Omni-directional hovercraft design as a foundation for MAV education

Quad-rotor Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) are used widely in research and increasingly in commercial applications as the cost of these platforms has dropped. The cost of entry, however, is still high in large part due to the time and effort involved in repairing vehicles after crashes while learning about the system design and dynamics. In this paper, we present an omni-directional hovercraft, which has dynamics similar to MAVs and can be used as an educational platform to teach students about the behavior and control of MAV-like platforms with minimal cost and effort. Teaching students about the capabilities and challenges associated with MAVs is critical for educating future engineers and scientists that will develop and use the next generation of MAVs. In addition, the hovercraft provides a safe platform for researchers to test control and coordination algorithms before trying them on higher-cost MAVs.