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From Dronepedia
Welcome to Dronepedia: A place to compile knowledge on the design, building, and usage of civilian unmanned aerial vehicles. From simple RC gliders and indoor helicopter toys to sophisticated survey equipment, piloting vehicles without being in the cockpit has become a popular and inexpensive hobby as well as a rapidly growing professional field. As interest in this topic grows, participants have to quickly acquire knowledge of disparate topics like aerodynamics, airframe engineering, robotics, photography, and piloting via radio control, first-person video, & various autopilots. This site aims to consolidate the vast amounts of great research contained in flourishing communities of blogs and forums, in an easier-to-digest form.
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Types of Vehicle
- Aerial
- Airplanes
- VTOL
- Helicopters controlled by cyclic and collective pitch oscillations
- Electronically Controlled Multicopters - Simple quadro-, hexa-, octo- copters controlled by thrust differentials
- Electromechanical Multicopters - Bi-, Tri- copters and other mechanically complex designs
- Dual-mode Transitioning Vehicles - Hybrids that can both hover and glide
- unguided Balloons
- Lighter Than Air vehicles
- Paramotor - Nonrigid Wings
- Ultralight - Hang Gliders, other Rogallo Wing craft
- Other Aerial Vehicle Types
- Ground
- Marine
Fixed-Wing Aeronautics
- Airframe design & aerodynamics
- Materials
- Fuselage Materials
- Wing Materials
- Monolithic Molded Foam Construction - Integral wings are best for narrow, fast, and small designs
- Sparred Foam Wing Construction - All large 'Foamie' Wings are internally reinforced
- Foam Sandwich Wing Construction- Polymer or wood in tension over solid foam
- Honeycomb Corrugated Panel Wing Construction
- Built-Up Wing Construction - Ribs and stressed skin make up an internal structure
- Balsa Ply Wing Construction - One of the oldest techniques
- Clear Composite Wing Construction - Monocote, etc, very popular in competition gliders
- Fiberglass or Carbon Fiber Wing Construction - High cost/labor, high strength, best for larger planes
- Types of Closed-Cell Foam
- Types of Covering Material
- Brushless Motors
- Fixed-Wing Propellers
- Fixed-Wing Propeller Configurations - Tractor, Pusher, etc
- Fixed-Wing Batteries
- Fixed-Wing Control Surfaces
- Fixed-Wing Landing and Safety Gear - wheels, parachutes, crumple zones
- Solar Powered Fixed Wing
- Autonomous Thermal Glider
Multirotor Aeronautics
- Airframe design
- Motors
- Propellers
- Multirotor Landing Gear
- Multirotor Batteries
- Multirotor Servos
- Multirotor Navigation Lights
Other Build Tools
- Layout Systems
- Construction Methods
- Battery Chargers
- Brushless Motor Watt Meters & Tachometers
- Scales
- Center of Gravity Finders
- Multimeters
- Glue
- Tape
Guidance
- RC (Fly-By-Wireless)
- Autopilot Concepts
- Feedback
- Comparison of Autopilots
- Specific Autopilots
- Ardupilot
- Ardupilot Original
- Ardupilot NG
- Arducopter
- Ardupilot Mega
- UAV DevBoard & MatrixPilot
- Mikrokopter
- Aeroquad
- Attopilot
- Flexipilot/EasyUAV
- Gluonpilot
- OpenPilot
- Paparazzi
- Pixhawk
- UNAV
- Ruby
- FeiYu Tech
- Multipilot32
- FLYLess
- MultiWii
- FlyDuino
- DJI Hobby WooKong and Naza
- SLUGS
- Ardupilot
- Testing
Sensors
- Thermopile - Horizon Sensor
- IMU
- Barometric Altimeter
- Variometer
- Magnetometer
- GPS
- Laser Rangefinder - Parallax
- LIDAR - Time of travel
- Ultrasonic Rangefinder
Communications
- Specific Radio Transmitters
- Specific Ground Stations & Planning Software
- Useful Bands by Country
- US Radio Bands
- 27mhz
- 49mhz
- 50mhz
- 53mhz
- 72mhz
- 75mhz
- 150mhz
- 900mhz
- 2.4ghz
- US Radio Bands
- Digital Wireless Modems
- Cellular Network Modems
- Satellite Modems
- 802.11
- MAVLink protocol
- Buddy Box
- Antennas
- Antenna Trackers
- Emergency Locator - GPS Dog Collars in the MURS band, etc
Showcase
- Fixed-Wing
- Showcase of Commercial Fixed-Wing UAVs Fully autonomous, highly expensive
- Showcase of Commercial Fixed Wing Airframes RTF, ARF, Kit planes
- Showcase of Fixed-Wing Airframe Mods
- Showcase of Fixed-Wing Autopilot Installs
- Showcase of Custom Fixed-Wing Airframes
- Rotary-Wing
Applications
- Aerial Photography
- Cinematic Aerial Photography - Video alternative to crane shots for movies, TV, & advertising
- Commercial Aerial Photography - getting just the right angle for print advertising
- Survey Aerial Photography - Presenting: The Earth
- Photogrammetry - Now in 3D
- Agricultural Aerial Photography - Understanding what you grow, often using Infrared Photography
- Diagnostic Structural Aerial Photography - As an alternative to manual inspections
- Surveillance - Turning awareness into little monochrome screens
- Meteorology - In lieu of trying to insure a Hurricane Hunter
- Advertising
- Search and Rescue
- Fighting Forest Fires
- Disaster Response
- Wireless Networking
- Tracking Livestock and game
- Crop Dusting
- Military - Blowing things up
- Flying as a competitive hobby
- Aerobatics
- Stalled flight / hover 3D Flying
- Powered flight Pattern Flying
- Gliding flight Hotlining
- Thermal Soaring
- Cross Country
- Hand-Launch Endurance
- Slope Soaring
- Sustained Speed
- Pylon Racing
- Q40 Class
- Q500 and 424 Class
- Indoor Endurance
- RC Combat
- Unguided Endurance
- Control Line Flying
- UAV Competition
- Aerobatics
Photography
- Consumer Still Cameras
- RGB Scientific Cameras
- Infrared Photography
- Video Cameras
- Gimbals - Aiming your camera
Legal Status
- US
- State Laws
- UK
- Canada
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Germany
- South Africa
FAQs
General Resources
DIYDrones blogs and forums
RC Groups forums
sUAS News professional UAV news
Wattflyer forums
RC Universe forums
Thirty Thousand Feet link repository
