Spinning a Small-Sized Quadrotor Efficiently to Achieve a 3-D Omnidirectional Field of View

This study presents a method for spinning small-sized quadrotors at high speeds in a power efficient manner to create a full 3-D omnidirectional field of view. The thrust direction is designed to be slightly inclined from the vertical axis of a quadrotor to provide its effective yaw moment with minimal power consumption. The corresponding mathematical model of this system is constructed to investigate the efficiency of the proposed mechanical design. The consumed power is represented in terms of the tilting angle of the thrust and the spinning rate of a quadrotor. The power consumption is shown to be theoretically minimized for a prescribed spinning rate of a quadrotor with an optimized tilting angle. It is also revealed that the unsaturated operational region is widened to maximize maneuvering agility. Experiments were conducted using advanced measurement equipment to determine the model parameters and coefficients related to power consumption. The proposed optimally inclined thrust is shown to reduce power consumption by 14.8 $\%$ at a spinning rate of 5 Hz (revolutions per second). With high refresh rate LiDAR or multichannel LiDAR, a dense 3-D omnidirectional scanning can be achieved without using additional rotating actuators.