‘Switchblade’: Wide-Mission Performance Design of a Multi-Variant Unmanned Aerial System

Maldonado, Víctor; Santos, Dioser; Wilt, Mitchell; Ramirez, Darius; Shoemaker, J. Todd; Ayele, Wolduamlak; Beeson, Bruce; Lisby, Blake; Zamora, Jerimiah; Antu, Corbin

doi:10.2514/6.2021-0213

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The first objective is to carry out a refined CFD analysis of the UAV variants, giving continuity to the work performed during the conceptual design phase in [12]. This is accomplished by more detailed geometries, larger fluid domains, and finer meshes.…”

Section: Research Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The development of the UAV family began in the conceptual design framework shown in a previous work [12]. Part of that framework is contained in the flowchart of Figure 2.…”

Section: Multidisciplinary Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The development of a family of reconfigurable UAVs includes the enhancement of interchangeable components, such as wings, tails, engines, and payloads, improving the performance of each type of mission and the overall flexibility of the family [11]. The goal of the Switchblade UAV design is to combine the flexibility of reconfigurable vehicles with the performance of optimized components, as envisioned in previous works [12,13]. The Switchblade is a small unmanned aerial system (UAS) concept that adopts a hybrid role in the form of two main aircraft variants for long-endurance, slow-flight, or long-range fast operation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Finally, wind tunnel testing of the different configurations provides experimental validation and the comparison with computational models to provide a more complete understanding of the system. The methodology used here is an extension of a previous work [12] and is explained in Section 2.1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The conceptual design framework for Switchblade was previously conducted in [12]. Considering a variety of missions in commercial sectors in which UAVs are utilized, as shown in Table 2, three different mission profiles were studied to examine the required flight performance, resulting in four distinguishable UAV variants (Figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring the Performance Boundaries of a Small Reconfigurable Multi-Mission UAV through Multidisciplinary Analysis

Santos,

Rogers,

De Rezende

et al. 2023

Aerospace

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The performance of a small reconfigurable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is evaluated, combining a multidisciplinary approach in the computational analysis of additive manufactured structures, fluid dynamics, and experiments. Reconfigurable UAVs promise cost savings and efficiency, without sacrificing performance, while demonstrating versatility to fulfill different mission profiles. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in UAV design produces higher accuracy aerodynamic data, which is particularly important for complex aircraft concepts such as blended wing bodies. To address challenges relating to anisotropic materials, the Tsai–Wu failure criterion is applied to the structural analysis, using CFD solutions as load inputs. Aerodynamic performance results show the low-speed variant attains an endurance of 1 h, 48 min, whereas its high-speed counterpart is 29 min at a 66.7% higher cruise speed. Each variant serves different aspects of small UAS deployment, with low speed envisioned for high-endurance surveying, and high speed for long-range or time-critical missions such as delivery. The experimental and simulation results suggest room for design iteration, in wing area and geometry adjustments. Structural simulations demonstrated the need for airframe improvements to the low-speed configuration. This paper highlights the potential of reconfigurable UAVs to be useful across multiple industries, advocating for further research and design improvements.

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Section: Research Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The development of the UAV family began in the conceptual design framework shown in a previous work [12]. Part of that framework is contained in the flowchart of Figure 2.…”

Section: Multidisciplinary Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%