futuristic Alien military Mavic body

[Howdeedoodee]

Hi Folks

Has anybody thought about producing a EPP,EPO Futuristic Alien military mavic body shell/cover
I've attached some pictures/ideas.
With the Mavic being pretty much the most popular drone out there and because of the ton of accessories available you would of thought someone would of come up with something.
For a start it could wrap around the blades and entire body creating a super protective outer foam shell to protect against the worst of crashes.
Also it would make it nearly twice the size and look as per the post subject 'really cool futuristic Military alien looking.
Look at the RC jets you can get now for $150..the detailing on them are just awesome.
As per a $150 RC jet obviously you wouldn't need the EDF motor,the battery,the reciever,the ESC,the servo's,the metal and carbon control surfaces plus other bits and bobs, take that all off the $150 and surely you got to be around $50-$75 dollars for just a futuristic designed andhighly detailed lump of foam that's velcro'ed to the mavic.
The weight would be next to nothing, as a guess i bet if you turned up at the local flying field with that attached to a mavic and someone else was flying another Mavic or drone they would think WOW WTF is that flying over there.
At another guess wouldn't it be a matter of someone clever scanning the mavic and printing out a concept on a 3D printer.
I'm a Carpenter and could no doubt hand sand something out in the sandable foam i use in walls and roofs with the silver foil on it...however i think this would take a huge amount of sanding and failed moulds to get it perfect.
I would pay $75 for one just for the WOW factor
Does anyone else have any design idea's that would work with the quad and body design of the Mavic
You could also design it around being able to use the camera and sensors etc.
let me know if you would buy one for $75...maybe this is one for the flite test guys as i'm sure they've done weird stuff like this before.
Also it would float!

 

[Howdeedoodee]

If it looked something like the photo attched it would also be very stream lined and flight duration efficient as the Mavic sits roughly at this angle in sport mode

 

[talespin]

Looks nice.. just have to consider the weight and friction factor as well... I was planning to create something similar shell which can be easily fixed with Mavic and also can be taken out.

 

[Qoncussion]

I have nothing useful to say here... I just like all of the pretty pictures the OP posted

 

[Howdeedoodee]

I've seen this which looks as close to a design as possible that would work with the Mavic.
if you note the two arms at the front of the picture, well this could be repeated at the back which would house the propellers and mavic arm's.
I think it would have to be cam shell / 2 halve's so it could be just lifted off when not being used.
The flat edge surfaces could have 3M daul lock to connect them together.
I think a foam sanding session is coming on.
In two halves a bit like the foam plane fuselages come as per pics below

 

[Howdeedoodee]

Looks nice.. just have to consider the weight and friction factor as well... I was planning to create something similar shell which can be easily fixed with Mavic and also can be taken out.

Hi
The weight would be next to nothing, two halves of lightweight epo/epp foam..Mavic owners are flying 40,000 feet with nearly a kilo of twin battery mods on so a few ounces of foam will make little difference.
maybe a couple of thin composite rods to support the paradyne thrusters wings at the front.

 

[talespin]

how and where to get the foam?

 

[frogbmth]

Love the idea. The only thing that comes to mind though is that when I bought my first drone, the Parrot AR, it came with a very light foam hull that were basically foam prop guards. Outdoors it flew horribly with it on due to the amount of surface area that caught the wind compared to the standard body. May be the Mavic would fare better, but something to think about? It would be great if it was do-able though.

 

[MavicCF]

It would certainly increase the number of UFO sightings !

 

[Howdeedoodee]

I spent half hour cutting out the design above and gluing on arms at the back.
its a bit vague because the original picture is taken at an angle and I've just printed 3 copies and chopped off the front right arm and stuck it on the other 3 so its all out of scale and not uniform.
For it to look right the picture would have to be mirrored and pasted properly but I'm just not that clever.
Frogbmth: yes the parrot blade protectors were quite thin and flimsey and the parrot didn't have the power the mavic had, I've seen someone on youtube lift approx 1.2kg so the mavic has some awesome thrust to weight.
Also the foam thickness around the blades would be quite thick.
Have you ever seen a EDF RC jet at the shows/shop and thought WoW that looks Awesome especially the detailing.
well imagine that but on the mavic.
I'm not sure if i like the design as per the blue picture, maybe it needs to be UFO round but stretched out and stealthy looking.
I'm going to sand some foam at the weekend and experiment but View attachment 33016 if someone can come up with an better design it would be great.

 

[Howdeedoodee]

how and where to get the foam?

Depron and EPP Foam Suppliers

 

[Howdeedoodee]

Rc foam for final design but home insulation foam off-cuts for the initial sanding and shape forming.

Depron and EPP Foam Suppliers

However I see big 100mm blocks of foam as per picture above in boiler packaging every week, i can get it free of charge as it only gets dumped.

 

[Howdeedoodee]

A few ideas

 

[talespin]

They all look very nice.... have to consider the effect of wind as mentioned by another user earlier... even if I ignore the fact of increasing weight but the bigger it becomes the more wind it will catch.... I would start with some small mod and fly in minimum windy day and will see if the drone can stay at one place or gets blows away.. :-D

 

[AnzacJack]

Anything to take into account is when moving at speed. Aerodynamic effects may be fighting the mavics stability

 

[Qoncussion]

I would think that the wings need to create enough lift, while moving forward, to offset their own weight - in order for any of this to make sense.

 

[AnzacJack]

Lateral stability is what needs to be spot on or it will have to keep fighting the stay level. Creating lift is the easy part

 

[talespin]

I want to create a giant spider and freak out every one

 

[laurens23]

Wind is going to be the issue here. The wind and wind gusts is what the drone is constantly fighting to keep in control.

Bigger wind force means it needs to fight harder. the 3 most important things that determine the wind force are wind speed, area of an object and the aerodynamic shape. if we increase the area we will reach the drones limits at lower wind speeds. (i.e. less top speed, slower turning, more susceptible to gusts)

F = A * P * Cd
P = 0.613 V^2
Cd = (2Fd) / (p V^2 A)

F = force of the wind on an object
A = surface area
P = wind pressure
Cd = drag coefficient
V = relative wind velocity
Fd = aerodynamic drag
p = mass density of the air

When we design a shell for the mavic we control only A and Fd.

We can only make A bigger, not smaller. Making it bigger has a negative effect.

Because unlike a plane, car, bike, etc, a drone can face the wind from many directions creating a good aerodynamic shape for a drone (low Fd) is very difficult. All shapes in the examples are NOT aerodynamic for the multiple directions the wind can come from. Besides this, increasing A also increased the Fd. Thus any shell has to be EXTREMELY streamlined in ALL directions to offset the increase in surface area.

so ..... the best thing to do is wrap the drone in as small a box as possible, which they already do.

Edit: some racer drones use aerodynamic shells because, unlike a mavic, they only care about forward facing efficiency.

 

[BerndM]

It's a great idea IF your main goal is to snazz up the visual appearance of the MP, but you need to remember that every single square inch of body will provide the wind an additional hold on the MP which translates directly into more power needed to counteract it, so less flight time.
Any addition lift provided by the body's shape will likely be negligible in comparison.
BTW...those were some great pics of the various bodies.