Unmanned Hex-Rotor Helicopter Based on an H-Airframe

Unmanned multi-rotor helicopters are gaining prominence in the past several years among researchers and industry. A notable example of multi-rotor implementation is the cinema industry. The lower cost of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for movie making compared to piloted aircraft has promoted multi-rotor helicopters as photographic platforms for professional tasks of filming motion picture and still photographs. Such flying platforms require significantly higher lifting power compared to amateur and hobby UAVs. Further requirements include low vibrations and stability of the helicopter. On account of these characteristics, the most widespread platform for photography is the six-rotor helicopter with "star"-airframe. Simple, yet very productive, it has satisfied to considerable extent the demand by the filming industry and other branches of users. But it still has drawbacks that should be addressed by proposing a newer and innovative airframe design. The current paper presents a new hex-rotor helicopter airframe design based on the H-configuration and compares it with the most widespread "star"-configuration. All benefits in various aspects of efficiency and effectiveness are disclosed.