How to Build a Drone at Home in India

How to Build Drone at Home in India

1. What is Drone

   Drone is commanly used for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). Drone can fly autonomously without human intervention or Pilots help. To achieve autonomy autopilot is used in drones.

2. What is Autopilot

   The literal meaning of autopilot is a device that steers a ship, plane, or spacecraft by itself, without a person . This is achieved using hardware and software. Autopilot has sensors like IMU, GPS , Barometer which estimate vehicles position in 3D space.

3. List of Parts Required to Build a Drone

   Here I will mention parts used for building Quadcopter
   Quadcopter Frame
   Brushless motor
   Electronic Speed Controller ( ESC )to control speed of motors
   Autopilot or Flight controller
   Battery
   Propellers
   Transmitter and Receiver
   Other items you will need are wires, 3.5mm bullet connectors, solder iron.
   

4. Assembling Quadcopter Frame

   We have to assemble quadcopter Frame. To assemble frame we need to follow instruction given in manual provided with frame.

5. Mounting Motors

   Each frame comes with motor mounting. We have to mount motors on the arms of frame. Make sure you tighten them firmly so that they will not loss due to vibration while flying

6. ESC calibration

   ESC have current rating on them with compatible battery make sure you are using correct ESC as per motor requirement.
   ESC is calibrated using Transmitter. In calibration we store max and minimum value of throttle.

7. AutoPilot configuration

   Depending on our autopiot selection we have to configure it. Mostly used autopilot is Pixhawk 2.1 Cube. I will share another post with video tutorial on how to use Pixhawk 2.1