Performance of coaxial propulsion in design of multi-rotor UAVs

Abstract

There are many different types of propulsion systems developed for multi rotor UAVs. One of the most interesting designs is so called X8 quadrocopter, which extends original quadrotor concept to 8 motors, arranged in 4 coaxial pairs. The advantage of this solution is increased lift of platform, with reasonable volume of platform kept. However, this design suffers from the loss of efficiency due to coaxial propellers’ configuration, because the lower propeller loses thrust working in prop wash of upper propeller. This paper presents the experimental verification of performance of such propulsion system in practical terms of designing multi rotor platforms, comparing to design with 8 isolated propulsion units. In addition, its advantages versus classic quadrotor concept is shown. The series of experiments with different motors and sizes of propellers were conducted to estimate efficiency of coaxial propulsion regarding useful thrust generated by each configuration.