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Lab

Airframe Explorer

An interactive schematic of the quadrotor from my final year project. Orbit it, then select a marker to see what the component is, what it talks to, and whether it actually exists yet.

The geometry is the aircraft's own CAD, cut from 1.6 million triangles to 47,500 and drawn as edges only. Each marker sits on the centre of the part it names. Read it as a schematic, not a render.

Select a numbered marker to inspect a component.

Component reference

01

NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8GB

On hand
AI performance
Up to 67 TOPS
GPU
1024-core Ampere, 32 Tensor Cores
CPU
6-core Arm Cortex-A78AE
Memory
8 GB 128-bit LPDDR5
Power
7–25 W configurable

Connections

  • Depth camera over USB 3.0 - the perception loop closes here, onboard
  • Flight controller over UART, publishing setpoints
  • Powered from the 5 V regulated rail, not the raw battery

Status

Already owned. This is the pivot point of the whole design - enough compute to run depth processing and navigation onboard, which means the aircraft does not depend on a radio link to stay alive.

02

Orbbec Gemini 336

On hand
Depth range
0.10–20 m (optimal 0.26–3 m)
Depth stream
Up to 1280×800 @ 30 fps
RGB stream
Up to 1920×1080 @ 30 fps
Depth FOV
H 90° × V 65°
Interface
USB 3.0 Type-C
Mass
99 g

Connections

  • USB 3.0 to the Orin Nano - depth and RGB both land on the compute module
  • Rigidly mounted to the forward frame so the camera-to-body transform stays fixed

Status

Already owned. Stereo rather than structured light, which is what makes it usable outdoors as well as indoors.

03

Laser-cut carbon fibre airframe

Designed
Material
Carbon fibre sheet, laser cut
Configuration
X quadrotor, ducted
Motor spacing
172 × 141 mm (222 mm diagonal)
Overall
331 × 289 mm across the ducts
Non-structural parts
3D-printed Nylon 12 prop ducts, mounts and brackets

Connections

  • Carries every other component - the mass budget here arbitrates the whole design
  • Stiffness directly sets the vibration floor the state estimator has to live with

Status

Design settled, not yet cut. A 3D-printed frame was the original plan and was rejected: for the stiffness required it came out both too heavy and too weak against carbon fibre. 3D printing kept only for non-structural parts - the prop ducts, mounts and brackets - where its geometric freedom actually pays.

04

2205 motors × 4

Sourcing
Stator
2205
Shortlisted
Readytosky RS2205 2300 KV
Props
5 in (127 mm), three-blade, in ducts
Quantity
4

Connections

  • Each motor driven by its own ESC from the raw battery rail
  • ESC signal lines run back to the flight controller

Status

Sized in the CAD: 2205 motors on 5 in props, inside printed ducts, against the mass budget the carbon frame and the Orin Nano impose. Still to source.

05

Battery and power distribution

Designed
Chemistry
LiPo
Pack envelope
102 × 34 × 33 mm, top-mounted, aft
Capacity
To be set by the flight-time target
Rails
Raw pack to ESCs, regulated 5 V to compute

Connections

  • Raw pack voltage to the four ESCs
  • Regulated 5 V rail to the Orin Nano and flight controller
  • Pack mass is the largest single line in the mass budget after the frame

Status

Pack size and placement are fixed in the CAD. Capacity is still open - a direct trade against endurance and all-up mass.

06

Flight controller

Undecided
Firmware
PX4 (planned)
Role
Attitude and rate control
Sensors
IMU, barometer
Footprint
30 × 30 mm, under the bottom plate

Connections

  • Receives setpoints from the Orin Nano over UART
  • Drives the four ESCs directly
  • Runs the fast inner loop the companion computer deliberately stays out of

Status

Board not yet chosen; the CAD reserves a 30 × 30 mm stack for it. PX4 is the intended firmware, which keeps the ROS 2 bridging path standard.