Design of a four rotor unmanned aerial vehicle capable of sustaining zero-roll and zero-pitch flight using vector thrusting

Abstract

In recent decades, remote controlled airplanes and helicopters equipped with video cameras have been used by the movie industry, photographers, and for surveillance. The military deploys these unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) to gather various types of reconnaissance. Recently, four-rotor helicopters have gained interest. A difficulty associated with attaching a camera to any type of helicopter is stabilization. Either the camera must be mounted on a motorized platform or the acquired data must be post-processed by a computer. The objective of this thesis was to design and build a four-rotor UAV that can fly while remaining horizontal. The design presented here utilizes vector thrusting to achieve full maneuverability while not requiring tilting of the vehicle.