Designing a compact hexacopter with gimballed lidar and powerful onboard Linux computer

Building a high-end aerial robot for research is a challenging task. Our aim in this paper is to design a compact hexacopter capable of high payload and has flexible gimbal and powerful onboard computer with $ 500. This hexacopter serves as a flying platform with great customizability, where different sensors can be mounted easily onto the hexacopter for new applications. We discuss our implementation details and preliminary insights during the development process. In addition, we also present our approach on designing a compact gimbal for two cameras, a lidar, and an ultrasonic sensor. Our latest design of gimbal is easy to customize and replicate.