A Unified Approach to Configuration-based Dynamic Analysis of Quadcopters for Optimal Stability

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive dynamic model for six new quadcopter configurations, analyzing their stability and identifying the most statically stable design with damping motion in all axes.

Contribution

It introduces six novel quadcopter configurations, models their dynamics comprehensively, and identifies the most stable configuration with damping motion.

Findings

One configuration achieves maximum static stability.

Damping motion in Roll/Pitch/Yaw enhances stability.

First-time modeling of these configurations.

Abstract

A special type of rotary-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), called Quadcopter have prevailed to the civilian use for the past decade. They have gained significant amount of attention within the UAV community for their redundancy and ease of control, despite the fact that they fall under an under-actuated system category. They come in a variety of configurations. The "+" and "x" configurations were introduced first. Literature pertinent to these two configurations is vast. However, in this paper, we define 6 additional possible configurations for a Quadcopter that can be built under either "+" or "x" setup. These configurations can be achieved by changing the angle that the axis of rotation for rotors make with the main body, i.e., fuselage. This would also change the location of the COM with respect to the propellers which can add to the overall stability. A comprehensive dynamic model for all these configurations is developed for the first time. The overall stability for these configurations are addressed. In particular, it is shown that one configuration can lead to the most statically-stable platform by adopting damping motion in Roll/Pitch/Yaw, which is described for the first time to the best of our knowledge.