Design Optimization and Manufacturing of Quadcopter Using 3D Printing

In the past few years aerial vehicles have become extensively popular especially rotary winged vehicles like the quadcopters. In this paper, we discuss an approach we used to optimize the design a Quadcopter and to formulate appropriate design solutions for the problem of designing a customized quadcopter using 3D printing technology. Two approaches for designing a customized quadcopter frame are discussed, a Hybrid frame developed from a carbon fiber tubes and 3D printed parts and a pure 3D printed frame. A comparison of the two approaches has been discussed by highlighting the weight and the efficiency parameters. Frame parts are designed using mechanical simulation softwares like Autodesk Inventor and SolidWorks and static analysis was carried out using ANSYS Workbench.