Design Brief:

As part of our year 11 Practical assignments we have been provided with one Syma x25Pro drone. Currently, there is a lack of rigidity in parts due to them being made from the wrong material and some of the designs could also be improved. Those parts include but are not limited to the; blade protectors and landing gear. You should remake these parts to allow for an extra safety factor for the drone its self in the event of a crashing or similar and make the final proposed design more safe for the operator and surrounding people.

Specification (Ideas):

• The Blade Protectors should be able to easily clip on and off the drone but also be safe under loads.
• The blade protectors need to protect walls from hitting the drone blade causing it to snap and cause damage.
• The blade protectors should absorb the energy from the impact (be sacrificial or prolong the reaction time lowering the energy).
• The landing gear should provide supports to keep the 720P camera off the ground for the drone to land relatively safely.
• The landing gear should be sacrificial or absorb a little bit of impact.
• The landing gear must be long enough to protect the camera when landing on uneven surfaces
• None of the parts should interfer with regular drone operations such as camera view & movement.

Analysis:

Current safety addons for drones include; blade protectors & landing gear, all of which have their own flaws. A prime example for this is the included blade protectors for the Syma x25Pro drone which features blade protectors made from a rubber-like material that displaces past the drone’s blade area upon collision and uncovering the blade/propeller of the drone to the collision object. Parts like this and the landing gear for the same drone can be improved simply using different materials and a slightly better design that takes into account how the parts will be deformed or displaced upon impact. Current designs for blade protectors include; cage designs, pushback bars, shield designs and many more and each have their own advantages and disadvantages