Design, implementation and verification of a quadrotor tail-sitter VTOL UAV

This paper presents the design and implementation of a cost-effective, lightweight, yet power efficient tail-sitter Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The UAV consists a pair of wings for efficient level flight and four rotors for attitude control. The aerodynamic and mechanical configurations of the UAV are designed and implemented from scratch to meet the required power efficiency, and subsequently optimized to enhance the stability and maneuverability. The developed VTOL UAV has a weight and cost comparable to a typical quadrotor, while consuming only half power, as shown by real flight tests. In addition, it can achieve all key VTOL maneuvers, including vertical take-off, landing, hovering, cruising and transition.