I was looking for the previous discussion on this topic and could not find it, but to recap my contribution to it;
Multi-copters became possible when several technologies got light enough and cheap enough.
The first was perhaps 6 and later 9 degrees of freedom MEMS (silicon) sensors (gyro, acceleration, magnetics). Early helicopter models required too much work to fly, but these sensors combined with cpus made multicopters 'fly by wire'
The second was a rechargable and light battery chemistry (Lithium Polymer batteries) which allow a multicopter to fly for a useful amount of time.
The third was brushless motor controllers which allowed for the creation of high power, but light, motors that were also efficient.
Some will also add high power SoCs (embedded 32 bit computers of 'cell phone class') but early multicopters were powered by 8bit controllers so I'm not sure that this is as important as the other three.
The things that are common to all of them, lightness and energy efficiency, these made the multicopter possible and as the price has been driven down with mass production for these parts it has made them easy to obtain for a big enough market. (and that is a positive feedback loop, the market grows, the quantity increases, the price goes down, the market grows ...)
The MEMS sensors, high power SoCs and sophisticated battery chemistry in a light/cheap form were all (arguably) enabled by the mass production of smartphones.
Now that multicopters are beginning to ramp up the mass adoption curve and drive innovations of their own will we see this same kind of technological cross pollination happen to other fields with what's being created for multis?
The pace of innovation in brushless speed controllers has been exciting to watch, but I can't think of what other applications there are for brushless motors that accelerate quicker or can change direction nearly instantly. Lots of work seems to be happening in the position tracking arena, with everything from cameras to sonar arrays to lidar being considered and used both professionally and on the hobbyist scene.
I really want to see one of Googles project tango boxes used as a sensor to do real time object avoidance on a quad.
Adressing object avoidance.
Intel and AscTec are ahead in the game ;) [1]. But I agree that this indeed will become more and more prominent and really interesting in the coming years!
"[...] Someday obstacle avoidance technology in UAVs will be like seatbelts in cars: You simply don’t start going without it!” [2]
There were drivers for each of the technologies that were independent of the combination of them as a smart phone. And they were singular, which is to say each technology, by itself, was important to some ecosystem. I used a mems gyro for example in an R/C car in the late 90s to tell me it was upside down and switch the left/right steering.
Multi-copters became possible when several technologies got light enough and cheap enough.
The first was perhaps 6 and later 9 degrees of freedom MEMS (silicon) sensors (gyro, acceleration, magnetics). Early helicopter models required too much work to fly, but these sensors combined with cpus made multicopters 'fly by wire'
The second was a rechargable and light battery chemistry (Lithium Polymer batteries) which allow a multicopter to fly for a useful amount of time.
The third was brushless motor controllers which allowed for the creation of high power, but light, motors that were also efficient.
Some will also add high power SoCs (embedded 32 bit computers of 'cell phone class') but early multicopters were powered by 8bit controllers so I'm not sure that this is as important as the other three.
The things that are common to all of them, lightness and energy efficiency, these made the multicopter possible and as the price has been driven down with mass production for these parts it has made them easy to obtain for a big enough market. (and that is a positive feedback loop, the market grows, the quantity increases, the price goes down, the market grows ...)