Fea optimized mini drone
dec 2025 – jan 2025
designed a lightweight mini-drone frame to optimize 65% weight to stiffness ratio and thermal performance using off-the-shelf electronics.
> the primary frame of the drone was designed and iteratively refined using topology optimization to minimize mass while preserving stiffness and load paths.
> the optimization cycles consisted of “old frame > topology study > design new frame based off of the study.”
> Propeller blades design were based off a design researched by MIT, optimized for low noise.
> Thrust was validated through CFD analysis in ANSYS Fluent to ensure required lift margins.
> studies showed blades could maintain ~4N of thrust.
> Compared to the Sky Viper Nano Drone, the optimized design increased hover time by about 40%, primarily due to the lower structural mass, higher propeller efficiency, and improved battery cooling.
> the new frame is measured to be 3g total.
