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In a sense, most other aerial vehicle types are worse. Helicopters, with only one main rotor are incredibly complex machines requiring constant maintenance. The

In a sense, most other aerial vehicle types are worse. Helicopters, with only one main rotor are incredibly complex machines requiring constant maintenance. The rotor blades are articulated to provide flight control. Quadcopters are a ton simpler because their rotors are "just" rotors, and flight control is achieved through differential thrust, not angling the blades. On the other hand, helicopters often seem to deal with engine failure better than quadcopters or even fixed wing aircraft. Fixed wing drones have the big problem that they need to go fast to stay in the air. Which requires a lot more motion planning.

jacquesm 7y ago
Your typical helicopter is made to entirely different standards than your typical drone.
- bayesian_horse 7y ago
  Yes, of course. But toy helicopters have been around for a lot longer than quad-copters have been popular. And I've not seen a lot of people using single-rotor RC helicopters for filming and delivery (I'm sure there are some ...). My point is that multicopters are a lot simpler mechanically. No articulation, no transmission, just propellers on an electrical motor, controlled by pure electronics with no mechanical components in the loop except the drive coils. Arguably multicopters are easier to control automatically (with modern electronics), though that wouldn't be THAT big a factor today, I guess. Also electrical engines can deal a lot better with variable load and RPM. Multicopters with combustion engines (driving the rotors directly, not through a generator) seem to be quite uncommon. Still, if multicopters are supposed to be routinely used in the presence of people, they need similar standards of maintenance and failure control as would bigger aircraft, be they manned or unmanned...
jcims 7y ago
You're not wrong, but even model helicopters can autorotate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxQ5kwqiPN4&t=135 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxQ5kwqiPN4&t=135

jacquesm 7y ago

Your typical helicopter is made to entirely different standards than your typical drone.

bayesian_horse 7y ago
Yes, of course. But toy helicopters have been around for a lot longer than quad-copters have been popular. And I've not seen a lot of people using single-rotor RC helicopters for filming and delivery (I'm sure there are some ...). My point is that multicopters are a lot simpler mechanically. No articulation, no transmission, just propellers on an electrical motor, controlled by pure electronics with no mechanical components in the loop except the drive coils. Arguably multicopters are easier to control automatically (with modern electronics), though that wouldn't be THAT big a factor today, I guess. Also electrical engines can deal a lot better with variable load and RPM. Multicopters with combustion engines (driving the rotors directly, not through a generator) seem to be quite uncommon. Still, if multicopters are supposed to be routinely used in the presence of people, they need similar standards of maintenance and failure control as would bigger aircraft, be they manned or unmanned...

jcims 7y ago

You're not wrong, but even model helicopters can autorotate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxQ5kwqiPN4&t=135 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxQ5kwqiPN4&t=135