Quadrotor Research Platform

Quadrotor Research Platform

This is a long endurance, high payload capacity quadrotor that's ideal for research projects: its a simple, low cost, easy to use, and proven platform for flight experiments. Many of its non-frame parts are 3D printed, including most of the battery. It has a total cost of around $1000 (May 2026), while its no-payload hover endurance is around 1 hour. It's designed to carry a 10lbf (~4.5kg) payload at hover endurance of 35 minutes. Additionally, this can be flown in pitch-black darkness since it features both orientation lights (red on port side, green on starboard side) and position lights (two high powered LED strobe lights, one on port side and the other on starboard side); the orientation lights are always on, while the position lights can be turned on/off via transmitter switch. This system has been flight tested on a Pixhawk Cube Orange flight controller with ArduPilot 4.6.1 firmware; integration with PX4 firmware is in-progress. In summary, this is a great platform for aerial robotics research.

Features

• Quick-release 12s4p LiIon battery using 21700 cells, featuring cell temperature monitoring via thermistors:
  
• Unloaded hover endurance of 1 hour; 10lbf (~4.5kg) payload endurance of 35 minutes:
  
• Small folded footprint (19.75in x 19.75in, or 50cm x 50cm):
  
• Orientation lights on end of each arm (enables night flying):
  
• Position lights on port and starboard (high power strobing LEDs) activated via transmitter switch (enables night flying):
  
• Battery low voltage alarm (orange lights at the end of each arm and loud buzzer) alerts pilot when voltage/cell less than 2.8V:
  
• GPS/Magnetometer and Pilot Input Receiver/Telemetry Transmitter integrated onto a single mast (all housing/mounts/fittings are 3D printed):
  
• Ample top and bottom deck space for sensors and onboard computers:
  
• Battery-to-vehicle adapter with power and I2C connectors on custom PCB mounted within a 3D printed housing, with indexing pins for alignment and resistance to shearing:
  
• Battery charging station with power and balance connectors on PCB mounted within a 3D printed housing, with indexing pins:
  
• Vibration-isolated flight controller carrier board (Kore carrier board mounted in 3D printed housing with rubber dampers):
  

Details

• Frame: Tarot X4, motor-mount-to-motor-mount diagonal span of 980mm

• Propellers: 24" with 8" pitch

• Motors: XOAR Titan Air 8010

• ESCs: TBS Lucid 90A

• Flight controller: Pixhawk Cube Orange

• Power & peripheral distribution board: Kore Carrier Board

• Battery: custom, 12 in series, 4 in parallel 21700 LiIon cells. Using Molicel P50B cells, the battery has a mass of 3.956 [kg] and an energy capacity of 728.1 [Wh], yielding a specific energy density of 184.1 [Wh/kg]. Everything besides the cells and busbars are 3D printed. The battery-to-vehicle adapter has a power connecter and I2C connectors attached to a custom PCB mounted in a 3D printed housing. The I2C communication protocol is used to send the thermistor temperature readings to the flight controller: if temperature nears thermal runaway temp, then the quadcopter is programmed to land immediately. The battery also has a charging station that's 3D printed and fits a custom PCB. Lastly and most importantly, the cells I used are 21700 Molicel P50B, but you can use any 21700 cells you want, meaning all of the next-gen 21700 cells that are on the cusp of being released (e.g., Tenpower 60XG, Molicel P60B, Molicel M65A, Amprius SA112) can be used in this battery. Higher battery specific energy equates to longer flight endurance, a key parameter in battery electric flight.
  
  

• Thermistors are used to take temperature readings at critical locations both within the battery and on the vehicle.

• Four thermistors within the battery (3 on battery terminals, 1 on the power distribution PCB)

• One thermistor on the antispark circuit PCB

• One on the GPS mast (for measuring ambient temperature)

• One on motor 2's stator

• One on the vehicle-to-battery adapter power PCB

• Wiring: (currently this documentation is incomplete and will be addressed at a later date, i.e., this section is for show-and-tell at the moment...)
  

• Miscellaneous:

• Empty mass: 3.754[kg]

• Battery mass: 3.956[kg]

• Battery mass fraction: battery mass / (empty mass + battery mass) = 3.956/7.710 = 51%

• Power consumed in stable hover: 650[W]

• Payload mass fraction, given 10[lbf] payload: payload mass / (empty mass + battery mass + payload mass) = 4.534[kg] / ( 3.754[kg] + 3.956[kg] + 4.534[kg]) = 37%

Documentation and code is found in the github repo.

Full Disclosure Regarding Replicability of this Project

Documentation is both extremely important and extremely time consuming. As it stands (2026/05/01) the documentation is at around 10% completion, and my personal assessment is that this project will be difficult to replicate without additional details. However, bringing the documentation to full completion would likely take me multiple days of work... time which I don't have at the moment. Therefore, if you are interested in making this for academic research, please leave a comment and I will do my best to help you.