Up until relatively recently, the term drone never really bothered us; it was a word that was seldom heard of, and when it was mentioned, was used in a military context
Now if you thought the widespread characteristic of the word ‘drone’ was extensive, categorising what can be considered as an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is somewhat equally ambiguous. Without going through the ins and outs of UAV’s from this point forth whenever I talk about drones, just imagine the flying robot kind, generally also called quadcopters.with several other complex military terms. Over the last few years these technological wonders have become a rather hot topic, not only in the world of military, but in the consumer environment also. The term drone is incredibly broad, initially conceived in the English language as a male honeybee, eventually transforming into a regular phrase for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.
How do they Work?
Now the reason that they have only become popular in recent years is all down to the sheer complications involved when trying to accurately command each propeller not only to spin, but to spin in correlation with each other, keeping the quadcopter stable at all times. For the quadcopter to work correctly it needs to achieve ‘hover equilibrium’, a concept that is influenced by three variables, torque, thrust and drag.So what has made these flying robots so popular in the past few years? One of the main reasons hobbyists and remote control enthusiasts are a fan of these quadrocopters is all down to just how simple the mechanics are. In terms of moving parts, there are 4 spinning motor shafts, connected to four rotating propellers and that is virtually it, simply add the frame, electronic speed control, receiver, controller, Li-Po flight batteries, the electronic stabilisation kit and voila you have a ready to go quadcopter.
Resolving these manually would be nigh on impossible, but with the intervention of computing and micro processing it is achievable. Modern technology was needed for these because there are absolute thousands, if not millions, of calculations that need to be executed on a small scale, hence why the first quadcopters introduced the market were much larger and had very simple controls, anything more adventurous just wouldn’t have been possible.
As episode one I hope this blog provides you with a slight insight into how drones work and why they have become and are becoming increasingly popular not only in the consumer world, but in the commercial world also. In episode two I aim to provide further insight into the uses of drones, and episode three will show drones and promotional application.