Concept of Morphology in UAV Design
2022-26-1248
05/26/2022
- Event
- Content
- This paper aims to study and develop the concept of morphology in UAVs that overcomes any compromise needed in its design, decreasing conventional flight limitations and is capable of performing a wide variety of missions. A more reliable UAV with modular structure has been designed that can change its shape during its flight. Study on an adaptive morphology that modifies the shape of the vehicle during flight environment is found to be very effective to suit the missions in comparison to conventional quadcopter design. This paper proposes a simpler and effective morphing technique for quadrotors consisting of a frame with independently movable servo-assisted arms that fold around the mainframe to develop different configurations. This flexibility in arms design changes the geometry of the quadcopter, which in turn modifies its exposed area. To achieve stable flight at all times, onboard computers are implemented to handle the control of the quad served along with optimal programs coded to deal with different flight situations during morph. The proposed adaptive morphology quadcopter with appropriate onboard sensors that can be used in areas such as search and rescue, exploration of thick forests and archaeological caves, and also in disaster management with the need to perform tasks, such as fly through narrow gaps, close inspection and mapping of the area. The experiments are performed on a self-developed prototype of a morphing quadrotor to observe its behavior in flight and to optimize the design and onboard programs. UAV developed with morphing innovation guarantees the benefits of superior endurance and performance, having the option to fly numerous sorts of missions, to perform fundamentally new maneuvers that were impractical with conventional designs. In future, this concept can be extended to Manned Aerial Vehicles in which the aircraft wing can be modified to obtain enhanced flight characteristics.
- Citation
- Das, S., Yadav, A., Gali, S., and Shetty, A., "Concept of Morphology in UAV Design," SAE Technical Paper 2022-26-1248, 2022, .