Cycloidal Rotor Drone: The Cyclocopter 

It looks like it flys (or flew) really well! I've never researched how these things work, but your explanation is really easy to understand!

This is the kind of stuff I feel RU-vid was invented to highlight. Great job and fun video to watch!

Looks like a flying combine harvester! Great video. Thanks for sharing 👍

Reminds me of the Voith Schneider propulsion system that some ships have. It does work, and it has a few advantages over traditional propellers, but there's a reason why only very few ships were equipped with it. Maintenence cost mainly, an awful lot of moving parts.

I love how this cyclocopter seems to be flapping its wings to stay airbourne. What a crazy little machine! Loved this vid, Nicholas. The editing and graphics were great!

This is the first actually flying Cyclogiro I've seen. I'm impressed! The closest one to free flight was a university project from about a decade ago.

This is how I always imagined the ornithopters from Dune. Fantastic model!

Really cool design. Especially how forward and backward motion is achieved just by adjusting the pitch of individual blade per cycle. Really impressive.

Pretty cool that this concept has been used in boat propulsion for a long time. Voith Schneider is the company. It's used in tugs and some other specialty craft. It can drive any direction basically instantly. Good work!

When flipping, could you theoretically keep adjusting the airfoils so they always create lift upwards, (making it possible to not only maintain altitude but also have it front flip very slowly)

Nice. I think the reason why this isn't widely used is because of the complexity and more moving parts making reliability harder to achieve

Really sorry for the crash but thank you very much for sharing this marvellous achieved concept! Thanks for sharing!

Really a beautiful Machine, looks tiny but a lot of engineering is packed into it (kind of makes it look complex), love it👌🏻!

Brilliant. You win my 'youtube video of the day' award, a very prestigious award appointed by me. I do actually watch quite a few, so it does mean something!

Not practical: yes. Cool as Hell: yes. Best thing I've seen in 2021

Sweet! I'm sure someone out West would pay for this - they already use drones to check fences and stock and once it moves and has a camera, if it's three times more efficient, clear winner! I envisaged a "planarcopter" which would work with a linear foil like a glider but the idea never got past a sketch. Well done!

Nice. One tiny question though: How about the efficiency compared?. It must be better to compensate for the added complexity i.e. construction cost.

I really like your creation thank you for sharing, wish you a lot of health and happiness

dude this vid won the internet for me today. crazy stuff!

It's nice to give new exposure and way of thinking of how technology works in different ways

Regardless if there isnt really a benefit to design it that way, It's definitely cool to see your new design and how it works :)

This is fantastic, I've never seen someone build one of these and it's this stable. I'm sure that tuning this thing was a pain.

Excellent job explaining how it works and the blade geometry vs. helicopter. I'm impressed!

I immediately recalled old videos of the early days of flight. Thanks tipping your hat to a long forgotten innovator.

Very interesting, if slightly mad! Your talk about how lift varies along the length of a helicopter blade reminds me of another problem helicopters experience: retreating blade stall. As the forward speed of the helicopter increases, so the speed of the retreating blades relative to the air falls until ultimately they aren't going fast enough to generate lift, and the helicopter stalls on one side. This could also happen to a cyclocopter, if you got it to go fast enough, but the "blades" stalling would be the ones underneath the wing assembly, so there would be no change in attitude.

was wondering why your video got to my feed, then watched the video and the people commented.. totally deserved

Nicholas, you have a great RU-vid channel and I think you do some of the most amazing projects, this being one of them. Thanks for all the inspiration.

Great video! That was my first introduction to cyclo copters. Thank you!

Enjoyed the heck out of it. As far as practicality is concerned though, it doesn't have much payload area for commercial use in large scale....not that you intended it to be. Very interesting. Thanks!

Great build, a lot of work, thumb up!

If you built this then my heartiest congratulations to you. We need more people like you

This was an amazing video and excellent craftsmanship! Building stuff that has never been made before is my specialty!

Absolutely fascinating! Thanks for sharing your Cyclocopter with us!

WOW! When I saw the early version of this type of design I Was sure it could be made to work, I've seen the four rotor models that have been proven but you have made a craft that is very unique and awesome, Thanks for sharing

That’s fantastic, from the intro I thought you had invented a flying lawn mower, and when you did the flip, I was gutted. Please more!

Good explanation of Cyclocopter principle! Thanks!

I thought it was going to be using the Magnus effect with Flettner rotors... But no! Something new to me. What a great device! I could see miniaturised battlefield drone versions. Great video along with excellent model making! Thanks!

A similar take is actually in current use around the world: the Voith Schneider Propeller for ships. It allows excellent maneuverability and is used for tugboats, ferries and other ships requiring omnidirectional control. It's pretty awesome!

Well done Nicholas.Very inspirational.

pretty amazing. glad you are honest enough to show blips....

Kind of complicated, but can understand the principle if you watch it more than once.

This is such a cool concept. I wish there can be a breakthrough in cyclo copter technology in the future. Thanks for the vid!

This is the coolest thing I have seen in months!!

I love gadgets and this is unique . Thanks for this well produced film.

Very cool. I like the design and wholeheartedly agree because it's more manageable Harrison aspect of a squirrel cage design. I believe the market has gone with the four propeller blades like a helicopter for a maneuverability that's more instant. I subscribed to your channel I can't wait to see what else you have.

A big worry I have is how it handles motor/engine failures. It's the same problem I have with things like quadcopters. They're basically rocks when the power fails, which is why I have difficulty seeing them as viable for moving humans around.

Underrated channel. Very good projects👍🏻

Thankyou for posting this. I throughly enjoyed every minute. Informative!

:)

Awesome copter! Ya just need two Cyclo-wings to be rid of the nose propeller. Edit: My only concern would be how well does it handle wind?

I'm not trying to take anything away from your video I think it's awesome engineering

Awsome video. I love the smokey fire stand in for a wind tunnel! ... more ... truly great!

Makes me wonder if you could do collective pitch as well, so that you don't have to vary the speed between the two rotors for roll control, but rather adjust the angle of attack between the two so one makes more lift

It seems analogous to the old paddle wheel steamboats. But the screw driven boats turned out to be much more efficient. I think the vertical placement of the up and downward moving blades, create more drag when traveling forward or backwards through the air. So in the end, they may work great for vertical movement (VTOL or STOL), but not so efficient traveling forward, i.e. going from place to place.

What a great build. Very interesting

Great explanation. Kudos!

Very interesting flight technique! The video presents this flight format well and clearly!I think somewhere this also has a future, as it has been known for a long time and has not been forgotten!Now this flight technology solution can make its way!Have a nice day! 👍🍀☀️👆

I remember seeing film of the Grey Goose on TV long time ago as a kid. Very interesting concept! My only concern is all of the moving parts on the outside. A simple failure of a part in flight could be catastrophic.

Thank you! Fascinating concept

Engineering work in progress, thanks for showing all in such clear manner.

What is the relative efficiency in power required to lift generated when compared to the quad. I live on a coastal bluff with an afternoon updraft of about 15-20mph. I have considered building a cyclorotor to capture this energy. Is this, in your opinion, worthwhile?

Well done! Have you seen "Cyclorotor's" 83kg prototype craft with 4 cyclorotors? I am also interested in producing lift from the blade less ring design

Great video. Thank you for explaining the concept very understandable.

Been a long time coming about time this came out .

I wonder if you put two cylinders, one slightly smaller inside the other with a bunch of tiny holes and bridges connecting, or sliding past, for movement in the same way as the flaps on this cycloidal rotor, if this can hybrid with the Magnus effect. It would require many smaller pieces, which also increases complexity. But would it also increase efficiency with multiple downforce generations in one space?

This is an amazing explanation and now I want to make an actual three rotor version of this or hex rotor. Something like that with this system and very fast 360°+ servos for the rotor pitch Control would be able to hover in any orientation. Although I might need two auto stabilization command loops when it comes to programming the gyroscope/flight stabilization cpu. The potential control devices are going to be kind of crazy something like what I’m talking about would be limited in its capacity by the classic radio controller, a vr headset like the quest would probably be the only control device that could use the full capabilities. One hand controlling orientation the other controls the direction that it’s moving. The control interface for the VR thing would be like a three dimensional joystick for throttle direction and either head rotation controlling roll, pitch and yaw or the other hand doing so with a three dimensional joystick to keep the head free to look around a 360° camera feed. And then the next step to making this really fun is putting airsoft guns on them: Something with a top speed of 250 miles an hour flying through a forest at speed like it’s no problem until it sees someone, fires three rounds and moves on. We just have to agree and we will never set up swarm capabilities or something like that and plug it into an AI. Thousands of angry stars wait for us if we do something like.

No No No Don't You Dare Give up on Cyclo Copter… This Is Quite Probably the Coolest Flying Machine I've Ever Seen… Do Not I Repeat Do Not Give up … See if you can perfect it a little bit and make a casual everyday flyer reliable one… I repeat no no no no do not give up. This is the most beautiful flying machine I've ever seen… Please please do not give up

Well done. Definitely outside the box thinking

I've often thought a regular quad copter design with servos tilting all 4 blades is the best design concept. This would keep copter body straight and level but all 4 blades would tilt forward, back or side to side.

Awesome work! I'm curious to know how much you can increase thrust and flight time compared to props. Pro tip: if you want to flip, consider having more height so you have space to recover.

Fantastic. Thanks for sharing your cool project and description of the physics with us.

Wicked cool! I like that you threw in some dry ice too.

Great video, from the airflow view it seems a lot simpler than a helicopter, even if less intuitive for us humans. The cycloidal rotor allows for a much more stable flight than the helicopter or quadcopter, the simple mechanical way of steering the "wings" for the movement in two dimensions is also a big improvement compared to the "rolling around" that a "normal" ´copter design has to cope with. Basically it is an ingenious design and I would be very much interested in the forces it throws at the ground compared to the predecessors. The flip would have worked, if you had a bit more ground clearance. You could see in the video how the machine made a complete flip and was just not able to compensate the received downwards thrust. Either build in a limiter, so that it doesn´t power the rotors if the top faces downwards or make the flip at at least double the height. Maybe triple, I am just guessing, but gravity is also a component next to power to weight ratio. And my brain aint no supercomputer. Every writing mistake can be kept by the finder, as I am drunk af.

Congratulations, I didn't think you'd get this to fly! Even with a model there are large structural forces (bending forces) on the wings because of the high rotation speed. There is an application in shipbuilding for ships that need high maneuverability at low speed (harbor tugs, ferries) with a vertical rotation axis of the system. Unfortunately, the description in Wikipedia is only available in German under the title “Voith-Schneider-Antrieb”. If you switch Wiki to English, you get to the title "Cyclorotor", which unfortunately does not describe the application in ships.

Dude what!? Awesome job.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing! I am playing around building vawt's and this info is very helpful. Cheers

How would another rotor going in the opposite direction work in place of the conventional tri-blade work?

Could you have the blades go horizontal on the downswing to generate upwards force?

"yaw" come back now ya hear? Upvoted, subscribed.

Thanks for your great work!

drone: crashed and broke landing gear. “we only need the drone to fly, we dont need landing gear to fly” drone: cant fly immediately after.

The Cycle copter would probably be a perfect cargo vehicle for planets with lower gravity

I like the more pleasant sounds it makes.

Bloody impressive mate! Very interesting design.

Would be awesome to be able to quickly make an electric car into a drone by attaching these to the wheels. Then you could fly somewhere, disconnect, then drive to the final location. Once energy density gets better, who knows!

The level lift factor is a great value for pickup and delivery of 4 point loads - I hope this will be the start of some powerful solutions.

Nice ,straightforward way of presentation , simple and short,. Like it,…….

So cool! That's amazing!

Really really REALLY cool video!!! ….seriously, my hat is off to you sir!!

Excellent work ! I look forward to more of your thinking........

Wow, this is super cool!

Interesting and informative. Thank you for posting this.

Wow, I'm an older codger, you are a genius. Well done. Surely it makes for very maneuverable vehicle. Great for mustering cattle in our Outback.

Great explanation ..... And it really does work thanx for the amazing video

Nicely done!

Fascinating look at what is for me a brand new technology.

You're unduly modest towards the end of the video. I think this concept has a future.

That was fun to watch and learn. Thanks

dude you are totally awesome I think you're pure genius i've been watching your videos and seeing the things that you do and come up with and if you don't have an aerospace engineering degree or some kind of education like that you definitely should pursue it because you're way above and beyond any anybody else I know