The name "octocopter" does not make sense. "Helicopter" is a compound word made of "helico-" and "pter", which means "screw-wings". "Octo-" means eight, "-co-" means nothing.
"Octopter" would be a correct compound word meaning "8-wings", but that would be ambiguous, so the object discussed in TFA is better named just "8-propeller drone".
Hm making an AI assisted page and replacing the emdashes with double dashes seems like more work than to just rewrite the text yourself. Not sure why you would do that.
You know you're doing a great job, OP, when the peanut gallery here has nothing more substantial to add than to critique your em-dashes; greek-latin root word mix-ups despite the common vernacular having moved on from that; and lack of title brevity.
Congratulations --- this is a super cool project. I wonder if you've considered using ultralight filaments and 3dprinting the frame? PLA is stiff but brittle, and I know Bambu and a few others sell specialised versions that supposedly weigh less than normal.
Newest is at the top :D If you press the little "Collapse All" button on the top right of the blog posts, you can see the full timeline + dates of the entries.
I did start by designing/building a regular FC (no RL or anything) and am doing RL training afterwards, so I agree that the whole timeline looks a little confusing without background context since it goes real drone --> sim haha
Also there was a video about touching the edges of carbon fiber where it is not surface treated is embedding countless small shards of carbon into your skin, only visible through magnification, which cannot be healthy..
Asbestos is dangerous not because it's asbestos, but because it makes small and sharp fibres that embed in the lung tissue.
Carbon Fiber (and even fibreglass) can make fibres that small and sharp. So yeah, responsible dust handling is key.
The good news is that Asbestos easily puts off those small fibres just by being handled. CF and FG need to be damaged or machined to do it, handling the material after the dust has been dealt with is fine.
Love it, great to explore and learn, and I like the mixed background too of cybersec and robotics (all the way to CNC), just like myself, I think these two new fields will make a new industry, similar to OT cyber but more niche.
Which also means great people can go beyond what’s their school was about, so a CS major doing CNC isn’t “weird” or different, I remember when applying for jobs in systems in aerospace industry and get rejected despite having a systems background too, with feedback of “they are looking for people with education only in aerospace”, which is idiotic thing to consider.
So good luck OP, start exploring hacking mavlink or similar protocols which is what im working on.
Something I've wondered for octocopters - could using a ring instead of arms be beneficial for weight? 6.28r < 8r, but then again the arm radius is usually less than the full circle, and some components want to be centrally located, etc. I could imagine holding the central components in tension via light filaments (carbon fiber, nylon, etc) in tension, vs having to have rigid structure, but the small factor between 6.28 and 8 and maybe makes it not worth it.
I'm not sure what the modern equivalent of LMGTFY is. But I asked AI "For 8 rotor drones, what are the main reasons for using arms rather than a ring (or maybe a ring with a tensioning wire)"
This is very impressive! I researched fault-tolerant octorotor control using RL in grad school for a NASA project. Perhaps this may be helpful[1, see section 8.3]! The field is moving fast, so there may be better or more suitable approaches out there now.
For folks who are interested in UAV physics, I wrote up an explainer[2].
Hi!! I'm Karolina, and this is my project! Had no idea this got posted until someone DMed me about it on LinkedIn. Feel free to ask any questions or follow along via X (karolina_dubiel)
Thanks so much for all the kind words, it means a lot!
I find it very hard to believe that someone who has never done any CAD could design that with Fusion 360 in a day. I do lots of 3D design with Fusion and there is a serious learning curve. It's not something you can pick up in a day. She is doubtless much smarter than me, but that's not credible.
Hi, thank you!!
There's so many great resources for building your own quad from scratch (ex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9dvDU5RmQU&t=476s). I honestly wouldn't recommend an octo unless you have a reason for it (like wanting more fault tolerance, etc) solely because it's twice as expensive for the motors. I got all my parts from GetFPV and Amazon. At the very bare level, all you need is a FC, ESC, frame, props, motors, receiver, and battery (plus controller, and goggles/camera if you want it to be FPV)
3D printing isn't stiff enough for a larger drone like this, you'll get flex which will upset the PID loop and cause it to be very unstable if it even flies at all.
You'll notice on your 3D printed drone link that the actual multirotor part is carbon fiber tubes. The motor mounts and other brackets can be 3D printed without issues.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 48.6 ms ] threadThe name "octocopter" does not make sense. "Helicopter" is a compound word made of "helico-" and "pter", which means "screw-wings". "Octo-" means eight, "-co-" means nothing.
"Octopter" would be a correct compound word meaning "8-wings", but that would be ambiguous, so the object discussed in TFA is better named just "8-propeller drone".
Congratulations --- this is a super cool project. I wonder if you've considered using ultralight filaments and 3dprinting the frame? PLA is stiff but brittle, and I know Bambu and a few others sell specialised versions that supposedly weigh less than normal.
Thank you, it's cool!
I did start by designing/building a regular FC (no RL or anything) and am doing RL training afterwards, so I agree that the whole timeline looks a little confusing without background context since it goes real drone --> sim haha
I've heard the dust from carbon fiber is second to asbestos for inhaling.
Carbon Fiber (and even fibreglass) can make fibres that small and sharp. So yeah, responsible dust handling is key.
The good news is that Asbestos easily puts off those small fibres just by being handled. CF and FG need to be damaged or machined to do it, handling the material after the dust has been dealt with is fine.
Which also means great people can go beyond what’s their school was about, so a CS major doing CNC isn’t “weird” or different, I remember when applying for jobs in systems in aerospace industry and get rejected despite having a systems background too, with feedback of “they are looking for people with education only in aerospace”, which is idiotic thing to consider.
So good luck OP, start exploring hacking mavlink or similar protocols which is what im working on.
asking AI "
For folks who are interested in UAV physics, I wrote up an explainer[2].
[1]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RTEVRd0XCWLuDXY2nkbmYuOaa5x...
[2]: https://iahmed.me/post/drone-physics/
Thanks so much for all the kind words, it means a lot!
You'll notice on your 3D printed drone link that the actual multirotor part is carbon fiber tubes. The motor mounts and other brackets can be 3D printed without issues.