In the current design, the quadrocopter is able to stay about for 18
min in the air and can travel a total distance of about 4 km at an
average speed of 4 m/s. The maximum flying altitude is not limited,
but the typical operational altitude is below 100 m. Although these
technical characteristics are available, the surveying assignments the
quadrocopter was given in this research required it to travel only about
400 m at a time and at an altitude of about 70 m. The quadrocopter
can be both manually controlled or put in an autonomous flight mode.
A commercially-available 2.4 GHz transmitter (as it is used to steer
many model aircrafts or helicopters) was used for manual control purpose.
An 868 MHz data link provides the possibility to maintain realtime
flight information and wireless waypoint transmitting.