Saying that drones are the future is a huge understatement. In the modern-day and age, drones are creeping into many industries, from saving motion picture budgets for Hollywood to protecting our borders with the highly sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicle drones (UAV). Owning drones is a popular culture among vloggers, video-influencers, and not to forget drone enthusiasts.
The world-famous eCommerce website Amazon has inducted delivery drones as an alternative to trucks to save precious energy and fuel for local deliveries. DARPA has been researching swarm drone tech to protect the American soldiers during conventional warfare. Helicopters rarely perform low altitude filming for many film industries globally. It’s safe to say that drones have their wings spread from the transport to defense industries worldwide.
Drone prices these days vary from a few dollars to a few million dollars. This sophisticated piece of equipment that can sometimes fit in your pocket for as little as $41 makes most want to grab one for themselves and have loads of fun.
The Science Behind Drones
The term “drone” comes from the Swedish term “dröna,” which means to hum at idle speeds, significant to the insect kingdom. The hum that bees generate from the steady flapping of their wings while they hover over flowers to indulge in its sweet nectar is significantly related to drones. In the following point, we’ll be highlighting a little bit of the science on how quadcopter drones hover, pitch yaw, and roll.
Hover
A Quadcopter drone has four rotors placed on diagonal angles. These rotors work in sync with their diagonal counterpart, i.e., two diagonal rotors as a pair rotate in the counter-clockwise direction and the remaining two rotors in the counter-clockwise direction. This is to nullify the counter-rotational force that would have forced the quadcopter to rotate uncontrollably in the opposite direction if all four rotors were to rotate in a common direction (Newton’s third law: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.)
With this two rotor pair combination, the quadcopter nullifies any opposite forces and becomes stable. Increasing the thrust now would allow it to attain altitude and maintain a stable hover. A highly sophisticated quadcopter like the DJI Phantom 2, with its hover ability, can climb up to a staggering 11000 ft (2 miles from the ground), making it the world’s highest-flying commercial drone.
DJI is one of the most reliable companies in the small scale multi-rotor drone manufacturing industry. It has many variants on its website that one should consider researching before deciding to purchase drones. A considerable alternative to the DJI brand would be Yuneec. These brands speak for their quality and especially their ability to record videos.
Pitch
A quadcopter drone’s ability to move in a linear direction, either forward or in reverse, is called pitch. Each quadcopter has a chipset with integrated circuits and microcontrollers containing programs that alter its pitch, yaw, and roll. In case the user wants to pitch the quadcopter to move forward, the forward rotors reduce rpm, and gravity helps the copter move forward, the opposite in reverse.
Yaw and Roll
The yaw and roll are the abilities of a flying aircraft to move sideways. This motion is also mimicked by drones, regardless of fixed-wing or multi-rotor drones. In the DJI Phantom, this maneuver is once again attained by the onboard chipset through variable rpm adjustments of the rotor pairs.
Features
Drones have quite remarkable features, varying between small scale multi-rotor drones and winged drones. Here are a few features of the multi-rotor drones:
- Onboard GPS allows certain drones to set a starting point, activating the return to home feature.
- High-quality video recording and photography
- Follow user feature
- Swarm capabilities (experimental)
Conclusion
If this information has motivated you to buy a drone for your pastime, you might want to try a few of the best online casinos and rack up some funds to buy the best drones out there. Happy flying!
