By Nathan Toombs. Based on the repository for the article "Multirotor Sizing Methodology with Flight Time Estimation", with credit to M. Biczyski, R. Sehab, G.Krebs, J.F. Whidborne, P. Luk (https://github.com/mbiczyski/Multirotor-Sizing-Methodology)
Files created and validated using Matlab 2018a
The main.m file defines the flight parameters and runs the optimization. Choose the parameters, actual and estimated, then choose the optimization method. singleRun uses the defined payload mass and battery capacity to determine the best system for those parameters. iterateBattery uses a given min, step, and max battery capacities to run the optimization for each and creates a plot of the flight time performance for each capacity. iteratePayloadAndBattery repeats the iterateBattery method for different payloads with a min, step, and max mass, and will produce a plot for each payload mass. The data variable holds information on the chosen combination at each payload mass and battery capacity.
The ComboList&Data.xlsx file. On the first sheet is the list of each provided motor and propeller combination, and then brands have their own tabs. At the moment, only KDE, T-Motor, and CR Flight products are implemented.
The optimization uses motor/propeller combinations because they match the data provided. To add more combinations, enter the correct sheet and follow the format of previous examples. The data for each combination must take up exactly 7 lines; make sure to have a row at 100% thrust, rpm, power, etc; one at 0% is unneccessary, as it will be added if it isn't present. This will allow the algorithm to interpolate anywhere from 0% to 100%. Make sure to add a line to the List sheet for the corresponding combination.
To use only certain combinations, set the Use Data column to 0 for every combination to be ignored and 1 for the ones to use in the algorithm. This can be used to check the performance of a single combination over a wide range of conditions.
This script includes data on the weight and capacity of several commercial LiPo batteries. It finds the correlation in order to allow the sizing algorithm to find an optimal battery size and weight, without relying on a catalogue of batteries.