What is Drone, parts of drone, types of drone.

WHAT IS A DRONE…

A drone is an uncrewed aerial vehicle. It is a flying device that is controlled remotely by humans. It has a software-controlled system that works to give it intelligence, and this software is connected with many sensors so that that particular drone can do the work that we want it to do.

PARTS OF A DRONE

Mainly there are 9 parts of DRONE…

1. Pusher Propellers 2. Brushless Motors 3. Landing Gear 4. Electronic Speed Controllers 5. Flight Controller 6. The Receiver AND The Transmitter 7. GPS Module 8. Battery 9. Camera

PROPELLERS: Propellers are the wings of the drone that generate thrust for the drone to fly.

BRUSHLESS MOTORS: The main function of the motor is to provide torque to the propellers so that the propellers can generate thrust in the air. The reason for using a brushless motor is that they generate higher torque for the same weight compared to a brushed motor.

LANDING GEAR: The main function of landing gear is to provide a suspension system during take-off and landing and to provide additional ground clearance. This can help protect the drone camera from damage. They can widen the drone’s “stance”, allowing for a more stable take-off and landing.

ELECTRONIC SPEED CONTROLLER: This device helps in controlling the speed of the motor by directly changing the frequency or amplitude.

FLIGHT CONTROLLER: The function of the Flight controller is to control the drone. All the movements, speed, camera, direction, landing and take-off all these things are controlled by the Flight controller.

THE RECEIVER AND TRANSMITTER: The function of the Transmitter is to transmit commands wirelessly through radio signals in a fixed frequency and the function of the Receiver(connected to the drone)  is to receive those commands from the transmitter and allow the drone to follow those command.

GPS MODULE: The main use of the GPS module is Navigation. It allows them to navigate their location relative to a network of orbiting satellites. 

BATTERY: Battery gives the power supply to the drone.

CAMERA: The camera is used for capturing the footage of the wanted site.

Some uses of drones in various field:

1. Industrial uses of Drones:

• Used in mapping.
• Used in monitoring.
• Used in inspections.
• Used for security.
• Used in emergency response.

2. Commercial uses of Drones:

• Used in special events.
• Used in media coverage.
• Used in Agriculture.
• Used for delivery.
• Used for search operations after a natural disaster.

3. Uses of Drones in the military:

• In anti Terror activities.
• Used for border security.
• Used to control the crime.
• Used to detect threats.
• Used in crowd monitoring.

According to the functions and uses of drones, drones are divided into four types.

1. Multi-Rotor Drones.

2. Single-Rotor Drones.

3. Fixed-Wing Hybrid VTOL.

4. Fixed-Wing Drones.

MULTI-ROTOR Drones:

It is the easiest and cheapest to build a multirotor drone. These drones are considered to be very capable of aerial photography and surveillance because they offer greater control of the flight controller over the position of the drone. They are called multirotor drones because they have more than one motor. The most common multirotor drones are tri-copter(3 motors), quadcopter(4 motors), hexa-copter(6 motors) and octocopter (8 motors). And all these quadcopters are the most popular among the multirotor drones.

Advantages:-

• Due to its excellent maneuverability, it can move in the same vertical line, i.e. it can move back and forth in the same line and up and down in the same line.
• The flight controller has more control over these drones.
• It can fly very close to any object, building or structure.

Disadvantages:-

• Compared to other drones, it has very limited endurance, it does not have much speed, due to which it is not capable of large-scale aerial mapping, long-endurance monitoring and long-distance inspection. example:- long-distance pipeline inspection,  Roads, electricity lines.
• Each of its fundamental rotors does not have that much power, so it needs a lot of energy to oppose gravity and keep itself in the air.
• Even with a light camera, it can give only 20 to 30 minutes of flight time and with a slightly heavy camera, it is not able to give that much.
• To maintain its stability, we cannot use the gas engine in it which can power its multiple rotors, so it is restricted to electric motors only. Until a new source of energy is found, we will get to see only a very limited flight time in this.

Uses of Multirotor Drone:-

• 3-D scan.
• Visual inspections.
• Thermal reports.
• Photography and Videography.

SINGLE ROTOR Drone:

Single rotor drones have only one very large rotor, its propellers are also very large. It looks like an actual helicopter. Single-rotor drones are very strong and durable.

Advantages:-

• A single-rotor drone has more efficiency than a multirotor drone, and its efficiency increases if its engine is gas-powered.
• A single-rotor drone has very large blades, which do not require much energy once it gets momentum and due to having only one rotor, it requires less energy than a multirotor drone due to which Single rotor Drone has a lot of efficiencies.
• They are very strong and durable.
• If you want to hover any kind of heavy payload in it or if you want to hover multiple payloads at once, then you can do that thing very easily in this single-rotor drone.

Disadvantages:-

• Building single-rotor drones is complex and expensive.
• Single-rotor drones vibrate a lot, due to which they are not stable like multi-rotor drones and their landing is also not correct or you can say they are not able to land smoothly.
• Due to their complex build, single-rotor drones require a lot of maintenance which makes them even more expensive.

Fixed-wings drones:

Fixed-Wing Drones have a single rigid wing which gives this drone an aeroplane-like design and this drone also works like an aeroplane as it does not require vertical lift rotors. It only needs forward-moving rotors, so this drone does not require any extra energy to hold itself in the air, due to this it is quite energy-efficient.

Advantages:-

• Fixed-wing drones cover longer distances, they can cover a very large area in one go. This means if you want to monitor a very large area for a very long time, then you can do it very easily with the help of this drone.
• Fixed-wing drones give us a very long flight time. Fixed-wing drones give us an average flight time of 2 hours, but if you run them on higher density fuel(gas-powered engine) then their flight time can go up to 16 hours.

Disadvantages:-

• Generally, training is required to fly fixed-wing drones, if you are flying a fixed-wing drone you have to be confident in your ability to control fixed-wing drones and you will be able to can also land softly. Generally, fixed-wing drones require a launcher to launch.