Design and fabrication of 3D printed QuadDrone for altitude measurement

The main motivation towards the application of the proposed QuadDrone is precise altitude measurement. The QuadDrone is designed using SolidWorks and fabricated using 3D printing technology. The drone body is fabricated using poly lactic acid (PLA) material (black) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) material (white) is used to fabricate drone landing box. For this purpose, Ultimaker and CubePro 3D printers are used. The printed parts are tested for dimensional accuracy and surface roughness. The electronic components used for drone are flight control (KK2), electronic speed controllers (ESCs), transmitter and receiver (six channels), BLDC motors (2,280 KV), propellers (5045) and pressure sensor for altitude measurement (BMP180). The QuadDrone is assembled with 3D printed parts and electronics components. The difficulties encountered while developing the drone are assembly errors, sizing issues and weight balancing. The recent technologies like 3D printing, rapid prototyping and drone technology are used to develop the QuadDrone. The performance to measure the altitude of QuadDrone is tested in the open environment and it will act as a precision altimeter.