Fixed-wing planes and helicopters are no longer the darling of the RC world. Even quadcopters and other multirotors are starting to look old hat, as the community looks to ever more outrageous designs. [rctestflight] has slimmed things down to the extreme with this coaxial bicopter build, also known as the Flying Stick (Youtube video, embedded below).
The initial design consists of two brushless outrunner motors fitted with props, rotating in opposite directions to cancel out their respective torques. Each is mounted on a gimbal, setup to provide control authority. iNav is used as a flight controller, chosen due to its versatile motor mixing settings. The craft was built to test its ability at recovery from freefall, as a follow-on from earlier attempts at building a brushless “rocket” craft.
Performance is surprisingly good for what is fundamentally two props on a stick. Initial tests didn’t quite manage a successful recovery, but the repaired single-gimbal version almost achieves the feat. Multirotors in general struggle with freefall recovery, so more research in this area is definitely worthwhile. Video after the break.
Oh wow! This can only mean that the “explanations” of flying rods were faked. Also that time travel is possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amnNgXRK_vo
Aside from that, very cool.
Some women have been known to travel on flying rods for centuries.
But instead of motors, they used a bundle of straw at one end for propulsion.
I always thought “flying on broomsticks” was a euphemism for taking one’s personal pleasure into one’s own hands. Better demonize that before they gain any traction against the status quo!
Naw, there were many many other terms for that. Like making a battledore from a leather glove. Or buttering a carrot.
Well witches have been flying on brooms for centuries they used more than straw for “propulsion”.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkroll/2017/10/31/the-origin-of-witches-riding-broomsticks-drugs-from-nature-plus-shakespeare/#32e739cb61a9
Wow!
Interesting…
This will have a permanent affect on my viewing experience of Harry Potter films in the future. :-)
Opposite-rotating top-and-bottom prop drones aren’t terribly new. Dean Ing used one in his 1993 novel Butcher Bird, where such a device was used as an assassination platform.
Or back even further to WWII where Heinkel had come up with the Lerche, a contra-rotating ducted fan VTOL fighter concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_Lerche
Fuck you instability, we got math
That mechanism is wild, with the servos remote from the gimbal, one swashplate short of a traditional heli!
It is most definitely a herd of gooses, yes indeed.
As if there is another more appropriate term…time to check on my flock of cattles.
Flocks of cattle settling on power-lines have been responsible for a great deal of hardship over the years.
This is definitely going to be a thing. Hot glue might not be the best choice, though.
He really stuck that one landing, about 6″ deep.
Indeed, he must have a plentiful supply of spare propellers to not bother with at least some sort of minimal landing gear around the base. Three or four thin rods ought to be enough. Then at least he could land it without having to chase the thing around trying to catch it.
will the faa rules on size and weight still apply here?
I’m really surprised no one made a Monty Python pointed stick reference yet?
I, for one, welcome our new stick overlords.
How will we ever be able to stick it to our stick overlords?
Am I the only one seeing Wonderbot from the Robots cartoon? http://orig15.deviantart.net/ee40/f/2008/141/c/7/wonderbot_render2_by_webgrafi.jpg
If only we had a Howard Hughes style counter-rotating propeller system with variable pitch and speed. Then one could put all the props on one end and landing would be simpler and one could also possibly make a unit that could be summoned. It would be so cool if a man dressed as a Wizard could summon his staff and grab it when it approaches.
Does anyone know where to get the gimbals he’s using?