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QITOUS Hybrid VTOL Drone

A 3D-printed hybrid VTOL drone that hovers on four propellers and flies forward as a fixed-wing aircraft.

  • Drone
  • Open source
  • arduino
  • 3D printable

Suggested by Robotheca, created by @Ahmed4Mars (opens in a new tab), from github.com/Ahmed4Mars/QITOUS-VTOL (opens in a new tab). Pinned to commit 3f8e396 (opens in a new tab).

Fork on GitHub (opens in a new tab)Download the files at this commit (.zip)
Hardware license
GPL-3.0-only (opens in a new tab)
Software license
GPL-3.0-only (opens in a new tab)
Commercial use
Allowed

Photo

This repository has no photo of the robot yet.
Weight
2.1 kg
Payload
1.1 kg

What it can do

Written by Robotheca from the project's documents.

  • Flies as a hybrid VTOL: quad-rotor hover for takeoff and landing, then fixed-wing forward flight with the wing carrying the load.
  • Hover mode mixes all four motors in an X-quad layout with front motors tilted vertical and control surfaces held at trim.
  • Cruise mode tilts front motors forward as airplane propellers, uses differential thrust for yaw, idles rear motors, and drives the elevator from pitch PID output.
  • Roll and pitch use PID angle-mode control; yaw uses a rate loop, with mode selected by a receiver switch.
  • Throttle cut is available on a receiver channel, and an aileron test mode lets the ailerons follow the roll stick directly for checks.

Bill of materials

This repository has no parts list Robotheca can read yet.

Build guide

The creator's steps, each with its instructions.

  1. 1Print the airframe parts from the print-files folder
  2. 2Assemble the fuselage, wing, ailerons, tail and engine mounts
  3. 3Mount the motors, servos and electronics
  4. 4Wire the Teensy 4.0, MPU6050 IMU, ESCs and receiver
  5. 5Flash the flight-control firmware to the Teensy 4.0
  6. 6Bench-test without propellers, then perform hover tests and tune gains

The guide appears here as you scroll.

Guide by @Ahmed4Mars (README.md), under GPL-3.0-only.

Wiring and electronics

Notes written by Robotheca from the project's documents.

Main parts

  • Teensy 4.0 flight controller board.
  • MPU6050 IMU as the attitude sensor.
  • FlySky FS-i6X transmitter with a PPM receiver.
  • Four brushless motors with ESCs: two 935 KV front tilting motors and two 920 KV rear motors.
  • Five servos for the two tilt mounts, the elevator, and both ailerons.
  • BEC and a 14.8 V 4S LiPo battery as the power supply.

Connections

  • Receiver supplies PPM input to the Teensy, with channels mapped in AETR order (roll, pitch, throttle, yaw).
  • Motor and servo outputs are assigned to specific Teensy pins: M1/M2 front tilt motors, M3/M4 rear fixed motors, and servos for tilt mounts, elevator, and ailerons.
  • The front-right tilt servo output is inverted in software, and the elevator and left aileron have tighter output limits.
  • Motor outputs use standard 1000–2000 µs pulses to match the ESCs.
  • Power comes from the 4S LiPo through a BEC.