Different Types of Drones

There are more types of drones than the ones we regularly hear about or see in the store. For example, there are:

• Aircraft type drones: fixed wing
  • Fixed-wing aircraft: RPAS without a tail with a very small fin on the tip of each wing & a wing width of approximately 0.8m to 1.2m. These are mainly used for professional purposes & model building. The advantage is that a larger area can be flown over. Well-known brands are eBee, Delair, Wingtra & Atmos UAV.
  • Conventional Fuselage Designs: These are RPAS with a tail & a fin. Recognizable by a slightly larger wing width & therefore a higher load-carrying capacity.
• Helicopter type drones: These use rotating propellers or props
  • Single-rotor & coaxial rotor: These are devices with only 1 shaft, with a single rotor or two counter-rotating rotors.
  • Multirotor: These are devices with 3 or more rotors on different axes. Some well-known brands are Parrot, DJI & Yuneec.
• Other: Devices such as zeppelins are also included.

For measurements & inspections we mainly use multirotor drones with 4 to 8 motors.

Atmos UAV VTOL Drone Marlyn

A Fixed Wing drone from manufacturer Atmos UAV with a vertical take-off & landing function.

Advantages & disadvantages

Some advantages of multirotor drones are that they can take off & l& vertically, can be deployed smoothly, & can continue to hover. However, there are exceptions.

Compared to fixed wing aircraft, they are less stable & more sensitive to wind & vibrations. However, nowadays there are devices available with accurate IMU sensors that solve this quite well.

The multirotor drones can be powered in different ways. For example, we see devices that work with a battery or on petrol. For surveying applications such as volume determination, we notice that a battery is always used because of its stability.

In addition, there are also options to connect the device with a cable, so that it can stay in the air longer, but the device can only move to a limited extent. This solution is almost exclusively used for security purposes.

Multi-rotors with a battery can generally stay in the air for about a maximum of 45 minutes, depending on weather conditions, temperature & wind.

With some fixed wing aircraft this is a lot longer, which is certainly an advantage for certain applications.

If you’ve any questions get in touch with us here.