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PROTOTYPING OF MODEL RC PLANE FOR
AGRICULTURAL APPLICATION
Atif Saeed
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, SZABIST
Karachi (Pakistan).
E-mail: m.atif@szabist.edu.pk
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4369-2388
Syed Ammad Ul Raza Kazmi
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, SZABIST
Karachi (Pakistan).
E-mail: ammadkazmi98@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6354-1662
Moiz Motani
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, SZABIST
Karachi (Pakistan).
E-mail: moizmotani@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6323-060X
Muhammad Baqar Panjwani
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, SZABIST
Karachi (Pakistan).
E-mail: baqar1015@gmail.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3607-299X
Recepción: 10/09/2021 Aceptación: 03/11/2021 Publicación: 14/02/2022
Citación sugerida:
Saeed, A., Raza, S. A., Motani, M., y Panjwani, M. B. (2022). Prototyping of Model RC Plane for
Agricultural Application. 3C Tecnología. Glosas de innovación aplicadas a la pyme, Edición Especial, (febrero
2022), 137-149. https://doi.org/10.17993/3ctecno.2022.specialissue9.137-149
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ABSTRACT
A radio controlled plane (RC Plane) is a small ying machine that is controlled from the
ground by transmitter. The plane is piloted with the help of a transmitter that communicates
with a receiver and sends signals to it. The plane has servos on board. These are governed
by same aerodynamic. The rules governing small aircrafts are the same as those governing
large aircrafts. The aircraft under consideration in this study was intended to have optimum
lift and drag properties. This was accomplished by determining the best values for fuselage
length, wingspan, and other parameters. As this RC place is to be used for the agricultural
and disinfectant spraying purpose, The dimensions of the elevator and rudder, as well as
the total weight, were determined through dierent analyses. These analysis were done
using solid works software.
We build this RC plane to achieve two dierent goals. The rst one is making farmers
job easier, faster and much more eective. Our second goal was to use this RC plane for
sanitization and spraying disinfectant as during covid 19 a number lives were lost because
the process of spraying disinfectant was too slow which lead to the spread of corona virus
through our surroundings.
KEYWORDS
RC plane, Designing, Analysis, Specications.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Our purpose of designing and fabricating this RC plane was to use it agricultural and
healthcare purpose. The designing of this plane required dierent analysis and other
electronic parts were used for its building purpose. The rst objective was to study
aerodynamics of this RC plane and use right parts to make it y eciently. The controlling
of RC plane is done by a transmitter and receiver. The transmitter we used is (Fly sky i6X)
and receiver used is (Fly sky iA6B).
The RC plane works on same principle as of a big aircraft what makes it dierent is its
scaling, Reynolds number, wing loading and its moment of inertia. The wing loading of an
R/C model is one to two orders of magnitude less than that of a full-scale airplane (due
to the “square-cube law’’). Wing loadings on R/C models are typically 1-2 lb/ft2 (16-32
oz/ft2). Whereas full scale planes are larger than 10 (Cessna 172 has a density of 12.6
lb/ft2). The result is lower stall speeds, as well as lower take-o and landing speeds and
distances between landing (Azeez et al., 2019). The Reynolds number of RC plane is less
than 500,000 (Azeez et al., 2019) as compared to big aircrafts with have Reynolds number
greater than 1 million.
After getting a good amount of knowledge from literature review, CFD analysis was done
using solidworks on our nal design of RC plane so we can get the best possible lift and
drag. The designing process of this planes requires use to choose suitable part to achieve
better weight optimization according to our desired applications (Visnuprasad et al., 2019).
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1. DESIGNING AND BUILDING RC PLANE
After all the dimensions were decided and cg was successfully calculated, which was 30% of
our chord length = 0.30x8 = 2.4 inches from leading edge of wing. We now moved on with
our nal fabrication process in which we started construction from wing.
We used hot wire machine which we made ourselves to cut foam into 2 identical parts in the
shape of airfoil NACA 4415 which was placed on both ends of foam for each wing.
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Whole wing was constructed in two identical wings which were half of main wing and were
24 inches length and 8 inches in width as shown in Figure 1:
Figure 1. Separate Wings.
Source: own elaboration.
Now we joint them using german glue and to reinforce them properly we placed 1 SPAR
(Figure 2) on top of them and 2 spar on the back, this gives foam extra rigidity which helps
the wing to y stably and smoothly.
Figure 2. Joint Wings.
Source: own elaboration.
Next step to nish wing is to cut the ailerons on them, we used balsa as our ailerons and they
were 22x1.1 inches in dimensions.
Using hinges (Figure 3) we made them movable in particular direction and using control
horns we connected them to servo motors.
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Figure 3. Ailerons.
Source: own elaboration.
Next part we started fabricating was fuselage (Habermann et al., 2021) (Figure 4), exactly
like wing, we cut 2 identical shape of fuselage and joined them.
Figure 4. Fuselage body
Source: own elaboration.
Our next step was to join the wing with the fuselage (Figure 5).
Figure 5. Wings and Fuselage.
Source: own elaboration.
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Now we cut our elevator (h-stab) (Figure 6) which is the main part of ying mechanism of
plane.
Figure 6. Horizontal Stabilizer.
Source: own elaboration.
We reinforced (SPAR) by using balsa wood on both sides. At this point our plane was half
ready (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Extra Reinforcement.
Source: own elaboration.
After that we placed servos on the fuselage (Figure 8).
Figure 8. Servo motors.
Source: own elaboration.
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Next (V-stab) was fabricated and attached on the elevator (Figure 9).
Figure 9. Vertical Stabilizer Attached with Horizontal Stabilizer.
Source: own elaboration.
Now before we move towards wrapping the body of the plane, it was necessary to do some
reinforcement (Figure 10) to better strength.
Figure 10. Fuselage Reinforcement.
Source: own elaboration.
Next step was mounting the motor (Figure 11) after which our plane was 90% ready.
Figure 11. Final Body.
Source: own elaboration.
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After motor was mounted, our last was to attach the wings with fuselage. This was done
using two strong elastics. After complete assembly our plane was completely ready (Figure
12) for our rst test ight.
Figure 12. Completely built RC Plane.
Source: own elaboration.
2.2. CFD ANALYSIS
CFD or computational uid dynamics analysis is considered as the important and the useful
step when designing the RC or a big airplane (Petit et al., 2020). It is done to basically
analyze either the wing selected for the plane is suitable for a good lift and drag of the RC
model or not (Usherwood et al., 2020). This analysis can be done using dierent software.
For our RC Plane model wing analysis, we used solid works. The data gathered by the
analysis is given in following (Figure 13) and CFD domain size (Table 1).
Figure 13. CFD Analysis.
Source: own elaboration.
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Table 1. CFD Domain Size
X min -0.095 m
X max 0.361 m
Y min -0.103 m
Y max 0.118 m
Z min -0.095 m
Z max 1.314 m
X size 0.456 m
Y size 0.221 m
Z size 1.409 m
Source: own elaboration.
Table 2. Specications.
DESIGN PARAMETERS VALUES
Weight limit 800 grams
Transmitter bandwidth 2.4 GHz
Weight when empty 350 grams
Length 36 inch
Wing span 48 inch
Engine type BLDC motor 2216-1150KV
Range 2km
Velocity -------
Material Thermacole and balsa wood
Angle of attack 2º
Source: own elaboration.
2.3. PARTS AND COMPONENTS OF RC PLANE
After design and analysis of our RC plane was done, the second step was to fabricate it. The
building process requires proper selection of components and parts to make it y with great
eciency and achieve its goal. As the controlling part of the RC plane we used Fly sky i6X
transmitter and Fly sky iA6B receiver.
2.3.1. TRANSMITTER
The reason of using this transmitter is its low power consumption along with high receiver
sensitivity.
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The Omni-directional high gain antenna’s high eciency reduces interference while using
less power and maintaining a solid, stable link (Saeed et al., 2020).
2.3.2. RECEIVER
FS-iA6B is a 6 channel receiver which supports (PPM) pulse position modulation output
with i-bus and data acquisition interface
2.3.3. NACA 4415 AIRFOIL
The airfoil works on principle of aerodynamics. Lift by an airfoil is generated when a
downward force is exerted on the air. Lift is basically the upward force created by an airfoil.
The shape of airfoil is such that it creates longer path at upper side of it for air to ow.
This makes air molecules to move faster at upper area producing low pressure according to
Bernoulli equation. At the lower side of airfoil air molecules travel smaller distance to meet
trailing edge producing high pressure. This dierence of pressure creates lift. When design
of an air foil changes it also changes its lift coecient with variation in Angle of attack
(AOA) (also called as alpha).
The airfoil used for our RC plane is NACA 4415. This airfoil can produce lift even at low
speed which make is more suitable or an RC plane. According to Data and analysis of this
air is shown in Figure 14 and Graphics 1, 2, and 3.
Figure 14. NACA 4415 Graph.
Source: own elaboration.
2.3.3.1. LIFT VS DRAG COEFFICIENT
Lift vs drag coecient is normally called as the amount of lift that is generated by the
airfoil as compared to its drag. This can be obtained by dividing lift coecient by drag
coecient that are shown in Graphics 2 and 3. lift vs drag coecient is used to represents
the eciency of an airfoil. The higher the L/D ration the more eciency the airfoil will
produce. Suppose an aircraft is ying steadily, the drag produced by it will be minimum.
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Graphic 1. CL Vs CD
Source: own elaboration.
2.3.3.2. LIFT COEFFICIENT VS ALPHA
The Graphic 2 show how coecient of lift is eected when you change the AoA of an
airfoil. On the x-axis we have AoA from -15 to 20 and on why y-axis we have coecient
of lift. Observe the reading at AOA 0-degree lift is somewhere around 0.38. if we increase
AOA the lift will increase and if we reduce AOA the lift will decrease.
Graphic 2. CL Vs Alpha.
Source: own elaboration.
2.3.3.3. DRAG COEFFICIENT VS ALPHA
Drag is basically known as resistance that an object face in a medium. It is the value that
a plane face while trying to generate lift. By looking at the graph below we can clearly see
that at 0 AOA drag is lowest which shows less aerodynamic (Marinho et al., 2011). As the
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AOA is increased drag and lift is increased but when AOA in reduced drag increased and
lift is decreased.
Graphic 3. CD Vs Alpha.
Source: own elaboration.
3. RESULTS
After fully completing the building process of our RC plane we were ready of our rst test
ight. The results were as we expected, the takeo and landing of the plane was smooth
and the ight was also good in even windy conditions.
4. CONCLUSIONS
After ying and performing dierent analysis on our plane we found that airplanes have so
much potential in performing dierent tasks in dierent applications which could improve
economy of country as well as provide alternative solutions for better technology used now
a days.
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