ELECTRIC UAV POWERTRAIN SIMULATOR
Power your quadcopter before you build it.
Model the full battery-to-propeller powertrain as one coupled system, and see thrust, efficiency, and endurance before you spend a dollar.
What ThrustLab does
One powertrain model. Three kinds of run.
Battery, ESC, motor, and propeller solve together as one coupled nonlinear system. Then you choose how to interrogate it.
Single point
FreeSet throttle, airspeed, and air density, and the solver converges the whole powertrain to one operating point: thrust, power, efficiency, currents, and temperatures, per rotor and system-wide.
→ will it hover, and with how much margin?
Sweep
Hobby+Step throttle, airspeed, or density, or swap motors, props, and batteries, then chart the trade-offs as one family of curves. Single-axis on Hobby, multi-axis grids on Pro.
→ which prop wins across the whole envelope?
Dynamic mission
ProFly a time-domain mission with throttle and airspeed ramps, motor and pack thermal coupling, and state-of-charge and cell-voltage cutoffs, scored in watt-hours and estimated range.
→ does the battery outlast the mission?
Where the watts go
Every watt accounted for.
Between the pack and the air, every stage takes its cut. The solver models each mechanism explicitly, since these losses are what decide your hover time.
- voltage sag
- internal resistance
- cell heating
- switching loss
- conduction loss
- copper I²R
- iron: hysteresis + eddy
- field weakening
- induced power
- profile drag
- tip Mach effects
what's left flies
What you get back
A full instrument readout, not a single number.
Every run returns the converged operating point across the whole powertrain, system-wide and per rotor, with the power-flow, thermal, and convergence detail behind it.
simulation_readout / fields
System
- Total thrust (N)
- Total power (W)
- System efficiency (%)
- Pack current (A)
- g/W
- Endurance
Per rotor
- Thrust (N) & RPM
- Current (A) & motor voltage (V)
- Torque & shaft power (W)
- Electrical power (W)
- Efficiency (%)
Powertrain
- Pack → ESC → motor → shaft flow
- Advance ratio J
- C_T & C_P
- Tip Mach
Thermal
- Winding temp (°C)
- Magnet temp (°C)
- Cooling-air velocity
- Thermal resistance R_th
- Convergence
Battery
- Per-cell core temp (°C)
- Per-cell case temp (°C)
- State of charge
- Pack thermal coupling
Dynamic mission
- Full time series
- Energy used (Wh)
- Estimated range (km)
- Stall / thermal / cutoff events
Field inventory across static, sweep, and mission runs; actual values populate when you run a simulation. Each run also reports convergence status, compressibility flags, and the solver version.
The wedge
Accurately model your exact powertrain.
When the catalog doesn't have your propeller, the self-serve creator builds it from a bench photo: scan the geometry, tune it (optional), simulate it, and export a clean STEP / IGES / STL body for CAD.
440+ curated propellers2,000+ curated motors2,000+ curated batteries
prop_geometry / created
APC 10×4.7 · scanned
from bench photo · 1,248 pts
→ exported to STEP, IGES, STL
Beyond a single point
Built for the studies a calculator can't run.
Steady-state thrust, power, and efficiency at any operating point, with per-rotor and thermal detail. Included on the free tier.
Model mixed rotor groups, each with its own motor, propeller, throttle, ESC tune, and cooling mode, up to 16 rotors total.
Fly a time-domain mission with throttle and airspeed ramps, state-of-charge and cell-voltage cutoffs, and a watt-hour and range scorecard.
Sweep throttle, airspeed, or density, or swap motors, props, and batteries, then chart the trade-offs. Single-axis on Hobby, multi-axis on Pro.
Automation
Drive it from Python.
The same coupled solver, callable from a script. Create an API key on the Pro plan and run the whole study from your own code.
REST API
Every simulation type (static, sweep, dynamic) behind versioned /v1 endpoints.
Official SDK
pip install thrustlab: typed resources, pagination, webhooks, and a one-call wait().
Built for batch
Scripted trade studies, CI checks on a design, or a notebook full of what-ifs.
Why it's accurate
Validated against the UIUC propeller wind-tunnel database.
ThrustLab's propeller solver runs blade-element-momentum theory over real blade geometry, checked against the UIUC propeller wind-tunnel database of 2,659 measured cases.
methodology & curves are gated
2,659
wind-tunnel cases
Thrust (C_T) and power (C_P) coefficients vs. measured UIUC data (Selig et al.). Engineering estimates, not certified data.
Who it's for
Built for the people who size propulsion.
In one line
ThrustLab is a physics-accurate electric-UAV powertrain simulator: it models the battery, ESC, motor, and propeller as one coupled nonlinear system, validated against the UIUC propeller wind-tunnel database, and includes a self-serve creator for propellers the curated catalog doesn't cover.
for UAV propulsion engineers and serious builders
Frequently asked
How is ThrustLab different from eCalc?
How accurate is the propeller model?
What if my exact propeller isn't in the catalog?
Can I export geometry to CAD?
Is there a free tier?
Can I model a quad or other multi-rotor setup?
Is there an API?
Is my simulation data private?
Run a simulation before you build it.
Free to start, no card required. The free tier includes a daily compute-unit allowance.