家 » 产品设计 » 产品设计评审 » 四轴飞行器微型无人机设计回顾

四轴飞行器微型无人机设计回顾

无人机, 电子产品, 产品设计, 产品开发, 原型设计, 以使用者為中心的設計

当轻量化不仅仅是成本优化，而是产品发挥功能的主要标准时，你能让坦克飞起来吗？或者，如何才能进入良性循环，使轻量化框架能够容纳更小的部件？发动机允许安装更小的电池，允许（…）。

Also a great example of using existing off-the-shelf cross-components to achieve very low consumer costs.

{snippet review|Hubsan|http://www.hubsan.com}

When it comes to a flying toy, every gram counts. And when the target is even to make that as cheap as possible, designers need to make smart use of off-the-shelf components.

设计

Already, the box is thought lean: 2 simple elastic bands to hold the product safely but easy to put or detach.

The main copter’s body

The pcb is the frame — The PCB is the frame

A very nice piece of product design.

The main frame is achieved at the same time:

the physical structure of the copter without any other assembly required. The CNC cut permits an advanced shape so as hollowing the 4 arms, reducing, even more, the weight
the frame is the PCB itself! which permits all electronics components to be directly soldered on it, avoiding fixing a separate PCB; It permits also to route the two poles of the 4 motors directly on the 4 frame arms without the need for additional wires (except the ones directly on the motor -read the suggestion on that below-)
one protrusion of the PCB it at the same time the power connector. To ensure a right +/- polarity connection, the 再见 is just a CMS resistor mounted on one side, thus avoiding user mistakes. This resistor is mounted as the other electronic components on the board.

Resistor as poka yoke — a resistor as poka-yoke

The other genius idea is the choice of a standard micro-size motor used in the phone industry.

Specially made, these ones would cost a fortune, but as they are used as vibrator actuators in very high volumes, these of-the-shelve motors are not only very reliable but very low cost also.

Leds for front & back — LEDs for front & back

4 LEDs, 2 red & 2 blue, are placed at the extremities of the arm to help the pilot to distinguish the front from the back of the drone during flight, as the drone has an overall round shape. These LEDs are simply routed in parallel to the motor, thus avoiding additionally dedicated PCB routing.

The battery is just maintained in place with double face tape to the PCB and later surrounded by the main body cover.

Thin protecting frame — thin protecting frame

Blade protection Frame

Made light and flexible, the frame is intended to protect the user’s fingers from the blades, and the blades from any shock against surroundings during the pilot learning phase.

This is the thinnest injected part of this product; 6 ejectors per circle are required to take the part out of the mold.

Motor cage

A piece of art in terms of design to achieve a 2 parts mold only (just follow the parting line!)

Cut-offs permit, within 15mm:

the cage around the motor + 2 clips on the top, maintaining the motor after inserting
4 end-stops around the PCB + 2 clips
a bottom pin, providing the motor both for venting passages and clearance for wires
2 “foots” on the bottom, acting as a landing supports (really necessary? Hypothesis: these were possibly to allow a different passage for the wires)

Main Body Cover

Very fine plastic injection, with hollowing design that achieves 4 goals:

nice visual design, with technical shapes
holding the battery & protecting the components both from the user’s fingers and from potential shock during (end of) flight
space for venting the electronics components, including the battery
permitting a 1-movement mold design

Remote control

Obviously less design & optimization effort on this one. Just does its jobs for such price level.

Purely functional and not intended to withstand chocs.

Its size is really the minimum to be held correctly by two adult hands.

The body is made out of 3 basic parts, including the battery cover. Functions include the 2 typical joysticks to be controlled by thumbs.

结论

Thumbs up! A great demonstration of smart components choice, value analyses to restrict everything to its minimum, and plastic design. Not counting a nice injection work for such thin deformable parts & frames.

Likely the design process has started with the available micro motor (see article on that) and the rest then being adapted around, ie overall frame size and then the choice of battery

All that permitting, to our knowledge, the smallest mass-produced drone toy, but still maintaining a cheap really affordable product.

Possible Improvements?

Compatible in that price range & toy market segment, we see only very minor ones:

slightly shaping the PCB frame legs more even and directly to the body; an even further improvement could be to link the 4 arms by a circular path, making the drone more rigid, at the cost of not-so-good PCB placement optimization on the total sheet & associated PCB material losses
some plastic indexing shape in the motor cage, and its female counter shape in the PCB, to avoid the motor cage to turn
a possible production improvement: if the motors would sit on the PCB rather than being in the median plane, it means a complete redesign of the cage, and the motor’s two pins could be connected directly on the PCB with through-holes soldering, avoiding the 8 wires completely and associated 2x2x4 manual soldering. Rigidity and overall quadcopter typical design to be confirmed

Possible innovations?

As the price of small components decreases, next generation could include some height + sides distance sensors to allow easier control of height and obstacle avoidance for beginner pilots or fast races?

Some research labs have already demonstrated some incredible co-op between flying drones. Combined with the sensor suggestion above this drone could become a nice DIY drone platform and gain an additional massive customer base by being programmable? (some open-source USB-programmable chip + a slightly bigger USB connector).

常用术语表

Computer Numerical Control (CNC): 一种利用计算机软件程序控制机床的制造工艺，能够精确地进行铣削、钻孔和车削等任务的运动和操作，从而提高生产的自动化程度和精度。

Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC): 一种使用编程计算机软件控制机床的制造过程，可实现切割、铣削、钻孔和雕刻材料等任务的精确和自动化操作。

Content Management System (CMS): 一款软件应用程序，使用户无需专业技术知识即可创建、管理和修改数字内容，从而促进跨各种平台的协作、版本控制和发布。

Contract Manufacturer (CM): 一家公司代表另一家公司生产产品，通常遵循特定的设计和质量规范。这种安排使委托方公司能够专注于市场营销和产品开发等核心竞争力，同时将制造流程外包。

Printed Circuit Board (PCB): 一种由绝缘材料制成的平板，用于支撑并通过导电通路连接电子元件，通常由铜片蚀刻而成。它作为电路组装的基础，并有助于元件之间的电气连接。

Universal Serial Bus (USB): 一种用于将设备连接到计算机的标准，可实现数据传输和供电。它支持多种协议，并支持热插拔，多个版本提供不同的数据速率和供电能力。通常用于键盘、鼠标和存储设备等外围设备。

涵盖的主题： Quadcopter, mini drone, lightweight design, cost optimization, off-the-shelf components, PCB frame, CNC cut, micro-size motor, poka-yoke, LEDs, battery placement, consumer costs, product design, electronic components, motor routing, frame structure, military tank, virtuous cycle ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 45001, and ISO 50001..

历史背景

锁模（激光器）

Mode-locking is a technique for producing extremely short laser pulses, on the order of picoseconds ([latex]10^{-12}[/latex] s) to femtoseconds ([latex]10^{-15}[/latex] s). It works by forcing the many longitudinal modes of the laser cavity to oscillate with a fixed phase relationship. This causes the modes to interfere constructively, creating a single, intense, ultrashort pulse circulating in the cavity.

自上而下的纳米材料合成

自上而下的合成是指从较大的块体材料开始，将其分解或图案化至纳米尺度，从而创建纳米材料。关键技术包括球磨等机械方法和光刻方法，例如光刻、电子束光刻和纳米压印光刻。这些方法通常用于创建结构化表面和集成电路，但可能会受到表面缺陷的影响。

飞轮储能（FES）

Flywheel energy storage (FES) works by accelerating a rotor (flywheel) to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational kinetic energy. The energy stored is proportional to the square of the rotational speed. When energy is extracted, the flywheel's rotation slows down. The formula for stored energy is [latex]E = \frac{1}{2} I \omega^2[/latex], where I is the moment of inertia and ω is the angular velocity.

分子电子学

分子电子学探索利用单个分子或纳米级分子集合作为基本电子元件。该方法旨在构建微型化极限的电路，远远超越传统的硅基技术。关键元件包括分子线、开关和整流器，它们利用电子隧穿分子轨道等量子力学特性来实现功能。

失效物理学（PoF）

失效物理学（PoF）是一种可靠性工程方法，它利用材料科学和物理学的知识来理解和模拟失效的根本原因机制。它并非仅仅依赖于以往失效的统计数据，而是通过分析导致性能退化和失效的物理过程（例如疲劳、腐蚀、蠕变）来预测失效。

纳米材料的量子尺寸效应

The Quantum Size Effect describes the phenomenon where the electronic and optical properties of a material change as its size approaches the nanoscale. When the dimensions of a material become comparable to the electron's de Broglie wavelength, quantum confinement occurs. This quantizes the electron energy levels, leading to a size-dependent band gap, [latex]E_g(R) \approx E_{g,\b\u\lk} + \frac{\hbar^2\pi^2}{2R^2}(\frac{1}{m_e^*} + \frac{1}{m_h^*})[/latex].

蒸汽压增强因子

The equilibrium vapor pressure of water over a liquid surface in moist air ([latex]p^*_{H_2O,a}[/latex]) is slightly greater than the equilibrium vapor pressure over a pure water surface ([latex]p^*_{H_2O}[/latex]). This difference is quantified by the water vapor enhancement factor, [latex]f_w[/latex], which depends on temperature and the pressure of the moist air. The relationship is [latex]p^*_{H_2O,a} = f_w(T, p_{ms}) \cdot p^*_{H_2O}[/latex].

1965

1970

1974-11-15

1980

1964

1968

1970

1975

1980

彩色电视用铕荧光粉

The discovery that europium-doped yttrium vanadate ([latex]YVO_4:Eu^{3+}[/latex]) could act as a brilliant red phosphor was a critical breakthrough for color television. Before this, red phosphors were weak, resulting in dull colors. The intense, narrow-band red emission from the [latex]Eu^{3+}[/latex] ion allowed for bright, vibrant color displays, dramatically improving the quality of color TV and setting the standard for display technology.

贝塞尔曲线

UNISURF 由法国工程师皮埃尔·贝塞尔 (Pierre Bézier) 于 20 世纪 60 年代为雷诺 (Renault) 开发，是首批真正的 3D CAD/CAM 系统之一。其核心创新在于使用了如今被称为贝塞尔曲线和曲面的技术。这些曲线和曲面是由一组控制点定义的参数曲线，能够直观地以数学方式创建复杂的车身自由形状。

GPS三边测量原理

GPS 使用三边测量法确定接收器的位置。通过测量与至少三颗卫星的距离，接收器可以精确定位其在地球表面的位置。距离的计算方法是将信号传播时间乘以光速。需要第四颗卫星来同步接收器的时钟，以解决四个未知数：纬度、经度、海拔和时间。

超导磁能存储（SMES）

Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES) systems store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a superconducting coil. The energy can be stored indefinitely as long as the coil is kept at superconducting temperatures, as there is virtually no energy loss due to electrical resistance. The stored energy is given by [latex]E = \frac{1}{2} L I^2[/latex].

Ganz-Griesser 白人指数

The Ganz-Griesser whiteness index is a linear formula widely used, particularly in the textile industry. It is derived from CIE tristimulus values and is defined as [latex]W_{GG} = Y - Px - Qy + C[/latex], where P, Q, and C are constants specific to the illuminant and observer. For the D65/10° condition, the formula is [latex]W_{GG} = Y - 1868.322x - 3695.690y + 1809.441[/latex].

锂离子嵌入机理

Lithium-ion batteries function via an intercalation mechanism, a reversible insertion of ions into a layered host material. During discharge, lithium ions ([latex]Li^+[/latex]) de-intercalate from a negative electrode (anode), typically graphite, and move through a non-aqueous electrolyte to intercalate into a positive electrode (cathode), typically a metal oxide. Electrons travel through the external circuit, creating current.

放电深度（DoD）

放电深度 (DoD) 表示电池容量已释放的百分比。它是充电状态 (SoC) 的倒数，其中 100% DoD 表示电池电量已耗尽。电池的循环寿命与其平均 DoD 高度相关；较低的 DoD 循环次数（例如，仅放电至容量的 80%）可显著增加电池的循环次数。

MEMS缩放定律

MEMS scaling laws describe how physical forces and properties change as device dimensions shrink to the microscale. Unlike the macroscopic world dominated by gravity and inertia, micro-domains are governed by surface forces like surface tension, viscosity, and electrostatic forces. For example, force due to gravity scales with volume ([latex]L^3[/latex]), while electrostatic force scales with area ([latex]L^2[/latex]), becoming relatively stronger at smaller sizes.

（如果日期未知或不相关，例如“流体力学”，则提供其显著出现的近似估计）