Songbird – An Innovative Uas Combining the Advantages of Fixed Wing and Multi Rotor Uas

Abstract

Commission VI, WG VI/4KEY WORDS: UAV, VTOL, fixed wing, Wing Copter, resource management, pipeline inspection, cartography ABSTRACT:This paper describes a family of innovative fixed wing UAS with can vertical take off and land -the SONGBIRD family. With nominal payloads starting from 0.5 kg they can take off and land safely like a multi-rotor UAV, removing the need for an airstrip for the critical phases of operation. A specially designed flight controller allows stable flight at every point of the transition phase between VTOL and fixed wing mode. Because of this smooth process with a all time stable flight, very expensive payload like hyperspectral sensors or advanced optical cameras can be used. Due to their design all airplanes of the SONGBIRD family have excellent horizontal flight properties, a maximum speed of over 110 km/h, good gliding properties and long flight times of up to 1 h. Missions were flown in wind speeds up to 18 m/s. At every time of the flight it is possible to interrupt the mission and hover over a point of interest for detail investigations. The complete flight, including take-off and landing can be performed by autopilot. Designed for daily use in professional environments, SONGBIRDs are built out of glass-fibre and carbon composites for a long service life. For safe operations comprehensive security features are implemented, for example redundant flight controllers and sensors, advanced power management system and mature fail safe procedures. The aircraft can be dismantled into small parts for transportation. SONGBIRDS are available for different pay loads, from 500 g to 2 kg. The SONGBIRD family are interesting tools combining the advantages of multi-copter and fixed wing UAS.

UAV-Assisted Communication in Remote Disaster Areas Using Imitation Learning

“…These VTOLs can fly between 6 hours to 18 hours based on their battery's performance and the utilized applications. Additional options include utilizing solar UAV-charging stations if the UAVs were needed to operate for a longer time [39], [40], [41], [42].…”

Staging energy sources to extend flight time of a multirotor UAV

“…Unassisted methods typically involve increasing mechanical or electrical efficiency or the use of optimization-based methods over objectives such as flight time or range. One such approach is exploiting the efficiency of a fixed-wing and hovering ability of a multirotor by converting them into a hybrid aerial vehicle [10], [11]. Vehicle structure manipulation by tilting rotors to increase efficiency is shown in [12].…”

A method for evaluating the wind disturbance rejection capability of a hybrid UAV in the quadrotor mode

“…This effect accounts for the poor wind disturbance rejection capability of the QFHUAV when d is equal to 0 . According to equation (5), an increase in d can increase T xk and T yk , which can increase the yawing control moment to improve the wind disturbance rejection capability of the QFHUAV. The moment arms of T xk and T yk reach their maximum values when T k is perpendicular to the diagonal of the quadrotor motor position, and this situation can provide the maximum control moment.…”

“…[1][2][3] Most UAV applications require UAVs that are capable of doing a wide range of different and complementary operations within a composite mission. 4 However, conventional fixed-wing UAVs generally have good cruise performance, can fly for long durations at high speeds, and are independent of wind situations within a wide range, 5 but these UAVs suffer from the requirement of runways or special launch and recovery equipment such as catapult launchers, parachutes, or nets for takeoff and landing. 6 Rotary wing UAVs, on the other hand, can take off and land vertically.…”