Tricopter

Flight test
About to take off

Inspiration

We're all researchers in robotics, and wanted the chance to try a new robotics challenge we haven't done previously, in a time crunched environment. Since tricopters are rarely made devices in the drone field, we decided to try and make one from scratch.

What it does

Remote controlled drone that flies using only three DC motors, plus a servo motor to control pivoting.

How we built it

The frame was laser cut, with 3D printed attachments for motors + prop guards, and copper strips for legs. The entire electronics are bolted with M3 screws.

Challenges we ran into

Quite a few failed 3D prints, issues with the software for the flight controller (which is horribly underdocumented), lack of propeller adapters (we used teflon tape and hot glue), issues with the wireless reciever not communicating over SBUS, and general exhaustion.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're incredibly proud of the fact that we made an entire tricopter in the span of a night, as well as the fact that we learned a firmware which had relatively no information online as to how to use it, as well as drone software in general (none of us knew drone software before this hackathon)

What we learned

The software which runs drones, mechanical control mechanisms for tricopters, communication methods for flight controllers, and a lot of mechanical engineering tidbits.