Building a custom octocopter from scratch with no prior hardware experience

Hi!! I'm Karolina, and this is my project! Had no idea this got posted until someone DMed me about it on LinkedIn. Feel free to ask any questions or follow along via X (karolina_dubiel) Thanks so much for all the kind words, it means a lot!

This is very impressive! I researched fault-tolerant octorotor control using RL in grad school for a NASA project. Perhaps this may be helpful[1, see section 8.3]! The field is moving fast, so there may be better or more suitable approaches out there now. For folks who are interested in UAV physics, I wrote up an explainer[2]. [1]: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RTEVRd0XCWLuDXY2nkbmYuOaa5x... [2]: https://iahmed.me/post/drone-physics/

Something I've wondered for octocopters - could using a ring instead of arms be beneficial for weight? 6.28r < 8r, but then again the arm radius is usually less than the full circle, and some components want to be centrally located, etc. I could imagine holding the central components in tension via light filaments (carbon fiber, nylon, etc) in tension, vs having to have rigid structure, but the small factor between 6.28 and 8 and maybe makes it not worth it.

I find it very hard to believe that someone who has never done any CAD could design that with Fusion 360 in a day. I do lots of 3D design with Fusion and there is a serious learning curve. It's not something you can pick up in a day. She is doubtless much smarter than me, but that's not credible.

Cool project! For a DIY beginner, what would be a good starting point for a "normal" drone/octocopter project?