MATEC Web of Conferences 210, 01001 (2018)

https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201821001001
CSCC 2018

The Basics of Quadcopter Anatomy

Michal Šustek1,* and Zdeněk Úředníček1
1
Tomas Bata University, Faculty of Applied Informatics, Department of Automation and Control Engineering, 76005 Zlín, Czech
Republic

Abstract. Variations of un-maned vehicles or drones are widely used in diverse fields, including
monitoring or manipulation with dangerous substances. One of the best drone construction, which can be
used in these fields is an X-copter. This paper serves as an introduction to basics of quadcopter anatomy and
advice to choose components based on their properties. In addition, it shown variants of connection between
microcontroller and motors for test purpose and an example of programming. This information can be used
in education process or for those who want to use a microcontroller Raspberry in their work.

Introduction example of programming in language Python for the

second variant with one brushless motor.
Drones in different variations are an inherent part of
human life, whether from the perspective of
entertainment, monitoring or handling with dangerous 1 Standard and contra-rotating
substances. Most of the drones are based on specialized propellers
devices and controlled by radio [1]. There can be a
different approach to control drones based on universal The main purpose of propellers is generating torque and
microcontrollers itself or in combination with flight thrust. Thanks to this are possible for quadcopter flying
controller [1]. and manoeuvre.
Today’s microcontroller can manage complex
applications, because of their fast performance growth in
last year’s [2]. A wide variety of manufacturers create
many types of microcontrollers with diverse processors,
performance or voltage logic (for example Arduino have
5V logic and Raspberry have 3V logic) [3]. These two
types of microcontrollers are the most famous variations
[4]. Both of them provide high performance, and they
can be used in many challenging automation Fig 1 . Pr op el l er Con st r u ct i on [ 6 ] .
applications. Today’s generation of the Raspberry
microcontrollers provides enough performance to
Propeller’s thrust is measured in grams or pounds
replace standard PC in some audiovisual application, but
and the upward thrust, which is needed to hover the
more importantly in control applications [5]. Beside
drone, must be equal to drone weight. The thrust
Arduino, it can offer better user interface, because it uses
depends on the speed of spin and flight dynamics of the
Linux distribution (Raspbian, Ubuntu).
quadcopter.
With the use of the wireless extension, which can
When the propellers accelerate down or up, the
be achieved by a simple antenna, the device becomes a
torque is generated. It lends ability of the quadcopter to
complex control station [5].
rotate on Z-axis. Propellers of multirotor drones do not
Section 1 describes a performance of propellers.
rotate in the same direction, because the counter rotation
Section 2 shows a basic functionality of DC motors and
forces must be eliminated. There are two types of
helps choose the right one. Section 3 describes electronic
propellers. One set of propellers is designed to rotate
speed controllers. In section 4 is an insight into an issue
counter-clockwise and the second set is designed to
of battery component with advantages and disadvantages
rotate clockwise. If the value of Rotation per Minutes
of individual types. Section 5 presents flight controllers
(RPM) of the group of propellers is changed, the drone
and its function in a system. In section 6 one can see 3
can rotate on the Z axis. [2]
variants of motor connection to microcontroller
Raspberry PI 2B. In addition, section 7 describes an

*
Corresponding author: [email protected]

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
MATEC Web of Conferences 210, 01001 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201821001001
CSCC 2018

are more efficient than three or four-bladed propellers,

however, it generates less thrust.

1.3 Material
The material has a significant effect on stiffness and
durability of the propeller. One of the most uses material
is plastic compound, which is flexible and bends in cases
of crashes [7]. On the other hand, its main disadvantages
are vibrations, which can affect the flight performance of
your drone. The material has also effect to the weight of
propeller, which is important to flight performance.
Lighter propellers have less moment of inertia that
Fig 2 . Di st r i b u t i on of Pr op et er s [ 7 ] . means the motor needs less torque to achieve the same
RPM and its change is faster, that leads to better flight
Another important attribute is a propeller pitch, response. The weight also affects a vibration of the
which is a theoretical distance that propeller will move propeller which is important to minimize. The optimally
through the air for every single rotation of the propeller. balanced propeller has no vibration.
In real world can be this value affected by the material of
propellers, air density and efficiency. The quadcopter is 2 Motors
faster if the pitch value is higher [3]. Effect of propeller
pitch can be explained in an example of two wood Brushless DC motors (BLDC) are the most used type of
screws. The screw on the right side has a higher pitch, motor in the quadcopter. BLDC is motor with
and the screw on the left side has a lower pitch. If both permanent magnet, which is driven by direct current
screws will be screwed by a screwdriver, the right screw (DC) electricity. Commutation is controlled
would sink in the wood more. In drone, the propeller electronically, instead of a mechanical commutation
with the higher pitch, need the only half rotation to travel system, by permanent magnet rotor and stator with a
the same distance. sequence of coils. [7].
The permanent magnet rotates and the current
carrying conductors are fixed. The armature coils are
switched by transistors at the correct rotor position in
such a way that armature field is in space quadrature
with the rotor field poles. Rotary encoders (Hall sensors)
are used to sense the position of the rotor and are
positioned around the stator. The rotor position feedback
Fig 3 . Pr op el l er Pi t ch [ 7 ] . from the sensor helps to determine when to switch the
armature current [7].
The electronic commutation eliminates the
Design of propeller must be within a specific range commutator arrangement and brushes in classic DC
of pitch angles to produce required thrust. Flat propellers motors. With this commutation is achieved more reliable
will not generate any lift, so they are not appropriate to and quieter operation.
steeply pitched propellers. There is a wide variety of physical configuration,
which depends on the stator windings. The windings can
1.1 Size be configured as single – phase, two – phase, three –
The longer propellers can generate more thrust at the phase motors. On the other hand, the most used BLDC
same speed. On the other hand, the torque must be motors are three-phase [7].
higher. The larger propeller does not mean the higher
speed of quadcopter, because speed is determined
primarily by the propeller pitch.
A maximal length of propeller depends on a
quadcopter frame. In particular by taking the smallest
dimension of the frame (length or width) and dividing it
by 2. The chosen propeller could be slightly smaller to
provide a rotation clearance between propellers. There
are two used propellers sizing formats: LxPxB and
LLPPxB, where L is length, P represent pitch, and B is
number of blades [7].

1.2 Number of blades

A number of blades have an effect on the efficiency of
Fig 4 . BLDC M ot or Pr i n ci p l e [ 8 ] .
propellers and generating of thrust. Two blade propellers

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MATEC Web of Conferences 210, 01001 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201821001001
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current. Good combination of a drone motor is high trust

The choosing of motors depends on required thrust to get with a low current draw. Inefficient motors generate
the quadcopter into the air. This need is affected by small trust or need too much current. Typical drone
quadcopter total weight and frame size. An important motor efficiency has a value of 7.
value for the motor is the Trust to Weight Ratio (TWR), If the motor reaches a maximum RPM, the
which can be expressed by equitation: maximum thrust of a motor torque and propeller
combination is achieved. The torque of the motor
TWR= T / W (1) determines how quickly the motor can vary the speed of
the propeller. Motor torque also affects a flying
Where T is Trust and W represent Weight. To take performance. If the motor torque is low, the quadcopter
the quadcopter off, the TWR must be higher than 1. can have a slow response to commands and its flight can
However, to maintain the steady flight is value equal 1 be rigid. It is important to find a good balance between
enough. The flight inclination of quadcopter causes the motor RPM and torque, assuming that the drone’s motor
trust vector has vertical and horizontal components. This is matching with a propeller.
inclination needs TWR at least 1.3 for maximum angle
(approximately 40 degrees in x, y-axis) [8].
In general, the quadcopter should provide twice as
much thrust as the weight of drone. If the thrust provided
by motors is small, the flying performance will be poor.
If the required value of TWR is 2 and there are 4 motors,
the thrust which must each motor provided is equal to
half of the weight of quadcopter [7].
Size of BLDC motor is indicated by 4 digit-number Fig 6 . Quadcopter – Gravity effect and motion [7].
(XXYY pattern). Where XX represents the stator width
and YY represent the stator weight in millimetres. The
taller stator can provide more power at higher RPM. On 3 Electronic speed controller (ESC)
the other hand, the wider stator can provide more torque
at lower RPM [8]. ESC can change motor speed and direction by
manipulating voltage that is applied to it. It also can
provide controlled start-up for motors, reversing motor
rotation or reverse polarity protection, in case of
connection positive to negative contacts, protection
against fault circuit faults, and providing other various
features, like smooth acceleration curves, setting top
speed or limiting currents [9].
The controllers switching connection to the motor
connected and disconnected around 2 000 times per
second by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). MOSFET
transistor is used as a switch instead of a mechanical
switch. The speed of switching is fast and motors cannot
detect it. It leads to the motors averages these pulses out.
Fig 5 . BLDC M ot or [ 7 ] . If there is 24V battery connected, only half of the time,
the motor sees the battery like 12 V and goes at half
speed. The speed of switching also affects the motor
The second used value in BLDC motors is a kV
inductance, which keeps the motor current flowing
motor specification. This number is a number of
constantly. However, that current is only flowing for half
revolutions per minute that the motor will turn when one
the time from the battery, so the battery current will be
volt is applied with no load on the motor. If the propeller
half the motor current.
is attached to the motor, there will be a reduction in the
number of RPMs due to the added inertia of the propeller
and air resistance. Motors with higher kV spin propellers
faster; however, motors with lower kV generate higher
torques. That leads to the combination of low kV motors
and larger propellers or high kV motors and smaller
propellers [7].
Electric motor efficiency is the ratio between
mechanical power output and electrical power input. The
mechanical power output is determined by the torque
and speed required and the electrical power is
determined by the voltage and current supply. The Fig 7 . ESC – El ect r i c Sch em e [ 1 0 ] .
motor efficiency is not constant over the thrust profile.
To achieve a higher thrust, the motor must draw a more

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able to deliver sufficient current to motors. The flight

ESC is frequently used in Radio-controlled models, performance will be sluggish if it will be underpowered.
in particular with BLDC motors, where it provides an
electronically produced 3-phase electric power low
voltage source. The controller has usually 3 sets of
wires. The first wire is connected to the main battery of
the drone. The second wire is a typical servo wire which 5 Flight controller
is plugged into the receiver’s throttle, and the third wire
is used for motor power. The flight controller is a brain of the drone. It is a circuit
board which serves as a basic sensory system that detects
the orientation of drone and receives user’s commands
and controls to the motors. The controller is also some
kind of HUB for other peripherals, like an SPC, LED
etc. As a flight controller can be used a wide variety of
devices from the specialised microcontroller to universal
microcontrollers, like a Raspberry or Arduino. Choose
of Flight controller depends on required properties.
These controllers have differences in hardware but
in most cases, it uses different firmware, which can be
configured by computer, smartphone and radio controller
itself.
Fig 8 . ESC Con st r u ct i on [ 1 0 ] . The flight controllers use hardware serial port that
allows connecting external devices (telemetry, serial
radio receivers, and VTX control) to the controller. This
1. Solder pads for the 3-BLDC motor phases
port is known as UART (Universal Asynchronous
2. Negative (-) LIPO connections
Receiver/Transmitter) and it’s formed from 2 pins (RX
3. Positive (+) LIPO Connection
for receiving data, and TX for transmitting data) [11].
4. Servo signal or input of the PWM signal
In this project was chosen a microcontroller Raspberry
5. GND reference of PWM Signal
Pi 2B as the flight controller, it allows modification in
6. Solder jumper, for altering the direction of
control software programming.
Rotation (CW/CCW)
7. Solder jumper, for varying the type of the PWM
input signal 6 Variants of connection
8. State LED
Connections between main components of the drone can
be realized in some variations. It can be used the
4 Battery Raspberry itself without the support of flight controller
unit or with the flight controller unit.
The most used type of batteries is Lithium Polymer
On the picture below one can see variant 1 of
(LiPo), which are used smartphones, laptops or tablets.
connection BLDC motor to the Raspberry Pi. In the
There are two main alternatives to LiPo batteries, a
connection, the red wire of ESC connection is not
Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) and Nickel Cadmium
connected, because it can damage the Raspberry board.
(NiCd) batteries. However, LiPo batteries have some
In real project is more effective using of power
significant advantages over NiMH or NiCd batteries.
distribution boards and flight control boards, because the
LiPo batteries have higher capacity, discharge and are
Raspberry can cooperate with standard flight controller.
they are lighter [7].
These controllers are equipped with base sensors, like an
There are also some disadvantages like a shorter
accelerometer and gyroscope. If the Raspberry is used
lifespan (300-400 cycles), the possibility of ignition (if
itself without the support of the flight controller, there
there are punctured and vents into the air), and the needs
must be connected a board, which contain the sensory
of extra care for storing, charging or discharging [7].
system. Each motor needs to use different GPIO pins.
The nominal voltage of a single LiPo cell is 3,7V.
To clarify, the nominal voltage is approximately the
average of the full charge of 4.2V/cell, and the minimum
safe charge of 3.0 V/cell. The number of cells
determines the total voltage of the battery. The voltage
of battery pack defines a speed of propeller spin because
the BLDC motors have a rating designed in kV, which
means RPM per volt.
Capacity of the battery is represented in milliamp
hours (mAh). On battery is another value, a C rating.
The C rating of a LiPo battery is a measure of the safe
and continuous maximum discharge current. If the C
rating is lower than drone needs, the battery will not be Fig 9 . Con n ect i on – Var i an t 1 [ 1 2 ] .

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pigpio. There is a simple example for controlling one of

For simplification can be used a breadboard with H- the BLDC without ESC.
bridge L293D. The H-bridge is a simple circuit, which
contains switching elements. These elements are usually import RPi.GPIO as GPIO
Field-Effect Transistors (FET) transistors. All switches import time
can be turned off or on independently. The main
advantage of using L293D with Raspberry (it has 3V GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
logic) is that the control of pins need only a little current
to control motors. Selection of mode can have two values, in particular,
BOARD or BCM. BOARD option specifies referring of
the pins to the plug. BCM option means referring to the
pins by the Broadcom SOC channel.

e_pin = 18
pin_1 = 23
pin_2 = 2

GPIO.setup(enable_pin, GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(pin_1, GPIO.OUT)
GPIO.setup(pin_2, GPIO.OUT)
motor_pwm=GPIO.PWM(e_pin,600)
motor_pwm.start(0)
Fig 1 0 . Con n ect i on – V ar i an t 2 [ 1 3 ] .
All pins are configured as outputs and help to
control the direction of the BLDC. PWM analogue
The recent variation of connection is a combination
output is also defined, where 600 is PWM frequency.
of the microcontroller and a multiwii. The Multiwii is
The initial value of duty cycle is set to 0% of the
open source project that was based on Arduino, the
frequency.
suitable Multiwii is CRIUS AIO PRO V2, which is a
flight controller. It controls speed signals and distributes def stop():
them into ESC. The Multiwii is a simplification in the GPIO.output(pin_1, False)
system from the side of programming because many of GPIO.output(pin_2, False)
programs are already written a can be used in the system. motor_pwm.ChangeDutyCycle(0)

def forward(duty_cycle):
GPIO.output(pin_1, True)
GPIO.output(pin_2, False)
motor_pwm.ChangeDutyCycle(duty_cycle)

def reverse(duty_cycle):
GPIO.output(pin_1, False)
GPIO.output(pin_2, True)
motor_pwm.ChangeDutyCycle(duty_cycle)

Fig 1 1 . Con n ect i on – V ar i an t 3 [ 1 4 ] . As one can see a pin 1 is used in the forward
direction and the pin 2 is used in the backward direction.
If both of pins are off, the motor is stopped.
7 Programming
try:
There is a wide variety of programming languages, while True:
which can be used for Raspberry Pi programming. The direction = raw_input('↑ – forward, ↓ – reverse, s -
common languages are Python, C++, or C, or C#. stop')
Python has been chosen as the programming if direction[0]=='s':
language in the project. Python is a higher programming stop()
language which does not need to have strictly defined else:
variables, unlike C++. In the deeper context, it is a duty_cycle= input('Duty cycle (between 0 to
hybrid dynamically interpreted language from a group of 100%)')
scripting languages. Graphics User Interface (GUI) if direction [0]== '\x1b[A':
IDLE, which is well organized, was used to develop the forward(duty_cycle)
software itself [15]. elif direction [0]== '\x1b[B':
For access to GPIO pin must be imported one of reverse(duty_cycle)
the GPIO libraries like RPIO,RPi.GPIO, gpiozero,

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CSCC 2018

finally: In st i t u t e of El ect r i cal an d El ect r on i cs

print("Cleaning up") En gi n eer s In c. ( 2 0 1 6 )
GPIO.cleanup()
3 . I. Lob ach ev , E. Cr et u In st i t u t e of
The program itself is determined for testing of El ect r i cal an d El ect r on i cs En gi n eer s In c.
motors and it is not sufficient to use in the real object.
(2016)
Real control program must be complex and as a motor
driver will be used ESC. In this case, the driver was only 4 . M .Šu st ek , M . M ar can ík , Z. Úř ed n íček ,
H-Bridge.
WSEA S T r an sact i on s on Pow er
Sy st em s. 1 2 : 2 0 1 -2 0 9 ( 2 0 1 7 )
Conclusion
5 . A.C. M ar t i n ez, In t er n at i on al Con f er en ce
Drones or unmanned vehicles are an important part of on Hu m an Fact or s an d Sy st em
human life, whether from the perspective of monitoring
In t er act i on s, 4 9 7 Sp r i n ger V er l ag.
or handling with dangerous substances.
The paper offers an insight into the issue of (2016)
understanding of quadcopter components and its 6 . I. Rom od an ov sk y -Lod y zh en sk y , UK,
selection for real drone. There are described basic
principles of motors function, properties of propellers, Bl eat h w ood , Av ai l ab l e f r om :
ESC or flight controllers. Flight controllers are complex h t t p :/ / w w w .p i l ot f r i en d .com / t r ai n i n g/ f l
devices, specialized for their task. Their circuit contains i gh t _ t r ai n i n g/ f xd _ w i n g/ p r op s.h t m
sensory system and distributes control signals to each ( 2 0 1 8 .4 .1 8 )
motor. However, there is another way to control drone.
The universal microcontroller can be used to control it. It 7 . Dr on e Om ega, US, Ar i zon a, Av ai l ab l e
brings advantage to universality. The modular system f r om : w w w .d r on eom ega.com
can be created and modified in different ways according
( 2 0 1 8 .4 .1 5 )
to the task. In this paper is used microcontroller
Raspberry Pi 2B, which can provide enough 8. Electrical Technology, UK, Birmingham, Available
performance to run control system for BLDC motors. It from:
can work in the system itself with the sensory circuit or http://www.electricaltechnology.org/2016/05/bldc-
with the support of complex flight controller. brushless-dc-motor-construction-working-
As the main programming language is used principle.html (2018.4.15)
python; however, there is also needing to use gpio pins,
so the module rpi.gpio or another must be imported into 9 . K. N. M ogen sen , An al og Ap p l i cat i on
the program. The submitted syntaxes in programs are the Jou r n al :In d u st r i al ( 2 0 1 6 )
elementary way to control dc motors intend to testing
motors. 1 0 . T.Agar w al , El -Pr o-Cu s, IN, An d h r a
The next work will be focused on extending the Pr ad esh Av ai l ab l e f r om :
control system on a cell phone as a control device, in h t t p s:/ / w w w .el p r ocu s.com / el ect r on i c-
particular, by using LTE (Long-Term Evolution) sp eed -con t r ol -esc-w or k i n g-
technology. The main difference in LTE system will be
in control software (android, ios application). An LTE ap p l i cat i on s/ ( 2 0 1 8 .4 .2 0 )
modem must be added to the entire system. Another 1 1 . O. Li an g. US, Ar i zon a, Av ai l ab l e f r om :
further work can be aimed at implementation of this
h t t p s:/ / oscar l i an g.com / b est -f l i gh t -
control system into a quadcopter chassis.
con t r ol l er -q u ad -h ex-cop t er /
This work was supported by Internal Grant Agency of Tomas
( 2 0 1 8 .4 .2 1 )
Bata University under the project No. IGA/FAI/2018/002.
1 2 . In st r u ct ab l es, US, Cal i f or n i a, Av ai l ab l e
f r om :
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