Design and study of a rotary winged unmanned aerial vehicle with hexacopter structure with gripper mechanism

Unmanned aerial vehicles are currently used in areas such as military, agriculture and agricultural, cargo, mapping and photography. Air vehicles used in these areas are controlled or autonomous. In this thesis, an original design was made and a hexacopter structure rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle was designed on Solidworks, a 3D CAD programme. After the design was completed, deformation analysis, stress and strain analyses were performed in the static analysis section using ANSYS software. Within the framework of the results obtained from the analyses and real flight tests, revisions were made in the design and manufacturing was started. The parts of the wing, fuselage and landing system required for the mechanical assembly of the hexacopter were manufactured from carbon fibre plates and carbon fibre pipes with light weight, high strength and corrosion resistance. The parts required for the assembly of electronic equipment and manufactured parts were printed on a 3D printer. Six shafts made of 304 quality stainless steel material were used as carrier parts for joining the upper and lower body parts forming the body structure. Electronic parts were assembled in parallel with the mechanical parts. In the assembly of these systems, care was taken to assemble the aircraft by considering the centre of gravity. Pixhawk 2.4.8 was used as flight controller for this integrated system to fly. Engine, ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) calibrations, flight controller calibration and GPS (Global Positioning System) calibration were performed via the flight controller. The settings of the modes required for flight were made on the flight controller. After these settings, necessary preparations were made for flight tests and flight tests and necessary optimisations were performed. The gripper system, more commonly known as the gripper mechanism, which is integrated into the rotary wing unmanned aerial vehicle in the hexacopter structure, was assembled and integrated outside before being attached to the aircraft. After this process, the pin cable of the servo motor on the gripper mechanism was connected to the flight controller. The control of the gripper mechanism was provided with the control by assigning it to one of the switches on the controller via the flight controller. After the gripper mechanism was integrated, flight tests were performed and improvements were also emphasised. Keywords: Original design, Analysis, 3D printer, Hexacopter, Gripper mechanism, Carbon fibre, PLA