A novel robust hexarotor capable of static hovering in presence of propeller failure

This letter presents a novel open source design of the Y-shaped hexarotor Unammend Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and proves both in theory and real experiments its robustness to the failure of any of its propellers. An intuitive geometrical interpretation of UAV static hovering ability is presented, through which the robustness of different coplanar/collinear hexarotor designs is analyzed. Following the presented geometrical interpretation, we also show the conditions that allow the Star-shaped hexarotor to be robust to the failure of some of its propellers, while showing its structural incapability to static hover in the case of the failure of at least one of the propellers. Finally, the efficiency of the Y-shaped and Star-shaped hexarotors are tested experimentally, and conclusions on the advantages and disadvantages of the two designs are drawn.