Multirotor
Appearance
A multirotor[1] or multicopter is a rotorcraft with more than two rotors. Multirotors often use fixed-pitch blades, whose rotor pitch does not vary as the blades rotate; control of vehicle motion is achieved by varying the relative speed of each rotor to change the thrust and torque produced by each.
Due to their ease of both construction and control, multirotor aircraft are frequently used in model and radio control aircraft projects[2][3][4][5][6] in which the names quadcopter, hexacopter and octocopter are frequently used to refer to 4-, 6- and 8-propeller helicopters, respectively.
Radio controlled multirotors are increasingly used as a low-budget option to create aerial photography and videos of sites and buildings.
Examples
- Cierva Air Horse - a British three rotor helicopter, three rotors were used to give a large lift without compromising rotor strength.[citation needed]
- Quadrotors - Etienne Oehmichen and George de Bothezat built and flew quadrotor designs in the 1920s.[citation needed]
- e-volo - a German prototype electric multicopter with 16 rotors, the first electric multicopter in the world to achieve manned flight.[7] The large number of low-cost motors make it economical, quiet and provide redundancy with ability to maintain control with up to four failed motors.[8]
References
- ^ Early in helicopter development,"multi-rotor" was used to refer to helicopters with two rotor assemblies
- ^ "AeroQuad - The Open Source Quadcopter".
- ^ Table comparing various DIY multicopter projects
- ^ The Wolferl Open-design Quadcopter, Welcome to the Open Source Next Generation Multicopter
- ^ DIY drones
- ^ OpenPilot Open source UAV autopilot for multirotors
- ^ "German multicopter makes first manned flight". sUAS news. 1 November 2011. Retrieved 3 Nov 2011.
- ^ "New Aircraft Arises from Germany". Sport Aviation: 14. January 2012.