Exploring tandem wing UAS designs for operation in turbulent urban environments

Gigacz, Rohan; Abdel‐Rohman, Mohamed; Poksawat, Pakorn; Panta, Ashim; Watkins, Simon

doi:10.1177/1756829318794167

Cited by 7 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…SD2020, the MDAO tool adopted for the present research, has been developed at Pisa University starting from the research reported in [11,12], in which procedures and tools for the preliminary design solar powered HALE UAVs have been implemented in a MATLAB environment. The tandem-wing architecture has been investigated in a number of papers dealing with several aspects of its applications to UAVs, such as design and test of VTOL drones [17], stability in turbulent flows [18], aerodynamics of tube-launched devices [19], whereas, to the best of authors' knowledge, there is a lack of literature about the adoption of solar powered propulsion.…”

Section: Overview Of Sd2020mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this case, the application of the box-wing to solar UAVs (Figure 3-right) aims to obtain a reinforced tandem-wing in which the joiners act at the same time as stiffeners, aerodynamic surfaces and solar panels. The tandem-wing architecture has been investigated in a number of papers dealing with several aspects of its applications to UAVs, such as design and test of VTOL drones ( [17]), stability in turbulent flows ( [18]), aerodynamics of tube-launched devices ( [19]), whereas, to the best of authors' knowledge, there is a lack of literature about the adoption of solar powered propulsion.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

MDAO and Aeroelastic Analyses of Small Solar-Powered UAVs with Box-Wing and Tandem-Wing Architectures

Cipolla¹,

Dine²,

Viti

et al. 2023

Aerospace

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The market of solar-powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for defence purposes and drone services is expected to grow by a factor of more than 2 in the next decade. From an aircraft design perspective, the main challenge is the scalability of the proposed architectures, which is needed to increase the payload capabilities. Beside some successful examples of wing-tail UAVs, some newcomers are developing prototypes with tandem-wing architectures, hence enlarging the possible design. The present paper aims to introduce a further step in this direction, taking also the box-wing architecture into account to show how the presence of wing tip joiners can provide benefits from the aeroelastic point of view. UAVs with take-off mass within 25 kg are considered and the main tools adopted are presented. These are an in-house developed Multi-Disciplinary Analysis and Optimization (MDAO) code called SD2020 and the open source aeroelastic code ASWING, both presented together with an assessment of their accuracy by means of higher fidelity numerical results. SD2020 results are presented for the case of small box-wing solar UAVs optimized to achieve the longest endurance, focusing on the strategy implemented to achieve feasible solutions under an assigned set of constraints. Further results are presented for comparable box-wing and tandem-wing UAVs from both the aerodynamic and aeroelastic standpoints. Whereas the aerodynamic advantages introduced by the box-wing are marginal, significant advantages result from the aeroelastic analyses which indicate that, if the joiners are removed from the box-wing configuration, safety margin from flutter speed is halved and the bending-torsion divergence occurs at relatively low speed values.

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Section: Overview Of Sd2020mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MDAO and Aeroelastic Analyses of Small Solar-Powered UAVs with Box-Wing and Tandem-Wing Architectures

Cipolla¹,

Dine²,

Viti

et al. 2023

Aerospace

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“…Instead, it can serve as inspiration for the following achievements. The bio-inspired system for sensing of atmospheric disturbances on vehicle's wing was introduced by Mohamed [5][6][7], and further experimentally tested for disturbance rejection [8][9][10][11]. Furthermore, real-time information on the angle of attack from wing pressure measurements in the purpose of wind field estimation was demonstrated by Gavrilovic [12].…”

Section: Related Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assuming the vertical wind component is much less than the forward airspeed, optimal flight path angle is close to 45°. (2) Energy maximization in presence of vertical wind shear ∂w z /∂x would imply climbing into a positive gradient and descending into a negative gradient with optimal flight path angle shown in equation (11).…”

Section: Theoretical Aspectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avian-inspired energy-harvesting from atmospheric phenomena for small UAVs

et al. 2018

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Fixed-wing small, unmanned aerial vehicles usually fly in atmospheric boundary layers that are often un der the infl uence of turbulent environments. Inspired by nature' s flyers, an application of an energy-harvesting flight strategy for increasing the energy state of the aircraft is presented. This paper provides basic longitudinal fl ight dynamic model exposing the physics behind the process. It shows signifi cant power savings in fl ight with a sinusoïdal and stochastic wind profi le with active control of energy-harvesting. The active control based on optimized proportional gains was implemented for energy extraction from realistic atmospheric conditions, leading to significant energy savings for a 'bird-sized' vehicle. The paper reveals the equipment and necessary preparations for the fl ight test campaign. Moreover, it describes the design of a custom controller and its calibration in the wind tunnel against roll movements during pitching maneuvers. Finally, it investigates the benefits and potential of the automated process of energy-harvesting with simple proportional control through fl ight tests in a turbulent environment, validating the concept through the increased energy state of the aircraft.

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“…The control mechanisms and sensing strategies used to maintain this stability are not understood. Studies investigating the control strategies employed by windhovering birds would likely discover novel gust-mitigation techniques that inspire the development of ultra-stable UAVs, a concept that has been a research focus of our group [6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Method for Continuous Study of Soaring and Windhovering Birds

Penn

Abdel‐Rohman

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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Avian flight continues to inspire aircraft designers. As the scales of autonomous aircraft reduce to those of birds and large insects, new control challenges are apparent when attempting to hold steady flight in turbulent atmospheric wind. Some birds, however, are capable of remarkably stable hovering flight in the same conditions. This work describes the development of a wind tunnel configuration that facilitates the study of flapless windhovering (hanging) and soaring bird flight in wind conditions replicating those in nature. Updrafts were generated by flow over replica “hills” and turbulence was introduced through upstream grids. Successful flight tests with windhovering nankeen kestrels (Falco cenchroides) were conducted, verifying that the facility is suitable for future studies investigating the flight of soaring and windhovering birds in smooth and turbulent flows. The wind tunnel allows the flow characteristics to be carefully controlled and measured, providing great advantages over outdoor flight tests. Also, existing wind tunnels may be readily configured using this method, eliminating the need for the development of dedicated bird flight wind tunnels.

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Exploring tandem wing UAS designs for operation in turbulent urban environments

Cited by 7 publications

References 18 publications

MDAO and Aeroelastic Analyses of Small Solar-Powered UAVs with Box-Wing and Tandem-Wing Architectures

MDAO and Aeroelastic Analyses of Small Solar-Powered UAVs with Box-Wing and Tandem-Wing Architectures

Avian-inspired energy-harvesting from atmospheric phenomena for small UAVs

A Method for Continuous Study of Soaring and Windhovering Birds

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