An engineering development of a novel hexrotor vehicle for 3D applications

This paper is about the development of a novel type of non coplanar hex rotor with the ability to decouple translational and attitude dynamics. The proposed design features six variable pitch rotors arranged in three different rotor planes in order to point the thrust and torque vectors independently of body attitude. It is envisaged that this design could be beneficial for operations in confined spaces where the requirements for translational control authority design outweigh the reduced hover efficiency compared to coplanar multi rotors, such as quad rotors.