Helping the Quad-copter fly freely

Ever felt amazed by seeing a vehicle flying in the sky without a pilot? These vehicles are of great use nowadays! From aerial surveillance to video shooting during weddings, they find a huge range of applications.
Quad-copters, also known as Drones are technically aircraft that do not have a pilot but are controlled by someone else on the ground. It is useful for many purposes. Drones are being effectively used in the agriculture sector for spraying pesticides, government officials use them for aerial surveillance, Media uses them for shooting any big event. Companies like Amazon are investing money in the use of drones for delivery and expanding internet access, but for the most part, these applications are in the testing phase.
For any flying vehicles, landing gears are present that help these vehicles while landing or taking off. Airplanes have wheels that are used as landing gears which fold once the plane takes off. But the helicopters do not have a folding landing gear. The same is true for a quad-copter. But for Quad-copters, the landing gears may cause a problem while the drone is going through a small area, unlike in helicopters. Considering the size of the helicopters, the landing gears are compact but for the drones, the landing gears are big compared to their size and can become an obstacle while they are flying through small spaces. During such times, the landing gears need to be folded which will help the quad-copter to pass through the obstacles easily.

Quad-copter with landing gears open

The folding of landing gears is done by using a microcontroller, servo motors, ultrasonic sensors. The controller is so programmed that the landing gears with the help of servo motors fold or open themselves after the drone reaches a particular height (as per the distance mentioned in our code) to support the landing or flying operation.
The measuring of height from a distance is done by ultrasonic sensors using ultrasonic sound waves. It consists of a transmitter and receiver. The sensor continuously sends the data to the controller. Once the mentioned height is achieved, the controller opens or closes the landing gears through servo motors. The motors rotate and help landing gear open or close. This helps drones to fly through small spaces and avoids accidents happening due to the open landing gears.

Quad-copter with landing gears folded while flying

With the increasing use of drones, technologies that will help them to make operation friendly will always be welcomed, thus making their operation easy and fly freely.