1. Monocopter

2. A Typical Monocopter Model

3. Monocopter?????
Monocopters are single winged, all-rotating powered flight vehicles modeled after falling maple seeds.
As a potential new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platform, monocopters are inexpensive ($50-100), mechanically simple (two moving parts), and quick to construct (under 3 hours in a laboratory setting).

4. Brief History
Hobbyists have been tinkering with monocopters in one form or another since the 1960s.
Monocopters were purely curiosities: lack of effective control has excluded them from practical applications.
As a result the dynamics of powered monocopter flight were not properly demonstrated till a few years ago.
The closest published reference to control of a monocopter is a 2007 Master’s thesis by Andreas Kellas at MIT. In his work, Kellas discusses the implementation of a rudder- control scheme for an autorotating vehicle similar to a maple seed. While Kellas does not clearly demonstrate control in flight tests, his work shares the challenge of detecting the orientation of an all-rotating vehicle.

5. Model of Embry Riddle
Recently the monocopter ‘s tremendous capability of being an UAV was succesfully showcased in IARC by Embry Riddle Aeronautics Institute

6. Monocopter prototype

7. Design parameters
We choose the lightest available R/C components for the receiver, motor, battery, speed control, and servo.
Wing is made of polystyrene or balsa wood so that it is sturdy as well as strong.
Fuselage is to be made with carbon fibre.
Lithium polymer battery
Brushless motor
Propeller with three or more blades is necessary to eliminate excessive vibration due to varying propeller inertia about the monocopter’s vertical axis of rotation.
A launch lug located on the motor arm at the vehicle’s center of mass accepts a vertical rod from the launch stand, and enables the monocopter to freely seek its steady state pitch and coning angles prior to takeoff.

8. Working
The rotation of the monocopter results in the change in angular momentum of the propeller. With respect to time.
This creates a torque on the monocopter frame about the pitch axis.
This inturn is balanced by the spinning inertia of the pitch balance strut.
The monocopter rotation direction determines whether this torque causes a pitchup or pitch-down deflection.
While in flight steady state coning angle balances the torque from lift on the wing, and a steady state pitch angle balances the pitch torque due to yawing the spinning propeller.

9. Side View: Coning angle

10. Side View: Pitch angle

11. Launch Pad
A monocopter launch pad should be sturdy and fixed firmly to the ground.  Never try to launch a monocopter from a long rod on a standard launch pad. A suitable launch pad can be constructed from the following materials:
4 - 2x4s, three, 18 inches long and 1 - 2x4,, 36 inches long. The lengths need not be exact.
1 - 3 inch long, ¼-20 carriage bolt aand 3 nuts
6 -3 inch long wood screws.
Drill a 1/4” hole in the middle of one of the short 2x4s. Insert the carriage bolt into the hole and secure it tightly with one of the nuts. Attach the long 2x4, perpendicular to bottom of the short one with two wood screws. Attach the two remaining short 2x4s to the opposite ends of bottom of the first short 2x4 with two wood screws each.  Thread the two remaining nuts on the bolt and use them to adjust the height of the rocket above the pad.

13. Points to be taken care of
In uncontrolled flight (throttle control only), monocopters are either directionally stable or unstable.
Stable models hover fixed in space, translating no more than two disk diameters per minute.
Unstable models spiral clockwise in circles of increasing radius, with ever increasing disk inclination.
After the first hindrance of making a monocopter hover is overcome,next aim is to make it navigable.

14. Use of ailerons on the wings to navigate the monocopter was thought about.
The problem that can be encountered is in addition to modifying the lift of the airfoil, the aileron also influences the aerodynamic moment about the quarter chord. The aerodynamic torque due to aileron deflection is small compared to the torque generated dueto the lift distribution, but causes pitch oscillations.

15. Plan
First we will be trying to make the monocopter hover at one place.
This will be done with the help of various wing designs and known aerodynamic concepts.
In market,monocopter kits are available which are solely made of balsa wood.So this will be good means of conducting hit and trials if we model our initial models with balsa.

16. Balsa monocopter

17. After getting a apt solutions,we will make our final model using carbon fiber,polysterene foam sheets etc.
Then comes the problem of navigating .
This requires greater avionics.
With use of inclinometer we will judge the various flight parameters and code a microcontroller so that it control the ailerons effectively.
By varying that angle at the right times during rotation, you gain contol that is similar to the control provided by a swashplate in helicopters.

18. Reference Video Links http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbuGCgc-JCM
e=player_embedded

19. Budget Brushless Motor-200 Carbon rod-350-400 Propeller-40-70
Lithium polymer battery-750
Balsa wood-
Epoxy-500
Firecracker rockets
Rest of the components will be available with aero club like receiver and transeiver.

20. Future Scope of Project
Further modifications can be incorporated into this like
A wireless camera for survelliance.
Fly it in auto pilot mode using inclinometer and gps.
Decreasing its wing span to enable it sneak into small spaces for spying.

21. Thank You
Mohammed Rhazy
Mob no