design and development of an open source quadcopter for disaster management
This project deals with the design and development of an open-source quadcopter for disaster management, the quadcopter will be helpful in detecting disastrous areas and providing aid to the affected area. In real-time when a Disaster happens due to an earthquake, any construction collapse, o
2025-06-28 16:26:16 - Adil Khan
design and development of an open source quadcopter for disaster management
Project Area of Specialization Mechatronics EngineeringProject SummaryThis project deals with the design and development of an open-source quadcopter for disaster management, the quadcopter will be helpful in detecting disastrous areas and providing aid to the affected area.
In real-time when a Disaster happens due to an earthquake, any construction collapse, or in time of a flood, manpower of the disaster management team reaches there and rescues the victims; But sometimes too many areas where victims are there and they are alive but people from rescue team are not able to reach there. In this situation quadcopter can help; if a Quadcopter is flying in a disaster area then through night vision it is possible to see how many people are stuck and where they are stuck and how many of them are alive. If anywhere suddenly conflagration happens, the Quadcopter can spray water or any fire-resistant. As it has a camera with a live broadcasting system, it can easily show everything live and any rescue team or any disaster management team can take proper action. In a time of the flood, when the rescue team is not able to reach, their Quadcopter can go and can provide drinking water, proper food and medicine, so that they can survive [1].
[1] Gershenson, J. (2009). Capstone Design Course for NASA ESMD (No. KSC-2009-094).
Figure 1 different types of disaster management using drone
Project Objectives- Design and development of an open-source quadrotor (drone)
- Development of a real-time onboard AI-based vision system for detection of disastrous areas and to provide aid (medicine, food, etc.) to a targeted areas.
In order to achieve the desired objectives, the project will be divided into two stages, firstly a remote-controlled quadcopter will be designed by using APM 2.8 as a flight controller which will control every part of a drone. APM 2.8 is an open-source autopilot system that has a gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer, and compass. APM 2.8 also has programmed GPS navigation. This part of the project mainly deals with the electronic section. ESC (electronic speed controller) will be used to control the speed and deliver power to Brushless Motors.
The second part of the project will mainly include coding, the coding will mainly be done in Python and for testing of code different simulation software will be used i.e. ROS, Gazebo, CoppeliaSim. To achieve ROS-based navigation on the drone Raspberry Pi will be used. Linux-based mavlink library will be used for connection of raspberry pi with APM 2.8. So after the connection of these two boards, we can use ROS, drone kit libraries, OpenCV, and other important libraries to write our own python script through which drones can perform autonomous tasks. Also, a camera will be connected to raspberry pi and by using data obtained from the camera we can do our required task. The block diagrams will be followed during the design of the project.
Figure 2 block diagram of a quadcopter
Benefits of the Project
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The quadcopter will be an open source means everyone will be having access to its code and will be able to modify and enance it. Also they will be able to operate the quadcopter without the requirement of a license.
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This quadcopter will be helpful in detecting and managing disatrous areas by collecting aerial imagery and will permit disaster responders to quickly create usable, actionable maps, and to rapidly impact a disaster’s effects on the community.
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The quadcopter will be helpful in providing aid to the the affected people in disastrous areas.
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This quadcopter will reduce the work burden on rescue team by providing quick access to aid to the affected people.
| Constraints | Method of measurement | Target | Acceptable limits |
| The angle between the Quadcopter frame | [degrees] | 90 | 90 |
| Length Quadcopter frame | Centimeters [cm] | 25 | 25_____30 |
| Width of Quad copter frame | Centimeters [cm] | 24 | 17_____24 |
| Height of Quadcopter frame | Centimeters [cm] | 5.46 | 5______10 |
| Mass | Grams [g] | 1000 | 800_____1200 |
| Battery | Capacity [mAh] | 2200 | 2200 |
| Propeller length | Centimeters [cm] | 25.4 | 25.4 |
| Propeller pitch | Centimeters [cm] | 11.43 | 11.43 |
| Propeller weight | Grams [g] | 7 | 7 |
| GPS Module Dimension | Millimeters [mm] | 40*40*8.5 | 40*40*8.5 |
| RF Range | Giga Hertz [GHz] | 2.4 | 2.4_______2.8 |
Constraints
The angle between the Quadcopter frame
Length Quadcopter frame
Width of Quad copter frame
Height of Quadcopter frame
Mass
Battery
Propeller length
Propeller pitch
Propeller weight
GPS Module Dimension
RF Range
Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry ITOther Industries Medical , Food Core Technology RoboticsOther Technologies Artificial Intelligence(AI)Sustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Sustainable Cities and CommunitiesRequired Resources| Elapsed time in (days or weeks or month or quarter) since start of the project | Milestone | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | studied research paper related to our project | wrote literature review |
| Month 2 | Finish up proposal | submit proposal to our supervisor |
| Month 3 | arrange equipment's | complete the list of required equipment |
| Month 4 | design in SolidWorks | submit SolidWorks design |
| Month 5 | assembling of parts | complete assembly |
| Month 6 | finished writing the code and designing the control system for the drone | done with coding and controlling of drone |
| Month 7 | software development | done the simulation of drone |
| Month 8 | hardware development | finish fabrication of drone |
| Month 9 | final testing | complete the entire project |