A 5 inch drone with CubeOrange+ that flies for 20 minutes

ArduCopter Copter 4.5
1

Hey everyone.

I am working on a project for a lab in my college. I am tasked with designing and building a drone in the smallest possible form factor, the drone will supposedly be used for research purposes and it will carry an RGB payload of around 200 grams. The lab staff has not very clearly mentioned the use of the drone, the requirement they have given me is that the drone should be in the smallest form factor (I am thinking of 5" build). The MTOW is 2 kgs. It should fly for 15-20 minutes. It should carry an Nvidia Jetson and Orange Cube+ (all of which are included in the MTOW).

Note: I have a bit of experience with building drones, so the lab has chosen me for the task. But I am having a tough time choosing the components for the drone and getting a flight time of 15 minutes. The drone will not perform any Acro maneuvers. So far, I have selected the motor and propellers for the drone. The motor I have selected is AOS Supernova 2207 1980 kv and Propeller is GemFan Hurricane 5236 as this combo is the most efficient. Kindly help me select the components for the drone.

Thank you.

2

ecalc

eCalc - xcopterCalc - the most reliable Multicopter Calculator on the Web

A 5" build that weighs 2kg sounds very ambitious - I predict you’ll need 8 motors.
Usually a 2kg quad would use some relatively low KV/high power motors and at least 12 inch props.

3

Hello @SamNemo welcome to the community.

After selecting all your components, before you assemble them, and start crashing, follow this guide. It will make you avoid the common pitfalls and crashes that beginners experience.

4

Initially, I thought of using the X8 configuration, as I have seen many CineLifters using it. But driving 8 motors is not very efficient and a flight time of 15 minutes at least is a priority here. According to the datasheet of the motors, at 50% throttle, the motor produces 1006 grams of force with a 3.52 g/Watt efficiency. So, I think it would be sufficient. Although I am not sure. All of this is very new to me.