We ran this as an in-house R&D effort to prove that a functional drone can be designed and built with locally available materials and open hardware. The goal was to cover the full path from idea to flight. Design. Fabrication. Assembly. Firmware. Test. Iterate.
OBJECTIVES
• Build a flyable airframe with wood, aluminum, and 3D printed parts.
• Use an Arduino board with an IMU for flight control.
• Keep cost low by using off-the-shelf parts and local fabrication.
• Engage multiple departments in the hub to simulate a product pipeline.
• Document the process, trade-offs, and lessons for future teams.
MATERIALS AND TOOLS
• Frame materials: Plywood sheet, aluminum angles, 3D printed PLA joints and guards.
• Electronics: Arduino board for the FCU, MPU-6050 IMU, ESCs, brushless motors, propellers, power distribution, LiPo battery, RC receiver.
• Software: C++ Arduino IDE, basic PID loops, calibration scripts, serial telemetry.
• Tools: FDM printer, Dremel, drill press, soldering station, multimeter, scale, calipers.
SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
The quadcopter uses a LiPo battery feeding a power distribution board. The board supplies VBAT to four ESCs and a 5 V regulator. The regulator powers an Arduino flight controller and an MPU 6050 IMU. The IMU sends gyro and accelerometer data over I2C to the Arduino. An RC receiver provides commands via PPM or SBUS. The Arduino fuses sensors with a complementary filter and runs PID for roll, pitch, and yaw. It outputs PWM to the ESCs, which drive the brushless motors for thrust and attitude control. An arming switch and failsafe cut power to the motors when needed. All electronics share a common ground. The airframe uses wood plates, aluminum members, and 3D printed mounts.
FLIGHT CONTROL DETAILS
• Sensor fusion: Complementary filter to combine gyro stability with accelerometer drift correction.
• Control loops: Inner attitude loop with P and D. Outer rate and trim with P and I. Gains tuned incrementally.
• Safety: Arming switch. Minimum throttle lock. Failsafe on signal loss. Emergency cutoff.
TESTING AND RESULTS
• Hover achieved in untethered tests after three tuning rounds.
• Frame stiffness improved by switching to thicker wood plate at the center.
• Prop balancing reduced vibration and IMU noise.
• Average test flight windows were short by design for safety and thermal checks.
• Documentation captured build steps, wiring, and PID values per iteration.
SUMMARY
I led an in-house R&D project to design and build a low-cost drone using wood, aluminum, and 3D printed parts. We used an Arduino with an MPU-6050 for flight control and wrote the firmware for basic stabilization and manual flight. I handled system integration, PID tuning, and test planning. The project validated a frugal build path, produced clear documentation, and set a template for future educational UAV projects.
