Coaxial Octocopter UAV — 16-Motor Heavy-Lift Platform
Complete design and development of a custom coaxial octocopter with 16 motors, including aircraft calculations, propulsion architecture, power system, flight-control integration, RF communications and flight testing.
Project Overview
Complete design and development of a custom coaxial octocopter UAV using 16 motors arranged in eight coaxial propulsion pairs. The project covered the complete aircraft engineering process from initial mission requirements and system calculations through propulsion sizing, structural architecture, power-system design, flight-control integration and flight testing. The propulsion system was designed around sixteen BLDC motors with corresponding ESCs, requiring careful calculation of total thrust, thrust-to-weight ratio, motor and propeller selection, battery capacity, current consumption and power-distribution requirements. The onboard system included flight-control electronics, GNSS and navigation sensors, power distribution, motor and ESC control, telemetry, RF communication links and antenna systems. Particular attention was paid to redundancy, propulsion-system synchronization, power distribution, thermal loading, vibration, electromagnetic interference and reliable operation of the complete aircraft. The work included aircraft architecture, component selection, mechanical and electronic integration, flight-controller configuration, ground testing, system optimization and flight testing.