By Dronelife Features Editor Jim Magill
As scientists across the world increasingly turn to drones as a vital tool in their research, they’re faced with questions surrounding the affordability and availability of the UAVs they need.
A student-led non-profit group is seeking to solve those issues, with the creation of Lace, a mostly 3D-printed, modular designed drone that researchers can produce and modify on their own.
“The idea to start Aeroptera came from a shared goal to make drones more accessible to environmental researchers around the world,” Jianjing Hou, Aeroptera’s founder and president said in an email statement. Hou said he recognized the need for such an inexpensive and adaptable drone while working as an environmental science student on fieldwork projects in Tibet and parts of the U.S.
“I realized that for researchers, options for drones are limited; most pre-built drones are not designed to carry large payloads, especially research equipment,” Hou said. “With 3D printing, I believe that a payload-capable drone frame that is affordable, customizable and accessible could broaden the use of drones in a variety of professional and hobby applications.”
Aeroptera began working on the prototype of what would become Lace, its first 3D-printed drone in the fall of 2024 and achieved its first flight last March. For guidance on the use of 3D-printing process, the group turned to China-based 3D-printing filament manufacturer Polymaker, which became the project’s main sponsor.
“Stiffness was one of the main challenges, because 3D-printed plastic materials are inherently less stiff than carbon fiber or aluminum. Working with Polymaker’s team at their research center in Suzhou, China, we were able to select a variety of high-performance, carbon-fiber infused materials that allowed Lace to be possible,” Hou said.
Aeroptera’s team designed Lace to conform to a strict set of parameters. Payload capacity was the primary concern, and with the team hoping to design a drone capable of carrying a payload from 1 to 3 kilograms (2.2 to 6.6 pounds). The Lace reference model has been tested to carry a payload of up to 1.5 kg (3.3 pounds).
Additionally, the drone’s size was designed to be large enough to allow for large and efficient motors that could extend flight time and enhance payload capacity. The drone also had to be foldable, so it could be rapidly deployed in the field.
The Lace’s modular frame is almost entirely composed of 3-D printed component parts. The UAV accommodates a Pixhawk 6C flight controller and a 4S 4500 mAh battery. Operators can swap out the motors, propellers, electronic speed controllers (ESCs), and telemetry systems with their own or off-the-shelf components.
Hou said the drone is built to accommodate user changes to its design. “The battery slots into the back of the drone in an enclosed compartment, while the flight controls and other relevant electronics are in the front. By limiting the relative position of these critical parts of the drone, Lace regulates its center of mass, ensuring that any user-made design would not deviate significantly from the designed center of mass,” he said.
“The motor mountings are designed to fit different types of motors, from 6S motors to 3S ones. With a 30-inch size, Lace is compatible with most 15-inch propellers, leaving plenty of options for our users to customize.”
With a takeoff weight of 5 kg (11 pounds), Lace is designed to carry the types of sensor equipment commonly used in research. “One of the designs we came up with allows for the drone to carry albedometers and data loggers, in a configuration that allows researchers to assess brightness and reflectivity,” Hou said.
“With this ecosystem of interchangeable parts, we plan to release alternative versions of parts in the future that could help users choose the right components for the right purpose, such as selecting longer landing gears to make room for bulkier payload,” Hou said.
He said another advantage of using 3D-printed technology is its accessibility.
“In recent years, 3D printers have become commonplace in many households and institutions. A 3D-printable drone could be printed by people from anywhere at an affordable cost,” he said.
Early Phase Experimentation
During the early design phases of the Lace project, the team explored many options for the 3D- printed frame, one of which gave rise both to the name of the non-profit company and its first UAV. “We drew inspiration from the organic shapes of the Neuroptera family, which contains the insect Lacewing. This led to the naming of our organization Aeroptera and our first drone product Lace,” Hou said. The natural shapes in the wings of the Lacewing were the inspiration behind the exoskeletal aesthetic of Lace.
The Aeroptera team, with support from researchers at the University of Iowa and engineers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is currently working on the development of the Lace II model. The new model’s design will incorporate features based on the needs of users of the original drone, such as the introduction of a toolless folding, which allows users to fold the drone without a screwdriver.
This innovation will be included on the Lace-II Aero frame, which the team expects to launch sometime in the spring.
Hou said the nonprofit company is currently in talks with several collaborators regarding future projects for Aeroptera. One thing the group does not consider is becoming a for-profit venture, by abandoning its open-source roots.
“We currently do not have plans to commercialize our innovations, but we hope to consider commercialization only if it serves our goals of advancing 3D printing technology and the broadening of its applications in the DIY drone community.
“I believe that 3D printing will lead to a revolution in making drone technology more widespread and adaptive in a variety of professional applications. With recent breakthroughs in continuous fiber and metal printing, I have faith that 3D-printed drone frames will become as commonplace as carbon fiber ones are today,” Hou said.
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Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.
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