Drone Controlled by Reaction Wheels: Watch it Fly

January 22, 2019|FliteTest

Tom Stanton has created a new concept for drone control, but it seems there's some work to do.

Ever seen a multirotor that looks quite like this? Technically a bicopter, this DIY drone uses the space-age technology (reaction wheels) to control its direction. The two wheels either side of the main fuselage are spun backward and forward to rotate the machine through the force of angular momentum. Here's Tom's video.

What is Angular Momentum?

Angular momentum is all about rotation. Specifically, it refers to the quantity of rotation of a body, which is the product of its moment of inertia and its angular velocity.

You can actually calculate angular momentum in a similar way to how you'd calculate linear momentum. You just have to substitute the moment of inertia for mass and angular velocity for velocity. This is all good to know in our hobby of R/C if you're trying to make a crazy experiment, like this reaction wheel drone, actually fly.

So, for linear momentum, if m is an object's mass and v is the velocity, then the momentum is:

P=mv

For angular momentum (L), the equation looks like this (where / is the moment of inertia and w is the angular velocity):

L=/w

It was this formula that was crucial for getting the size and velocity of the wheels just right to control the drone.

If you enjoyed seeing this featured project from Tom Stanton, you can see more of his work at his YouTube Channel. Many of Tom's projects are connected in some way to R/C and aviation, so it's definitely worth a look!

Tom's Other Projects Include:

Thrust Vectoring Canard Plane