Tri-Copter Aerial Drone

As a high school student with a growing interest in RC aircraft and photography, I set out to design and build a low-cost aerial drone for photography and videography. At the time, commercial or consumer camera drones cost well over CAD$1,000, making them inaccessible to most hobbyists, film students, and amateur photographers. My goal was to create an affordable alternative that offered stable flight, modular customization, and sufficient payload capacity to carry an action camera. 

To identify the optimal layout, I compared multiple drone configurations including mono-, duo-, quad-, and octo-copters, using a design matrix focused on stability, manoeuvrability, cost, payload capacity, and power efficiency.

From the matrix analysis and research, the tri-copter configuration emerged as the most balanced design offering:

• Cost-effectiveness – Required only three motors and ESCs, reducing hardware costs.

• Sufficient Payload Capacity – Generated sufficient lift for carrying a lightweight camera and motorized gimbal mount for pan-tilt movement.

• Advanced Yaw Control Manoeuvrability– Achieved through a servo-actuated rear motor, allowing smoother and faster rotational movement compared to differential thrust systems.

• Compact Transportability – Hinged arms allowed the frame to fold for easier storage.

The airframe was designed with key constraints aimed towards being lightweight, modular, and crash-resistant, utilizing:

• Aluminium central frame – Provided rigidity and protected sensitive electronics.

• Basswood arms – Stronger than balsa, yet lightweight enough for efficiency.

• Replaceable crumple zones and crash structures – Arms were attached with zip ties and screws, allowing them to break away and absorb impact energy, protecting core electronics upon impact.

This modularity design not only reduced mass but also made field repairs simple and cost-effective, a critical feature for a student project intended for general consumers.

The tri-copter incorporated a brushless motor system with ESCs, paired with a flight controller capable of PID tuning for stability adjustments. Additional system features included:

• Low-battery warning system – Preventing crashes due to insufficient battery power while in-flight, notifying the pilot to land.

• Extra RC channels – Allowing future expansion, such as a motorized gimbal or remote camera trigger.

• Servo-driven yaw system – Stable and rapid rotational control for dynamic video shots.

This setup gave me my first exposure to control systems and the challenges of fine-tuning for stability under varying environmental conditions.

This project provided my first deep dive into aerodynamics, mechatronics, and system integration, long before entering engineering school. It taught me:

• The importance of iterative prototyping and structured testing;

• How modular, fail-safe design principles (like crumple zones) could protect critical and expensive systems and components; and

• How cost and performance trade-offs define real-world engineering solutions.

Looking back, this was also where I began to appreciate the value of tuning and lightweight design. Learning to balance propellers to reduce vibrations, fine-tune PID controllers, and minimize frame weight gave me a foundation in performance optimization that would later carry into my engineering projects, from robotics to motorsports.

Ultimately, this tri-copter became my first true “engineering system”, an integrated project where mechanical design, electronics, and control theory had to function together. It laid the groundwork for later projects in robotics, control systems, and vehicle design, while reinforcing my passion for designing machines that blend creativity, accessibility, and performance.