How does a drone work?

When we think of a drone we think of a cool, flying gadget that can record all sorts of beautiful pictures, but have you ever wondered how it works? 

Let’s start off by understanding a simple model such as a single propeller drone. The drone provides enough lift force from the force exerted by the wings to keep the drone hovering above the air, however all it can do is go vertical and back down. Another problem with this drone is that the drone's body keeps rotating opposite to the propeller as a consequence of Newton's third law of motion stating that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The motors stator provides the needed torque to the rotor part, and according to the third law, this means that the rotor will give back an equal amount of torque back to the stator and since the stator is fixed to the drone's body, it will give the drone an undesirable spin.

When looking at the structure, the motors cause the preppelors to rotate at high speeds. This causes a force to exert thereby increasing the lift force which is calculated using the equation below:

In order for the blades to rise it must generate a net force which is larger than its weight, in order to hover the weight acting upward must equal the weight of the drone in order to reach equilibrium.

Ideally, a drone should have 4 propellers as this allows movement in any direction. In order to move left or right there must be at least more than one drone as this allows the user to exert more force on one side of the drone by increasing the thrust force on that side which is done by increasing the speed of the propellers in one size or decreasing the speed on the other. To move back or forward you use the same principle theory, you simply increase the number of revolutions per second at one end of the drone thus moving the drone in the opposite direction of the propellers that have been increased. To rotate, the revolution of the propellers of opposing sides (meaning top left and bottom right or bottom right and top left) will increase. 

This is all due to newton’s third law of motion as when we increase the force in a certain area of the drone, it moves in the opposite direction

And there you go! That is a simple but conclusive explanation of how drones work. 

Thanks for reading!