VTOL Glide Drone — ECE443-Sp26

C++
3D Printing
PCB
Drones
Accelerometer
Hardware

The VTOL Glide Drone is a senior design capstone project focused on building a hybrid UAV that combines vertical takeoff and landing with fixed-wing gliding. The intended use is to create a cost-effective aerial platform for research, surveying, exploration, and environmental monitoring where both maneuverability and longer endurance are useful. Unlike a standard quadcopter, this system was designed to take off vertically and use its fixed-wing body to improve glide efficiency. The project uses several key technologies, including an ESP32-based flight controller PCB, onboard sensors for attitude and altitude feedback, RC communication for pilot control, battery telemetry, brushless motor propulsion, and a lithium polymer battery power system. The aircraft body was designed to balance strength and low weight. A major accomplishment was integrating the electrical, mechanical, and firmware portions into one working system. Main challenges included flight stability, power distribution, weight management, and control-code tuning. Future improvements would focus on cleaner wiring, better connectors, and more stable glide performance.

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Artifacts

Name Description
GitHub Repository KiCad files, 3D models and code   Link
Project Poster Poster seen at Engineering Expo   Download
Executive Summary Project description and current status   Download
Project Summary Video Video summary of the project   Link
Project Document Documentation of interfaces, descriptions and figures.   Download
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