Fully printed UAV/FPV plane

Here's something I've been working on for a couple months, it's a one meter wingspan airplane , a prototype in fact of a bigger version I plan to use for aerial photography and to supply to a NGO to monitor manta ray populations near Bali in Indonesia.

I have printed all the parts and I just need to finish the assembly and install the electronics in before doing the maiden flight... some time after I come back from my holidays. :cool:

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It was printed in PLA on a MendelMax 1.5 and if someone feels like printing one the entire STL files are here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:272478
I'm still refining some details but it's rather minor stuff.

Once I've test flown it I plan to enlarge the design by 50% and print a fuselage master to make a fiberglass mold, the wings and stabilizers will be fiberglass with a foam core. I need something lighter and more durable than PLA for the intended application of this plane.

It is interesting how these UAVs have adopted the inverted V-tail design.

Good to see that you are using 3D printing as a step in the manufacturing process, not the one and only step.

OME

Nice! I do have a penchant for friendly drones!

Can you explain the purpose of the inverted tail? I've been curious about this for some time - why is it common in drones?

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Originally Posted by doodadDoes

Can you explain the purpose of the inverted tail? I've been curious about this for some time - why is it common in drones?

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Various reasons, apparently.

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Originally Posted by doodadDoes

Nice! I do have a penchant for friendly drones!

Can you explain the purpose of the inverted tail? I've been curious about this for some time - why is it common in drones?

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I don't know in other designs, but in my case it was a combination of many things, a V-tail is lighter and has less aerodynamic drag than a conventional tail, besides that by inverting the tail it protects the propeller on landing, in fact it eliminates the need for the main landing gear further saving weight and drag, the design only needs a nose wheel to land and take off. Even without a nose wheel the inverted V tail would keep the underside of the fuselage from dragging on the ground, so if I install a camera turret there it would be protected.

The drawback of that arrangement is that the stabilizers are vulnerable to damage, but then they are also very easy to replace if they break, there's two screws holding them to the fuselage.

All parts printed and assembled, electronics installed, controls rigged and mixing programmed on the radio transmitter, so it's ready to fly... now fingers crossed for good weather next weekend for the maiden flight.

First (short) flight!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-hgKfL8QRE

Based on the results I'm doing some redesigning, some structural and aerodynamic changes and also redoing the wings so that the aileron servos will be mounted on the wings rather than the fuselage. I'm also aiming to reduce weight by 10% during the redesign.

Very cool! Did those test flights have the weight of the servo's in the plane? If so... It is very close to being ready to print!!!!

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Originally Posted by Roxy

Very cool! Did those test flights have the weight of the servo's in the plane? If so... It is very close to being ready to print!!!!

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The flight was with all the R/C gear installed, servos, receiver, battery, etc... Later on I plan to add a GPS autopilot and FPV gear (live output camera) to it

Instead of PLA, have you considered HIPS or Nylon? We print with both and they offer many advantages over PLA (or ABS). The HIPS is lighter than PLA and very rigid like PLA is, and nylon is both lighter and stronger than PLA. Depending on the type (we have Taulman 618, 645 and Bridge) can be somewhat flexible which might be an advantage in the UAV application, just as it is in many of the other applications we build with nylon. The main issue with nylon is getting it to stick to the bed, but we've learned a number of techniques to get past that. One of the cool things about both HIPS and nylon is that you can sand them. Obviously, anyone who has tried to sand PLA has learned that you just get a gummy mess.

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Originally Posted by American 3D Printing

Instead of PLA, have you considered HIPS or Nylon? We print with both and they offer many advantages over PLA (or ABS). The HIPS is lighter than PLA and very rigid like PLA is, and nylon is both lighter and stronger than PLA. Depending on the type (we have Taulman 618, 645 and Bridge) can be somewhat flexible which might be an advantage in the UAV application, just as it is in many of the other applications we build with nylon. The main issue with nylon is getting it to stick to the bed, but we've learned a number of techniques to get past that. One of the cool things about both HIPS and nylon is that you can sand them. Obviously, anyone who has tried to sand PLA has learned that you just get a gummy mess.

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Actually PLA sands very well to a smooth finish, I know, I've done it in this plane.
I have considered using Nylon but it won't work, many parts on the plane need to be glued together (using epoxy) and that would be impossible with Nylon; I don't know about HIPS, does it work with glues? (I suppose it does, being polystyrene)

I just did a quick search on HIPS and the thing that is most interesting to me is that is 20% lighter than PLA, that would be a huge advantage for a plane, in the case of the Nomad it would automatically reduce the weight by 80 grams, from 650 to 570. So I'm going to give it a try to use it in final prints, I still prefer PLA for the development, it prints so easy without a heatbead (no time wasted in cooling down after print) and with no fumes.

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Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

I just did a quick search on HIPS and the thing that is most interesting to me is that is 20% lighter than PLA, that would be a huge advantage for a plane, in the case of the Nomad it would automatically reduce the weight by 80 grams, from 650 to 570. So I'm going to give it a try to use it in final prints, I still prefer PLA for the development, it prints so easy without a heatbead (no time wasted in cooling down after print) and with no fumes.

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When we first got our HIPS we were told to heat the bed to 50°C. Subsequently we discovered that it doesn't need heat at all. If you're using a glass bed spreading some ABS juice around will help it stick a little better.

Today I did the maiden flight, not too shabby but I need to tweak the controls to make it less responsive to the commands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf5Z83dHrow

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Originally Posted by CaptainObvious

Today I did the maiden flight, not too shabby but I need to tweak the controls to make it less responsive to the commands.

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That is too cool! Be sure to make a very good parts list so anybody (like me) can make it! Was that landing too rough for it? Did it break anything coming down the first time?

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Originally Posted by Roxy

That is too cool! Be sure to make a very good parts list so anybody (like me) can make it! Was that landing too rough for it? Did it break anything coming down the first time?

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I have to compile all the parts and upload them to Thingiverse to replace the ones now there, there have been many design changes. It's a large number of parts, and some are tricky to print so I will also upload the G-Code so anyone can see what were the printing settings for each part.

The landing was not that hard, fast but smooth, nothing was broken; but the second time I over controlled the plane and it crashed on its nose cracking it, so now I'm printing a new one. On the positive side nothing else broke even thoug it was a pretty hard impact, so I'm satisfied with the strenght of the parts.

I just uploaded the STL files to print the plane, plus an OBJ format file with the original meshes so that anyone can play with them.

Nomad UAV Mk.I


I'm going to write a bill of materials tomorrow with all the necessary R/C gear for the plane.

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Originally Posted by Roxy

That is too cool! Be sure to make a very good parts list so anybody (like me) can make it! Was that landing too rough for it? Did it break anything coming down the first time?

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I compiled the list of materials for the plane, I got everything from HobbyKing.com, but the list can be used as a reference to get equivalent parts from other stores:

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-Elevon servos: Turnigy TSS-10HM Digital Micro Servo X2
-Flaperon servos: D05010MG 5.7g / .61kg / .07sec Digital Metal Gear Micro Servo X2
-Motor: hexTronik 24gram Brushless Outrunner 1300kv
-ESC: Turnigy AE-25A Brushless ESC
-R/C receiver: OrangeRx Open LRS 433MHz 9Ch Receiver
-Elevon servo pushrod link: Ball and roller link 4.8x2x18mm (10pcs/set) & Threaded Ends M2xL20mm
-Flaperon clevis: Nylon Snap-Click style clevis for 1mm rod
-8x4 propeller (PRODUCT ID: H8011A )
-M3 nylon screws and nuts.
-3mm outer diameter nylon pushrods.
-1mm steel wire for elevon and flaperon linkages.
-8mm and 3mm diamter carbon fiber tube for wing and tail spars, 1,5mm diamter carbon fiber rod for control surface hinges.
-Glass Fiber Cloth 450x1000mm 48g/m2 to reinforce the inside of the fuselage nose section.

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No battery? Maybe the parts list is missing the little solar panel that powers everything?

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Originally Posted by Roxy

No battery? Maybe the parts list is missing the little solar panel that powers everything?

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Ooops.... The battery I'm using is a 3 cell 1500mAh LiPo. I knew I'd forget something on the list.

Hey hey hey, how about an amazing update on this project?

The design won the US Marine Corps NexLog challenge!
US Marine Designs 3D Printed Surveillance Drone at Fraction of Regular Cost

One little problem though, I'm not Corporal Rhet McNeal, let alone a Marine, not even a US citizen.
So... yeah, that.

It appears the design was swiped off Thingiverse and passed as an original with no mention whatsoever of the original designer (moi). Not cool, not cool at all.
The design is under a Creative Commons license on Thingiverse, so using it as reported is in complete violation of the terms.

Popular Science magazine released an article about this drone, The Marine Corps wants to 3D print cheaper drones.

This time giving the details of where the design originated, so that's nice.