Design of a quadcopter for winning the Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition

Abstract

To win the Jerry Sanders Creative Design Competition, it is necessary to design a “cone transportation system” to transport cones to territories in the arena. There are three tiers of territories that award 1, 3, and 5 points when controlled for 10 seconds. Territories controlled at the end of the match are awarded 10, 30, and 40 points. The cone transportation system includes: (1) a vehicle, and (2) a mechanism for picking up and transporting cones. This project aims to design a quadcopter to pick-up and transport cones, as quadcopters are given a 3x point multiplier. With voltage relationship equations for brushless motors, a simulation was developed to determine optimal quadcopter size and rotor type. Thus, the advantages of using a quadcopter were verified.