on the
ground, and suddenly the pitch of the rotor blades had been
increased, and the autogyro takes off.
II. MULTIROTOR TYPES
A. Bi-copter
It consists of two rotors. Its stability is challenging. It can
lift less payload because of two propellers. It also requires less
power[3]. If one of the two rotors fails to rotate during flight,
then the drone becomes unstable. The use of two rotors is not
advantageous for UAV. It is shown in fig 3.
Figure 2 XR-10 synchropter [9]
In 1941, Igor Sikorsky of the United States experimented with

coaxial type configuration. He developed a new helicopter VS-
300. It contained one main rotor and three auxiliary rotors in
which two were rotating in horizontal, and one was rotating in
the vertical direction. In the middle of 1941, Sikorsky
developed a new and improved configuration of VS-300 in
which there was a primary rotor and one tail rotor. It was the
practical solution of Baumhauer rotorcraft, which was Figure 3 Bi-copter aerial platform [3]
presented ten years before Sikorsky. In this configuration, the
tail rotor was connected with the transmission of the main rotor
so that whenever there is a power failure, then the main rotor B. Tri-copter
continues to rotate the tail rotor[1]. Tri-copters are more expensive than bi-copters because
The pitch stick on the side of the pilot was used to raise the these contain three propellers. It uses servo motors rather than
helicopter up and down. The stick was used to change the pitch BLDC (Brushless direct current motors) motors. There is a 120-
of all rotor blades, and these are standard controls of degree wide-angle gap between the front two rotors to make it
helicopters. The VS-300 was developed to XR-4 and YR-4 best for photography and videography because the propellers
helicopters. Sikorsky had developed R-4 and many other do not come in-camera focus during the flight of UAV [10].
helicopters for the army and navy during world war-II [1]. There is “Y” and “T” shape tri-copter configuration. In Y shape
B. Autogyro Development configuration two rotors are in side by side configuration
In history, there was a focus on the development of autogyros. forming a Y shaped profile and one in backward. In T shape
The work on autogyro started in 1920 and reached to successful configuration, two rotors are in side by side configuration and
level in 1935.
one in backward [3]. The backward motor is used for yaw This type of multirotor is more stable, simple, and easy to
operation by tilting it [10]. It is shown in fig 5. understand [3].
All the four propellers are rotating in such a way so that they
balance the lift of each other. All four propellers generate lift in
such a way that the center of gravity of the quadcopter should
be in the middle of the frame [12]. The quadcopters are free
from any mechanical link as present in other multirotor
configurations because the pitch of the propeller blades is fixed
[2]. The four propellers are in the quadcopter have relatively
less diameter than the equivalent diameter of the helicopter
main propeller blade. The use of four propellers makes the
multirotor safe to use. Some quadcopters have ducts or specific
boundaries around the propeller to prevent it from the risk of
damage [13].
There are following famous quadcopter configurations:
 “X” configuration
 “+” configuration
Figure 4 Y shaped Tri-copter UAV [3]

a. X quadcopter
It is the simple and most famous quadcopter configuration. It is
best for aerial photography and videography because a camera
can be attached between two arms of the quadcopter in X
configuration [10].
Figure 5 T shaped Tri-copter [50]

Figure 6 “X” Quadcopter [3]
Tri-copter is stable than the bi-copter configuration, but it is
unstable than other UAV multirotor configuration types. b. + quadcopter
Suppose one of the three rotors fail, then the UAV will not + quadcopter configuration is simple and easy to fly than the X
remain stable and cannot move further. It can carry more quadcopter configuration. Mostly used in the acrobatic flying
payload than the bi-copter UAV but less than other more rotor [10].
UAV configurations. Its yaw control makes it less stable.
The advantage of using this configuration is given below:
 Less rotor/ Propellers
 Less weight
 Long battery life
 Cheaper
A. Quad-copter
A quadcopter is also called a quad-rotor helicopter [11]. It
contains four rotors and each rotor is rotating in clockwise
(CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) direction. The arms of the
frame are 90degree apart. Two different configurations include
“X” and “+” configuration. The four propellers are rotating in
such a direction that they can balance each other produced lift. Figure 7 “+” Quadcopter [3]
c. Y quadcopter
It is just like a tri-copter configuration. This configuration does (CCW) propellers. The main advantage of using six propellers
not use servo motors like another configuration. It uses is to carry a heavy payload. It can remain stable in the air when
brushless motors. One motor is above the other motor, and both any of its six propellers fail to rotate [3]. Its heavy payload
motors are on one arm. Both motors are rotating in the opposite carrying capability makes it suitable to carry gimble and camera
direction. The other two arms have a single motor on them. Yaw like DSLR cameras as [10]. There are some famous hex copter
movement is achieved by altering the speed of the two front configurations which are “X” and “+’ configurations.
motors. Y quadcopter flies like the tri-copter, but it can carry
more weight than the tri-copter [10]. a. “X” hex copter configuration
The advantages of using this configuration are given below: It has X configuration like a quadcopter, but the angle between
 Use brushless motors arms is 60 degrees. In X configuration, there is one propeller on
 Long battery life each arm. This configuration makes it suitable for aerial
 Better stability photography [10]. It is shown in figure 10.
Figure 8 "Y" Quadcopter [3]
D. Penta copter Figure 10 Hex copter [3]

It consists of five propellers. It is not popular like other
multirotor types. Its nonpopularity is due to its many b. “Y” hex copter configuration
aerodynamic issues [3]. Its design is the worst as compared to It is like a tri-copter, but in the case of a hex copter, there are
other multirotor types [10]. The advantages of the Penta-copter two motors on each arm. One propeller is above the other
include more lift capability than bi-copter, tri-copter, and propeller. Both propellers rotate in the opposite direction. This
quadcopter. It is best for photography and videography because configuration is not more efficient than X configuration [10]. It
of its wide-angle gap between two front propellers. Due to this is shown in figure 11.
configuration, the propellers on these arms do not come in- There are the following advantages of hex copter:
camera lens while shooting the photos and videos [10]. It is  Highly stable
shown in figure 9.  Capable of hovering even when one of its propellers
stops rotating.
There are some given disadvantages of hex copter:
 Heavy
 Large in size
 Expensive design
Figure 9 Penta copter [3]
E. Hex copter
It consists of six propellers that are mounted on the six arms
extended from the center body [14]. It is a popular design for
lifting heavyweight. It has also fixed the propeller blade pitch. Figure 11 "Y" hex copter [3]
The arms of the hex copter have a 60-degree gap between each
other. It has three clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise A. Octa copter
It consists of eight propellers. Four propellers rotate in will not only increase flight time but also reduce the size of the
clockwise (CW) direction and four propellers rotate in counter- drone.
clockwise (CCW) direction. Suppose one of the eight rotors
fails to rotate even than it will be capable of hovering in the air
III. COMPARISON
[3]. Octa copters can carry more payload than all other
discussed multirotor configurations [10]. From the comparison, it is concluded that the hex copter and
octa-copter configuration are better for lifting heavy payload
a. Flat “X” configuration and better for search and rescue operations. These
In this configuration, there is only one propeller. It is a common configurations require more power as they consist of six and
type of octa copter configuration. The angle between each arm eight motors. But when we need more maneuvers then
is 45 degrees. One propeller rotates clockwise (CW), and one quadcopter configuration is the best. The size of propellers and
propeller rotates counter-clockwise (CCW) for balancing the motor play an important role in the payload carrying capacity
torque generated by each other propeller. It is shown in figure of the drone. Table 1 showing the multirotor configuration with
12. their stability.
Table 1 Multirotor Configurations
Sr. No Multirotor No. of Stability

Types Propellers
1 Bi-copter 2 Less stable
2 Tri-copter 3 Less stable
3 Quad-copter 4 Stable
Figure 12 Octo X octa copter [3] 4 Penta-copter 5 Less stable
b. X8 configuration
In this configuration, there are two propellers on each arm, and 5 Hex copter 6 Stable
there is a total of four arms extended from the center body. One
motor rotates below the other motor but in the opposite 6 Octa-copter 8 stable
direction just to counter the effect of torque generated by one
motor [10]. It is shown in figure 13.
IV. MULTIROTOR UAV COMPONENTS

Some components are used in the multirotor and are necessary
components of UAV without which it is impossible to fly a
drone.
A. Motor
Direct current (DC) motors are usually used in RC helicopters,
toys, and many electric appliances. There are two types of DC
motors which are brushed direct current motors (BDC) and
Figure 13 X8 octa copter [3] brushless direct current motors (BLDC). BLDC motors have
been used in multirotor UAV like quadcopters, hex copter, and
B. Power required for multirotor other configurations. These are fast-moving motors. These
It is a very important part of the multirotor. By increasing the motors have no carbon brushes; therefore, their maintenance is
number of motors, the power drawn by each motor is increased very easy, and these can rotate at a very high RPM. BLDC
then the flight time is reduced. Therefore, carrying a heavy motors are controlled by an electronic speed controller (ESC).
payload with a smaller number of propellers is compulsory. The power is supplied to the ESC, and then the ESC controls
Therefore, quadcopter configuration with big propellers is the motor RPM. In BLDC motor, the rotor is located on the
better for carrying a heavy payload with only four motors. It exterior of the motor. The stator is in the interior of the motor.
This type of motor is also called outrunner motor because the
rotor part of the motor is on the exterior of the BLDC motor.
The traditional motors have inner rotors and outer stators;
therefore, these are called in runner motors, but BLDC motors
have a permanent magnet (PM), and the rotor is rotating on the
outer side. Therefore, these are called outrunner motors.
The permanent magnets used in the BLDC are made of
Neodym. These elements are made up of neodymium (Nd), iron
(Fe), and boron (B). Neodymium is the rare earth element and Figure 16 BLDC motor stator wiring diagram [18]
is used for making the magnets. It has a strong magnetic field.
There are 14 permanent (PM) bars of magnets mounted inside
of the rotor of BLDC as shown in fig 14. There is a rotor-stator
electromagnetic field having north/south magnetic field of
BLDC motor. The displacement is mandatory between the rotor
and stator of the motor because it ensures rotation of the motor,
as shown in fig 15. The wiring system of the motor is also
critical. The rotor of the motor is linked with the stator.
Three-phase power is supplied to the motor through ESC for
rotation of the stator. This wiring distribution is shown in fig
16. The A-, B-, and C- connectors are connected in such a way
that the stator generates the magnetic field. Terminal A wire
wraparound the pole 1 in a clockwise direction and it wraps in Figure 17 BLDC motor stator wiring [18]
an anticlockwise direction around the pole 11. The permanent
magnetic (PM) poles are close to the electromagnetic poles. All Heat is the problem of motors. Due to excessive heat generation
terminal arrangements are confusing, but ESC is programmed in the motor, a point reaches in the motor, which is called the
in such a way that it controls the rotation of the rotor on the curie point where the PM of the motor generates high heat. It
stator. The ESC sends electrical control pulses to the motor to has been analyzed that 80oC temperature is the highest
control the rotation of the motor rotor over the stator. The stator temperature for Neodym, which is a rare-earth element and is
is under the rotor by a scheme of wirings. The wiring diagram used as a permanent magnet. This temperature can be achieved
of the BLDC is shown in fig 17. at full throttle. When the motor operates at 100% throttle for
nearly 20 minutes, then a maximum temperature has been seen
in the internal region of the motor. It can demagnetize the motor
terminals which stops the spin of the motors and our multirotor
stops flying due to the stopping of motors. For avoiding motors
from ruining due to demagnetizing, the motors should be
operated at slow RPM to let the motors cool. There are two
configurations for the arrangement of stator coils which are wye
Delta. There are called wye and delta because of their
arrangement in wye and delta shape. These are shown in fig 18.
Figure 14 14 Pole PM BLDC rotor [18]
Figure 18 wye and delta stator coils [18]
BLDC motors have high efficiency, high speed, noiseless

operation, and longer span of life [15]. BLDC motors are
selected based on two types of ratings: 𝐾𝑣 rating and current
rating [16]. 𝐾𝑣 Rating is defined as “Motor RPM by applying 1
volt”. The current rating is defined as “maximum current that a
motor can draw”. The motors are selected based on 𝐾𝑣 ratings.
Figure 15 End view of 1000 kV motor [18]
The formula for 𝐾𝑣 the rating is shown [16].
generates a signal through terminals A, B, and C in the system
𝐾𝑣 =
𝑅𝑃𝑀
(1) then sends a signal to the MOSFET. MOSFET is a switch. The
𝑉
three-phase power control signals are sent to the gate circuit,
It has been seen that the motor RPM (N) can be calculated by
and then the gate circuit sends the signal to the MOSFET
the given equation [16]:
switches. It gets the voltage from the battery and converts it to
the power signals which are fed to the A, B, and C power leads.
𝑅𝑃𝑀 (𝑁) = 𝐾𝑣 × 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 (2)
MOSFET is a powerful and high-speed switch. ESCs are
The motor RPM can be calculated as given below [16]:
connected in parallel in a multirotor to regulate high power
𝑅𝑃𝑀 supply from the battery. An ESC is shown in fig 11. which has
𝜔 = 𝐾𝑣 ×𝑉 (3) a 25A current from Hobby King which has three wires for the
𝑉
𝐾𝑣 rating is also used to measure the torque of the motor. Less motor to provide a three-phase power supply, one battery
𝐾𝑣 means that the torque is high [17]. Motor torque can be eliminator circuit (BEC), and one power supply from the
calculated by the given equation [16]: battery. The ESC is shown in fig 20.
𝑇 = 𝐼 × 𝐾𝑡 (4)
Where 𝐼 is the current drawn by the motor and 𝐾𝑡 is the
coefficient of torque. Kt can be calculated by the given formula
[15]:
𝐾𝑡 = (0.01794)𝐾𝑡 (5)
B. Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)

ESC supplies current to the motor in the form of the signal,
which is servo type signal. The power is supplied to the motor
in three-phase through ESC. It has been noticed that when the
power is supplied to the motor, it goes from zero to the peak
battery value and it cannot go to a negative value as in the case Figure 20 25A ESC [18]
of AC power. The phase is the current pulse that is delivered to
the motor to rotate. The functioning of ESC has been shown in Most ESCs are covered with the heat shrink tube to avoid
fig 19. damage to the PCB and its components. Heat shrink covering
on the ESC is also used to avoid dissipation of heat from the
ESC, and the heat remains within ESC that is useful for
components. In fig 21, metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect
transistor (MOSFET) has been shown. There is a column of
MOSFET switches on the ESC board which are connected in
parallel. There are three columns of five power MOSFET, and
each column gives power to the A, B, or C leads. Each
MOSFET in the column gives 5A of current, and we multiply
it with the number of MOSFETs.
Figure 19 ESC Function diagram [18]
In ESC, the Atmel ATmega8L microcontroller unit (MCU) is

being used. It has an 8-bit microprocessor, flash memory
storage, and some controlling components. The control circuit
in the ESC is used to convert the servo signals to the three-phase
power pulses. There are three pulse-width modulations (PWM)
channels in the control circuit, and these channels are used to
generate three-phase power control pulses.
The ESC works on breaking the voltage of the battery and
converting it into the three-phase power supply to control the
rotor the movement of the motor. The rotation of the
electromagnetic field controls the rotor movement. The MCU
It has been noticed that the thrust of the rotor changes as the
incoming flow to the rotor changes. The speed of the air has
been replaced with the free stream velocity, and their ratio is
called the advance ratio. The advance ratio is calculated as [21]:
𝑉
𝜇= (10)
Ω𝑅
It is seen from the equation of the advance ratio that the advance
ratio decreases as the rotor thrust increases [22].
The rotation of the propeller lifts Multirotor. The propellers are
selected through their diameter and pitch. Pitch is defined as the
traveling of the propeller in one complete revolution [15], [23].
The thrust of the propeller can be calculated by the given
equation [24]
𝜋
𝑇 = × 𝐷2 𝜌 × (∆𝑉)2 (11)
8
Where D is the diameter of the propeller, V is the propeller

velocity, and 𝜌 is the density of the air.
Figure 21 MOSFET columns of 25A ESC [18] The power of the propeller can be calculated as given [19]:
𝑇(∆𝑉)
𝑃= (12)
2
ESC can switch the motor voltage [19]. The ESC value has been The total mass that can be lifted by the rotors of the multirotor
written as [15]: can be calculated by the given equation [24]:
𝐸𝑆𝐶 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 (𝐸𝑆𝐶)= 𝑚=
𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡
=
𝑇
(13)
(1.2 –1.5)× 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝐴𝑐𝑐𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑡𝑖𝑦 𝑔
(6) The thrust coefficient has been calculated by the given equation
[23]:
𝑇
𝐶𝑇 = 4 2 (14)
C. PROPELLER 𝜌𝐷 𝜔
Where T is the thrust of the propeller and 𝜔 is the torque
These are complex parts of the multirotor. These have an airfoil generated by the propeller, and it is calculated in RPM. The
shape and are twisted to generate the specific value of thrust thrust coefficient has been calculated by using thrust
during rotation in the open air. The propeller profile is simulations in solid works [23].
unchanged till now after the Wright brothers designed these.
Modern propellers have 80% more efficient than the previous a. Propeller Selection
propellers. Propeller efficiency is written as [18]: A propeller is selected based on the following points:
 The thrust of propellers depends on the surface area of
𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑡𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑+𝐴𝑥𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
𝐻= = the propeller. Larger diameter propellers produce
𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑇𝑜𝑟𝑞𝑢𝑒+𝐴𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦
(7) more thrust than the small diameter propellers. A large
diameter propeller needs more power to spin than the
Efficiency is the ratio of input and output power means that by small diameter propeller.
applying some input power, the maximum output power is  Small diameter propellers need to spin faster than the
gained. The efficiency of propellers depends on the angle of large-diameter propeller to generate equivalent thrust
attack (AOA). Depending on the angle of attack, the power is to large diameter propeller.
generated. In some airplanes, the AOA is adjustable like in
 Mostly quadcopter is used for hovering not for other
helicopter main rotor blade. The AOA is adjusted by the
movements. Therefore, those need small AOA and
manufacturer to achieve the required thrust from the propeller.
Propeller thrust can be calculated as [20]: blade pitch angle to hover in the selected airspace.
𝑇 = 𝐶𝑡 𝜌𝐴(Ω𝑅)2 (8)  The propeller should be balanced in its diameter and
Thrust depends on the coefficient of thrust, which depends on profile for vibration reduction. These should be
the rotor shape and Reynold number. analyzed in the balancer before using it in the
The power of the rotor can be calculated as [21]: multirotor.
 A mostly used material for propeller manufacturing is
𝑃 = 𝐶𝑝 𝜌𝐴(Ω𝑅)3 (9) carbon fiber. It is strong material than the plastic, but
Power depends on the coefficient of power which depends on it vibrates less than other propellers. Therefore, it is
the rotor shape and Reynold number. the best option to be used in propeller manufacturing.
D. Battery generated by the upper rotor very less affects the thrust
LiPo (Lithium Polymer) battery has been used for the power produced by the lower rotor.
supply of the drones. The selection of battery is finalized after
several steps that include its rated capacity, voltage level, and
no of cells (S) in the battery [19]. The rated voltage supply of
one cell is 3.7 V. Power rating of the battery can be increased
by placing the cells in series [19]. The motor is operated on
limited current when the voltage supplied to the motor is
increased. The flight time of multirotor UAV depends on the
capacity of the battery. Flight time of the multirotor UAV can
be calculated by the given equation [25]:
𝐶𝑎𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑏𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝐴ℎ
𝐷𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = (15)
𝑀𝑎𝑥.𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑛 𝑏𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟
V. THRUST REQUIREMENT
Figure 22 Thrust measuring for single rotor and coaxial
The required thrust of the drone can be calculated by the given rotor [27]
equations [26]:
 Total weight of the multirotor= W B. Sliding Parallel Rotor Configuration
 Number of motors= N The total thrust produced by the rotors has been reduced when
 Motor average efficiency= Avg the distance between the two-rotor shaft is reduced. When the
 Assumed required thrust at full throttle= 100% (By distance between the rotor shafts is reduced to 50mm, then the
using MacCormick METHOD) thrust produced by the lower rotor becomes almost 46% of the
 Assume double weight of the multirotor for choosing thrust produced by the independent rotor. When the distance of
the motor according to requirement. By using the rotor shafts increased to 200mm, then thrust has been increased
given equation, the required multirotor thrust capacity to 88% of the independent rotor. In this configuration, the rotor
can be calculated [26]: thrust was less than the upper rotor thrust as seen in the coaxial
rotor configuration. Lower rotor thrust has been increased when
𝑇 =2×𝑊 (16) the distance between both the rotors is increased. When the
 The efficiency of motors is taken as 80%; therefore, rotor shaft distance is maintained to rotor diameter, then the
the throttle of the motors is taken at 80% [26]. thrust value has been increased to 95% of the independent rotor
thrust. In this configuration, the thrust of the upper rotor
 Required thrust at 80% throttle= 𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑞
remains constant. When the shaft distance of the rotor is taken
The required thrust per motor has been calculated by the
to 0mm, then the coaxial rotor thrust is equivalent to 75% of the
following equation [26]:
two independent rotors thrust. There is a total 25% decrement
𝑇𝑟𝑒𝑞 in thrust value and it very bad for UAVs. When the rotor shaft
𝑇ℎ𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟 = (17) distance is increased continuously, then a total of 97% of the
𝑁
two independent rotors thrust has been achieved.
VI. PROPELLER CONFIGURATIONS C. Overlapping Rotor Configuration

It has been confirmed that the rotor thrust is decreased when
A. Coaxial Configuration one rotor is placed in the wake of the other rotor. It has been
The thrust measurement for the upper and lower rotor has been confirmed that the thrust of the upper rotor hardly changed
shown in fig 22. The thrust of the lower rotor is less than the when one rotor comes in the wake of the other rotor. It should
thrust produced by the upper rotor [21]. The thrust produced by be taken care of when designing a high thrust multirotor UAV
the lower rotor was almost 49% less than that of the upper rotor. that the thrust of the upper rotor must not be degraded.
The thrust produced by the upper rotor was almost the same as One of the most successful methods for avoiding thrust loss is
that of an independent rotor’s thrust. It was seen that the thrust to decrease the overlapping area of the rotors, which is not
produced by the upper and lower rotor was the same, even at possible in coaxial rotor configuration. When the overlapping
4000 and 6000RPM. It was seen that the thrust produced by the area of the rotors is decreased, then the thrust loss is improved,
lower rotor was increased as the distance of the lower rotor from and the maximum thrust has been achieved. The rotor clearance
the upper rotor increased. The thrust was increased up to 6% area of the upper rotor is changed to decrease the overlapping
when the distance of the lower rotor was increased from 50mm area of the rotors, and then the thrust value is increased. The
to 700mm. From the previous research, It has been investigated thrust of the same sized multirotor is increased by using this
that the thrust of the upper is larger than the thrust produced by method. In this way, the payload carrying capacity of the
the lower rotor in a coaxial configuration. At 50mm distance multirotor has been increased with the limited size of the frame
between the upper and lower rotor, it was seen that the wake [21].
generated by the upper rotors affects the thrust of the lower
D. Overlapping Rotor position rotor, and its effect is decreased in the coaxial configuration
Rotor flow interaction with each other has been evaluated in the [28]. The thrust generated by the two overlapping blades was
previous discussion. The diameter of the frame is taken analyzed experimentally by Stepmiewski [29]. The
equivalent to the coaxial multirotor frame. The thrust of the experimental results generated by Stepmiewski were also
octocopter UAV is analyzed. Octocopter UAV has been taken analyzed and then summarized by Harris [30]. Payne used
because it has a maximum number of propellers. This momentum theory in his paper where he explained the thrust
overlapping configuration is taken to avoid the wake interaction loss by the use of overlapping propellers blades . The detailed
of propellers. study of the use of coaxial propeller blades has been carried out
by Coleman [31]. Lishman and Anathan designed the optimized
E. Octocopter configuration form of coaxial rotors by using blade element momentum
Octocopter configuration for UAV is used to carry maximum theory and they also analyzed their flow model [27]. The
payload and produce maximum thrust, but its frame size is performance of coaxial rotors was analyzed by using Reynold
increased. The coaxial configuration is used to increase thrust average Navier stock solver using CFD by Lishman and Beater
with minimum frame size. In the coaxial rotor arrangement, the [32]. Based on previous research, it has been found that the
thrust is lost, and it becomes smaller than the independent rotor thrust of lower rotor degrades in coaxial rotor configuration.
thrust. In octocopter configuration, the rotor configuration is Thrust degradation of the total thrust generated by the coaxial
adjusted within the same frame size as in the coaxial rotor configuration occurs whenever rotors overlap. Thrust
configuration. When the overlapping area of rotors is degradation of rotors increases or decreases whenever the
decreased, then the thrust loss is decreased. This thrust loss has overlapping of rotors is changed. Some authors, like
also been achieved by changing the rotor plane angle between Aleksandrov and Penkov, had analyzed and calculated the
the upper and lower rotors. thrust change by changing the rotor shaft distance from the
centre plate of UAV [33]. The rotor flow behaviour during
VII. PROPELLER PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS flight was investigated by Hwang [34]. The aerodynamic
studies have been done on the rotors for coaxial and vertical
a. Propeller’s Advance and Thrust ratio take and landing UAVs. When the rotors overlap then the
The thrust and lift power of the propeller of a multirotor decrease in the thrust have been noticed. The focus has been put
depends on the propeller rotation, radius of the propeller, air on the thrust improvement at constant application of voltage to
density, and the Reynold number (R) [20], [21]. It is given in the motors, mechanical rotational power of motor was not
equations 8 and 9. measured. The paper focused on increasing the thrust but not on
The thrust and power of the rotor depend on the thrust increasing the endurance [21].
coefficient and power coefficient, which is a dimensionless
quantity. The coefficient of thrust and coefficient of power A. Method of Thrust Measurement
depends on the shape of the rotor blade and Reynolds number The rotors were chosen from DJI Phantom 2 multirotor UAV.
during the airflow. The coefficient of thrust and power is used The diameter of the propellers used was 239mm. The diagonal
for rotors of different shapes for getting their performance. The distance of the motor on one arm to another arm motor on the
hovering performance of a multirotor UAV is calculated using same axis was 450mm. A torque and 6-axis force sensor was
the coefficient of thrust and power [20]. When the speed of used to measure the thrust. The resolution was taken as 1/4000
incoming air to the rotor is increased, then the thrust of the with a force of 100N. The thrust was measured qt 650Hz and
propeller is also increased. For considering the aerodynamics kept for 8 seconds and taken 5000 readings of thrust as one
performance of the UAV, the incoming air is taken as free measurement. This experiment was repeated three times [21].
stream air having some velocity, and then the advance ratio is When the rotor distance on the same axis is minimized, then the
calculated. The advance ratio is the ratio of free stream air size of the UAV is also minimized [21]. Smaller UAVs have
velocity, rotor rotation, and its radius. It is given in eq 10. been built on coaxial rotor configuration. The coaxial rotor
When the advance ratio increases, then the rotor thrust configuration UAV generates higher thrust but less than the
decreases [22]. In the downstream of the multirotor propeller, twice independent rotor thrust generated by the flat
the propeller thrust decreases. Due to this effect, the advance configuration. Thrust has been calculated at different positions
ratio and thrust of propeller blades of multirotor changes. The of the rotor [21]. As the rotor axis has been changed in the
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of multirotor have been configuration, then the thrust value was also changed. It has
carried out by Ghost [21] to check the ground effect of been carried out to investigate the rotor overlapping gap
multirotor UAVs. There are many configurations for multirotor distance.
propellers, and one of the famous configurations is the coaxial The revolutions of propellers were taken from 4000 to 6000
configuration. For analyzing different configurations based on RPM for biaxial rotor and coaxial rotor configurations. The
rotor flow, Taylor [28] analyzed biaxial and coaxial rotation of the rotor was taken at 6000RPM to avoid vibration
configurations. Taylor visualized experimentally that how the for measuring the static force by using force and torque sensor
wake generated by the upper blade enters the lower propeller [21]. Three different rotor positions were analyzed that include
blade in a coaxial configuration. Taylor saw that the thrust bi-rotor, coaxial, and sliding parallel rotor. In the case of bi-
rotor configuration, the rotor distance varied from 200mm to rotor axis distance, plane angle but keeping the rotational speed
500 mm by keeping a 50mm interval between these values. In the same.
the case of coaxial configuration, the rotor distance was taken
as 50mm, 100mm, 200mm, 300mm, 400mm, 500mm, and Table 3 Experimental conditions
700mm for measuring upper and lower rotors independent Rotor diagonal axis distance 400,450, 500
thrust values. In the case of sliding parallel rotor configuration, (mm)
the rotor distance was taken from 0mm to 400mm by keeping Rotor plane angle degrees 0,15, 30, 45
the 50mm interval. The distance of the rotor plane was kept (0)
from 50 to 150mm with an interval of 50mm. Rotational speed (RPM) 6000
B. Rotor Thrust Evaluation The distance between two rotors is called the rotor shaft
239mm diameter rotors have been used for thrust calculation. distance and this configuration is called sliding parallel rotor
The configuration is shown in fig 23. configuration as shown in fig 24 The distance between rotor
planes in the coaxial configuration is called the rotor plane
distance and it is shown in fig 25.
Figure 23 Rotors configuration [21] Figure 24 Rotor shaft distance [21]
A small-scale octocopter UAV has been chosen for an

experiment, and it was placed upside-down position to avoid
the grand effect. One propeller is between two propellers to test
the proper thrust of the octocopter UAV [21]. The angle
between the upper and lower rotors has been changed and
varied from 0 to 45 degrees. The diagonal distance of rotors has
been set to 400mm, 450mm, and 500mm according to the size
of the frame of the UAV. Thrust loss was seen in this type of
arrangement of rotors. All of the dimensions have been
summarized in table 2. For quadcopters, 450mm diagonal frame Figure 25 Rotor plane distance [21]
axis is a common choice for 6000RPM propeller rotation. By
changing diagonal axis distance from 400mm to 500mm, VIII. COMMUNICATION PLATFORM
propeller shaft distance, and revolution speed of the rotors Communication Platforms:
different thrust values have been achieved [21]. The diagonal
i) Ground Control Station
axis distance at which the maximum thrust has been achieved
is fixed, but the rotor plane angle is changed in an overlapping ii) Radio Control
configuration as shown in table 2.
i. Ground Control Station
This open-source software can run on many devices, including
Table 2 Thrust measurement for biaxial rotors
computers, tablets, and vice versa. It provides wireless
1 communication with computers and any device. It uses
Diagonal axis distance (mm) 400, 450, 500 telemetry, which is a hardware radio that is used to connect the
2 computer’s ground control station with the UAV. Some
Propeller shaft distance 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, 700 available ground controlling software used for connecting
(mm) computers with the UAV is Q Ground control, mission planner,
Revolution speed 4000, 6000 (RPM) APM planner, and vice versa. Telemetry is linked with the
computer through the MAVLink protocol [35].
From the proposed configuration by Otsuka et al [21] the best
configuration for the multirotor propeller placement has been ii. Radio Control
shown in table 3. Different thrust values have been achieved by A radio control system is used for controlling the UAV’s
movements and orientations. The movements are the throttle of
the drone motors, and orientation is the pitch, roll, and yaw
operations controlled by the radio control. Available RC
(Radio control) transmitter are multichannel and single channel. B. ARM-based Flight Controllers
Multichannel produces PWM (pulse width modulation), and a Some flight controllers use ARM-based technology which is
single-channel produces PPM (Pulse position modulation). discussed below:
There are many publicly available hardware platforms. Public a. Pixhawk/PX4

hardware platforms include all mechanical drawings, It was developed by geometry labs of Zurich, computer vision
Schematic diagrams, and PCBs [36]. There are many platforms labs, and autonomous system labs [35]. It is a research-based
available. Some platforms have been discussed below. flight controller board. It has its memory, flight management
unit (FMU), and other features. Figures show the Pixhawk
A. FPGA based Flight Controllers flight controller and its main circuit board. It is sold under the
It includes Phenix Pro and Octagonal pilot on-chip. Barkley software distribution license. It is shown in fig 28.
a. Phenix Pro:
It can be a reconfigurable system on a chip and also called SOC
(system on chip). It was built in Hangzhou China. It is Linux
based and real-time operating system. Linux based operating
syst3em is the Robot operating system (ROS). Its FPGA based
system enables it to operate on computer vision and deep neural
network algorithm application. It has many onboard sensors and
supports more than 20 sensors including Lidar, thermal camera,
ultra-vision video transceiver operates through SDR (Software-
defined radio). Figures show its circuit board and complete
casing with the board. It is shown in fig 26.
Figure 28 Pixhawk enclosure and circuit board [37]
b. Pixhawk 2
This hardware is from the Pixhawk family and is developed by
the efforts of PX4 and ardupilot teams. IT CONSISTS OF 3
GPS modules and 3 IMUs. It has only one DF17 connector in
which all input and output pins are connected. It has a small
Figure 26 Phenix Pro Flight Controller [37]
intel Edison computer on it. Fig 29 shows the full body of PX4
and figure b shows the PX4 circuit board. It is available under
b. Octagonal pilot on chip
the CC-BY-SA-3.0 license. Its enclosure and circuit board are
The University of Kansa USA developed it in 2015. It is written
shown in fig 29.
as OcPoC. The sensors can be integrated by programming, and
it is programable. It uses PWM, PPM, and GP10 pins. It
consists of some other connectors like GPS, CSI camera link,
and SSD card. Ardupilot software can easily run OcPoC
hardware platform for flight. It is publicly available, but its
source code is not available publicly. It is shown in fig 27.
Figure 29 Pixhawk 2 flight controller enclosure and circuit

Figure 27 Octagonal Pilot on Chip enclosure and circuit board [37]
board [37]
c. Paparazzi
It is considered as the first and oldest available flight controller
board which is publicly available. It was developed in 2003 by
ENAC Labs [38]. In 2017 ENAC Labs launched a new flight
controller that was working on STM32F7 which is a
Microcontroller Unit (MCU). This new flight controller board
is called Chimera. It is shown in fig 30.
Figure 32 Naze 32 flight controller [49]

C. Atmel Based Flight Controllers
These are some other types of flight controllers which have

been discussed below:
Figure 30 Paparazzi Chimera [38] a. Ardupilot Mega (APM)

APM is the Arduino based flight controller and operates like
d. Atom and CC3D controllers Arduino based flight controller board. It can control fixed-wing
These flight controllers have the same functionalities but are UAVs, multirotor UAVs, helicopters, ground vehicles, and
available in different sizes. These flight controllers can be antenna trackers. Figures a and b shows its complete body and
configured or programmed to fly any configuration like fixed- circuit board. It is shown in fig 33.
wing UAV and multirotor UAV. These can be controlled by
publicly available software like Libra pilot software. These are
shown in fig 31.
Figure 33 Ardupilot Mega Flight Controller Board [37]
b. Fly Maple
It is a quadcopter control board working on an Arduino based
controller. It is based on maple so that this flight controller
board is called Fly Maple. It is used to control balancing robots,
Figure 31 CC3D flight controller board [37] moving platforms, and quadcopters. It is available publicly
e. Naze 32 controller under the GPL V3 license. It is shown in fig 34.
It is popular for the FPV racing quadcopter drone. It is light in
weight and cheap in price. There are many Naze 32 flight
controllers but selecting an F3 or F4 processor board is
challenging. Naze 32 uses Clean Flight which is open-source
software for its programming. It uses a 32-bit processor which
makes it suitable for the quadcopter. It has only 5 grams of
mass. It is shown in fig 32.
b. Mikrockopter
It was the latest available flight controller and was available
online. It was based on ATMEGA1284P [37], [40]. Its new
version is 3.0 and is available on the internet It is shown in fig
37.
Figure 34 Fly Maple Flight controller [37]
D. Raspberry Pi based Platforms

a. Erle-Brain 3
It is used for drones as a flight controller. It belongs to the
Raspberry Pi family It Linux based controller board. It is Figure 37 Mikrokopter Flight Controller [40]
capable of controlling several sensors and many power
electronics systems. Erle robotics Spain developed it. It is c. Matrix Pilot
shown in fig 35. It was used for fixed-wing UAVs. It had a 16bit digital signal
controller given by microchip and was developed by Spark fun.
Now, this flight controller board is retired, but its schematic is
available on the internet. The software for controlling this flight
controller is also available [41]. It is shown in fig 38.
Figure 35 Erle Brain 3 Flight Controller [37]
E. Obsolete Flight controllers

The following discussed flight controllers are not being used
nowadays.
a. AeroQuad Figure 38 Matrixpilot flight controller board [41]
It is based on Arduino and was used for controlling the
quadcopter. However, it is no longer used nowadays. Its
software is available on the internet [39]. It is shown in fig 36.
F. Publicly Available Software

Publicly available software is the software that is available
open-source with a license. The license gives authority to a
person to use the software, and distribute it to anyone, make
changes according to his desires [42].
a. Ardupilot
It is a very reliable software. It is used to control any type of
vehicle, multirotor, and helicopter given in its software. It can
control even submarines [37]. This software is made to run on
its controller board. Previously it was used to run on Ardupilot
Figure 36 AeroQuad Flight Controller [39] Mega (APM) flight controller boards. This software was
previously developed to run on an 8-bit ARM-based MCU
(Microcontroller Unit) board. Now it has been further open-source software. These boards can be used for all types of
developed to run-on 32-bit ARM-based controller board. It is a multirotor configurations. These can be easily programmed for
Linux based controller board and available on the GPL V3 autonomous flight of UAVs. Pixhawk/PX4 comes with an SD
license. card that is used for memory storage. Pixhawk 2, also called
Pixhawk cube comes with a built-in Intel Edison Chip which
b. Multiwii serves as an onboard computer.
This software works on Arduino based platforms. It supports
several sensors and flight controller platforms. It can support
multirotor from three to eight propellers, i.e. tri-copter to
octocopter. The source code of this software is available on the
internet under the GPL V3 license.
c. AutoQuad
It had been developed for STM32F4 and CORTEX M4 series
controller boards. Its development period is more than six years
[43]. It can support up to 14 propellers. It is compatible with Q
Ground Control. It is available publicly under the GPL V3
license.
d. Libre Pilot
This software was started in 2015. It is used for controlling the
UAVs and used for their autonomous flight [44]. It is capable
of running several ARM-based flight controller boards. It is
available on the internet under the GPL V3 license.
G. Obsolete Software
The software that is not in use nowadays are given below:
a. J Aviator
It was the project of the University of Salzburg, Austria [45].
The development of this software had been started in 2006 and
ended in 2013. Three different software platforms were
developed by the research team of the University of J Aviator
Plant (JAP). The flight control system is written in C language
on the AT mega processor that was placed on Robotix-Gunstix
Stack. Its source code is available on the internet [46].
b. Open Pilot
It was an open-source flight controller and was available easily.
It was sued to control multirotor and fixed-wing UAVs. Libre
Pilot replaced it in 2015.
Table 4 shows the comparison of available flight controllers.

The processors, mass, power consumption, pros, and cons of
flight controllers have been summarized. After a detailed study
of flight controllers, the opensource flight controllers have been
summarized in table 3. Table 3 shows that the Pixhawk/PX4
and Pixhawk 2 flight controllers are best for use on multirotor
and fixed-wing UAVs. Both flight controllers use ARM cortex
processors which use less power for operation. These flight
controllers are used for bigger UAV platforms to carry a heavy
payload. These are used for more than 350mm frame UAV
platforms. These are very user-friendly flight controller boards.
These flight controller boards can be programmed easily using
Table 4 Flight controller’s comparison
Flight controllers Processors Power Mass Pros Cons

consumption (grams)
(watts)
Phenix Pro ARM Cortex - 2.6 64 It has Linux based ROS. Heavy in mass.
A9 It has 20+ interfaces like Lidar, thermal camera, Schematic is a closed
ultra-vision HD video transceiver, and SDR. source.
Difficult to program.
OcPoc FPGA SoC 4 70 Octagonal shape. It has a heavy mass.

(ARM cortex - Program easily on Ardupilot software. Expensive.
A9) High power
consumption.
Pixhawk/PX4 ARM cortex- 2-2.5 38 It has a PX4-FMU controller with an additional It is not used for FPV
M4F memory using a memory card. racing.
Can be used for a bigger frame. Memory losses in
Input and out on the single board on the same side. memory chip may
Use less power occur.
Program easily using Ardupilot software. Oldest flight
Able to interface with companion computers. controller board.
Very popular. Less power
YouTube is littered with its tutorials. consumption.
Pixhawk 2 ARM cortex- 2-2.5 38 It contains triple IMU and 3 GPS modules. Similar to original
M4F Can be used for a bigger frame. Pixhawk.
All I/O of the board are in single DF17 connector. Expensive.
Has intel Edison which is a computer.
Open schematic and easily to program using open-
source software.
Best for future drones.
CC3D STM32 F 1.05 8 Cheap, Light weight, popular. Rarely available.
They are widely controlled by open-source Board choice is hard
software. as it does not contain
reputable sensors.
Closed-source
schematic.
Paparazzi STM32 F767 1.6 38 STM32 board. Old technology.
Open-source software. Difficult to program.
Can be used for all types of UAVs.
APM2.8 ATMEGA 2560 1.6 31 Arduino mega based board. It has a lot of input
It is easily programmed. and output pins.
Can control every UAV and ground robots.
Erle-Brain Raspberry Pi 1.6 15 It uses raspberry pi technology. Difficult to program.
Linux based system. Open-source
It contains several sensors. software is rare.
Controls robots and drones.
Atom STM32 F 1.6 4 Uses STM32 Rarely available.
It has all types of stabilization hardware for Difficult to integrate
programming with the open pilot and Libra pilot. with UAV hardware
and software.
Fly maple STM32 1.6 15 Arduino style ARM processor. It is only used for
Run balancing robots, mobile platforms, quadcopters, not for
helicopters and quadcopters. all other
It has IMUs and high-performance real-time configurations.
controllers.
Naze32 32-bit F3 or F4 0.5 5 For FPV racing drones. It is only used for the
It is light in weight and very affordable price. quadcopter.
Ideal for FPV quadcopter. It is used for small
racing drones.
Limited functions.
There is no difference
between older and
new version by look.
have been compared. The total thrust produced by the normal
Table 5 Open-source flight controller software platforms octocopter was eight times the independent rotor thrust. The
Software Processor Programming total thrust produced by the overlapping rotor configuration for
platforms language octocopter UAV was four times the independent rotor thrust.
The octocopter rotor angle variation from 0o to 45o and its
position has been shown in fig 39.
Multiwii 8-bit ATmega328 C
Ardupilot 32-bit ARM C++
AutoQuad 32-bit ARM C
LibraPilot 32-bit ARM C++
Table 5 shows various open-source flight controller software

platforms. Different powerful programming languages have
been used in these software platforms. These software
platforms made programming of controller boards very easy.
An ordinary man who does not know the programming Figure 39 Octocopter rotor angle variation from 0 o to 45o
languages can easily program flight controller boards can easily [21]
program hardware platforms. Different flight controller boards
use different processors, and each processor can be The total thrust produced by the coaxial octocopter UAV
programmed with the relevant programming language. configuration has been calculated as 70% of the normal
octocopter UAV configuration. In the proposed overlapping
VIII. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS octocopter UAV configuration, the thrust was 84% for 400mm
shaft distance, for 450mm shaft distance it was 89% and 93%
From previous studies, it has been concluded from the flow for 500mm shaft distance. The thrust produced by the
simulation of rotors in the case of bi-rotor configuration. The overlapping configuration has been increased as the rotor length
thrust generated by the rotors was nearly constant [28], [47], increased.
[48]. The thrust does not affect when the tip distance of rotors In the thrust test of octocopter UAV, it has been shown that the
is minimized. The size of the multirotor may be reduced by thrust produced at 0o rotor angle was 73% of the thrust produced
reducing the gap between rotors in the same axis, and their by the normal rotor configuration. At an angle of 45 o, the thrust
thrust is maintained. The only disadvantage is that the yaw produced by a 400mm shaft was 85% of the thrust produced by
movement of UAV is affected [21]. the independent rotor. At 45o, when shaft distance has been
When the UAV is tested, then it was found that the thrust taken to 450mm, then the thrust produced by this configuration
generated by the rotors was 2.95N, and it remained constant. was 90% of the independent rotor. For 500mm shaft length at
The thrust generated by the upper rotor was less than the lower 45o rotor angle, the thrust value has been calculated as 94% of
rotor thrust. At 0o rotor angle, which is the coaxial configuration the independent thrust produced by the eight rotors of an
the rotor produced thrust was 1.4N. It was seen that the thrust octocopter UAV.
produced by the upper rotor was 45% less than the thrust by the The thrust produced by a UAV of 450mm diagonal length,
independent rotor. When the rotor angle was increased than the varied from 73% to 90% from 0o to 45o. It has been concluded
thrust produced by the lower rotor had also been increased. that the thrust has been improved by reducing the overlapping
Thrust was maximum at 45o of the rotor angle, and the same rotor area. It is shown from the comparison of coaxial and
rotor angle, the value of thrust had been increased as the overlapping configurations that the thrust improves in an
diagonal axis distance was increased. The thrust was 68% of the overlapping configuration. The rotor thrust improvement has
impendent rotor thrust at 400mm diagonal axis distance. The been achieved in the overlapping configuration for a limited
thrust value has been increased to 85% of the independent rotor size of octocopter UAV. It has been analyzed from the whole
thrust at 500mm diagonal axis distance. When the overlap area study that the thrust produced by the coaxial rotor configuration
of the rotors has been reduced by increasing the diagonal was 73% of the independent rotor thrust and 24% more
distance at 45o rotor angle of the UAV, then the thrust loss by improvement of thrust in overlapping configuration from the
the lower rotor had been reduced. This lower rotor thrust loss coaxial rotor configuration. In this case, the thrust improves,
was the problem in coaxial rotor configuration. The results had and flight time is reduced.
been calculated for an octocopter UAV with overlapping
configuration and normal configuration. Their thrust losses
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A Critical Analysis of Small But Heavy-Lift Multirotor and Their Flight Controllers

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A Critical Analysis of Small But Heavy-Lift Multirotor and Their Flight Controllers

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A critical analysis of small but heavy-lift multirotor and

their flight controllers

Engineering Engineering Engineering Engineering Engineering

978-0-7381-0535-2/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE

Figure 2 XR-10 synchropter [9]

In 1941, Igor Sikorsky of the United States experimented with

Figure 4 Y shaped Tri-copter UAV [3]

Figure 5 T shaped Tri-copter [50]

Figure 8 "Y" Quadcopter [3]

D. Penta copter Figure 10 Hex copter [3]

Figure 9 Penta copter [3]

Table 1 Multirotor Configurations

Sr. No Multirotor No. of Stability

1 Bi-copter 2 Less stable

2 Tri-copter 3 Less stable

Figure 12 Octo X octa copter [3] 4 Penta-copter 5 Less stable

IV. MULTIROTOR UAV COMPONENTS

Figure 14 14 Pole PM BLDC rotor [18]

Figure 18 wye and delta stator coils [18]

BLDC motors have high efficiency, high speed, noiseless

B. Electronic Speed Controller (ESC)

Figure 19 ESC Function diagram [18]

In ESC, the Atmel ATmega8L microcontroller unit (MCU) is

Where D is the diameter of the propeller, V is the propeller

VI. PROPELLER CONFIGURATIONS C. Overlapping Rotor Configuration

Figure 23 Rotors configuration [21] Figure 24 Rotor shaft distance [21]

A small-scale octocopter UAV has been chosen for an

There are many publicly available hardware platforms. Public a. Pixhawk/PX4

Figure 28 Pixhawk enclosure and circuit board [37]

Figure 29 Pixhawk 2 flight controller enclosure and circuit

Figure 32 Naze 32 flight controller [49]

These are some other types of flight controllers which have

Figure 30 Paparazzi Chimera [38] a. Ardupilot Mega (APM)

Figure 33 Ardupilot Mega Flight Controller Board [37]

Figure 34 Fly Maple Flight controller [37]

D. Raspberry Pi based Platforms

Figure 35 Erle Brain 3 Flight Controller [37]

E. Obsolete Flight controllers

F. Publicly Available Software

Table 4 shows the comparison of available flight controllers.

Flight controllers Processors Power Mass Pros Cons

OcPoc FPGA SoC 4 70 Octagonal shape. It has a heavy mass.

Multiwii 8-bit ATmega328 C

Ardupilot 32-bit ARM C++

AutoQuad 32-bit ARM C

LibraPilot 32-bit ARM C++

Table 5 shows various open-source flight controller software

[48] D. W. Taylor, “The speed and power of ships: a manual of marine

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