32 research outputs found

    Design features of multicopter sprayers

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    Целью исследований являлось рассмотрение проблемы проектирования мультикоптеров-опрыскивателей с учетом возможности их изготовления посредством аддитивных технологий с упором на повышение грузоподъемности мультикоптеров. The aim of the research was to consider the problems of designing multicopter sprayers, taking into account the possibility of their manufacture using additive technologies, with an emphasis on increasing the carrying capacity of multicopters

    Design & Implementation of an Electric Fixed-wing Hybrid VTOL UAV for Asset Monitoring

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    Fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer the best aerodynamic efficiency required for long-distance or high-endurance applications, albeit their runway requirement for take-off and landing in comparison with quadcopters, helicopters, and flapping-wing UAVs that can perform vertical take-off and landing (VTOL). Integrating a multirotor system with a fixed-wing UAV imparts VTOL capabilities without significantly compromising fixed-wing aerodynamic efficiency, endurance, payload capacity or range. Documented system design approaches to address various challenges of such fusion processes are sparse. This research proposes a holistic approach for designing, prototyping, and testing an electric-powered fixed-wing hybrid VTOL UAV. The proposed system design approach augments the standard aircraft design process with additional steps to integrate VTOL capabilities. Separate fixed-wing and multirotor designs were derived from the frozen mission requirements, which were then fused. The process used simulation for modeling and evaluating alternatives for the hybrid UAV created using standard aircraft design equations. We prototyped and instrumented the final design to validate operational capabilities through test flights. Multiple flight trials identified the ideal combination of Lithium-Polymer (Li-Po) batteries for VTOL (8000mAh) and fixed-wing (14000mAh) modes to meet the endurance and range requirements. The redundant power supplies also increased the survivability chances of the hybrid UAV during failures

    Enabling technologies for precise aerial manufacturing with unmanned aerial vehicles

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    The construction industry is currently experiencing a revolution with automation techniques such as additive manufacturing and robot-enabled construction. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a key technology that can o er productivity improvement in the construction industry by means of o -site prefabrication and on-site construction with automated systems. The key bene t is that building elements can be fabricated with less materials and higher design freedom compared to traditional manual methods. O -site prefabrication with AM has been investigated for some time already, but it has limitations in terms of logistical issues of components transportation and due to its lack of design exibility on-site. On-site construction with automated systems, such as static gantry systems and mobile ground robots performing AM tasks, can o er additional bene ts over o -site prefabrication, but it needs further research before it will become practical and economical. Ground-based automated construction systems also have the limitation that they cannot extend the construction envelope beyond their physical size. The solution of using aerial robots to liberate the process from the constrained construction envelope has been suggested, albeit with technological challenges including precision of operation, uncertainty in environmental interaction and energy e ciency. This thesis investigates methods of precise manufacturing with aerial robots. In particular, this work focuses on stabilisation mechanisms and origami-based structural elements that allow aerial robots to operate in challenging environments. An integrated aerial self-aligning delta manipulator has been utilised to increase the positioning accuracy of the aerial robots, and a Material Extrusion (ME) process has been developed for Aerial Additive Manufacturing (AAM). A 28-layer tower has been additively manufactured by aerial robots to demonstrate the feasibility of AAM. Rotorigami and a bioinspired landing mechanism demonstrate their abilities to overcome uncertainty in environmental interaction with impact protection capabilities and improved robustness for UAV. Design principles using tensile anchoring methods have been explored, enabling low-power operation and explores possibility of low-power aerial stabilisation. The results demonstrate that precise aerial manufacturing needs to consider not only just the robotic aspects, such as ight control algorithms and mechatronics, but also material behaviour and environmental interaction as factors for its success.Open Acces

    Energy-efficient resource management for continuous scenario fulfillment by UAV fleets

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    Unbemannte Luftfahrzeuge (unmanned aerial vehicles, UAV) sind autonom fliegende und flexibel einsetzbare mobile Roboter, welche durch ihre große Flexibilität und Erweiterbarkeit viele Möglichkeiten bieten. Insbesondere im Bereich der Katastrophenbewältigung erlangen sie immer stärkere Bedeutung, da die Aufgaben zur Aufklärung im Gebiet und zur Erschaffung einer Kommunikationsinfrastruktur ungebunden und schnell durch sie bewältigt werden können. Der Forschungsschwerpunkt dieser Arbeit liegt in der Herausforderung der Ressourcenverwaltung in einem solchen Szenario. Während die Priorität des UAV Einsatzes klar darin besteht die Katastrophenbekämpfung unterbrechungsfrei zu unterstützten, muss ebenso auf die Verwaltung limitierter Ressourcen, wie elektrischer Energie, eingegangen werden. Wir präsentieren ein entsprechendes Systemdesign einer Ressourcenverwaltung und Strategien zur Verbesserung der Leistung und damit zur Erhöhung der Energieeffizienz des Gesamtsystems. Die Implementierung und gründliche Untersuchung eines solchen komplexen Systems von Teilsystemen ist verbunden mit hohen finanziellen Kosten, großem Test-Risiko und einer langen Entwicklungsdauer. Aus diesem Grund setzt diese Arbeit auf abstrakte ausführbare Modelle der Umgebung, des Verwaltungssystems und der UAVs. Die Verwendung dieser Modelle in einer Massensimulation mit beliebiger Komplexität und Konfiguration ermöglicht die schnelle und kostengünstige Verifikation der Funktionstüchtigkeit und die Bewertung verschiedener Verwaltungsstrategien. Im Vergleich zu der präsentierten trivialen Lösung ist die entwickelte verbesserte Lösung in der Lage den zeitlichen Anteil einzelner UAVs im Missionseinsatz zu erhöhen und die insgesamt nötige Menge an UAVs für die dauerhafte Abdeckung aller Aufgaben zu reduzieren. Die Schritte zur Optimierung reduzierten im analysierten Beispiel den Gesamtenergiebedarf aller UAVs um nahezu 20 Prozent.Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are autonomous and flexible robotic systems with a remarkable degree of freedom and extendibility. They are especially valuable in the context of disaster scenarios, where arising use cases for reconnaissance and mobile communication infrastructure creation have to be addressed rapidly and unbound from restrictions in the operation field. The research focus of this thesis lies in the challenge of resource management during such an application. While the priority of the UAV utilization lies on uninterrupted task execution, concern for limited resources, like electrical energy, and resultant maintenance processes has to be dealt with on a lower management layer. We present a resource management system design and multiple competing strategies to improve its performance and overall energy efficiency. The implementation and thorough evaluation of such a complex system of systems is linked to high costs, great operational risks, and a long development time. For that reason, we developed executable models representing the environment, the resource management system, and the UAV. Through mass simulation of these models in various scenario constellations and configurations, we are able to verify the applicability of our proposed resource management system and to evaluate and optimize various aspects of its processes. In comparison to a presented trivial solution, we are able to increase the UAV flight utilization efficiency and decrease the needed amount of provided UAVs in the scenario. Our optimization efforts reduce the overall energy demand of UAVs in the analyzed example scenario by almost 20 percent

    Proceedings of the International Micro Air Vehicles Conference and Flight Competition 2017 (IMAV 2017)

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    The IMAV 2017 conference has been held at ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulouse, France from Sept. 18 to Sept. 21, 2017. More than 250 participants coming from 30 different countries worldwide have presented their latest research activities in the field of drones. 38 papers have been presented during the conference including various topics such as Aerodynamics, Aeroacoustics, Propulsion, Autopilots, Sensors, Communication systems, Mission planning techniques, Artificial Intelligence, Human-machine cooperation as applied to drones

    A Model based Safety Assessment for Multirotors

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    Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) must be safe and reliable to prevent fatal accidents in densely populated areas. This research makes the first steps to create a framework which can integrate safety and reliability considerations in the design process. The conceptual design process should consider creating design models coupling sizing with system architecture. Additionally, the multirotor has safety challenges from the propulsor configuration. They lose flight control and show erroneous flight behaviour when propulsors fail. Hence, the design models of multirotor should also incorporate a controllability assessment method to identify and isolate uncontrollable events. For this matter, an appropriate tool should be considered to create such design models. A combination of OpenAltarica, System Analyst and Python is used to create design models of multirotor in a model-based safety assessment framework. These models are developed by integrating system architecture and controllability assessment following the etiquettes of the process. A case study is used to validate the framework and to demonstrate its ability to explore innovative designs. The reliability analysis confirms that the multirotors are fault-tolerant except quadrotor and some configurations are potentially highly reliable. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the multirotor system modelling methods in terms of reliability and pave the way to further develop the model-based safety assessment framework with sizing methodologies. The models can also be further enhanced with the addition of a component fault library, additional failure modes and implementation of diagnosability analysis, fault detection and identification analysis. Fault libraries and failure modes can help in foreseeing uncontrollable cases. In contrast, diagnosability analysis, fault detection and identification analysis can integrate detect, isolate and recover mechanisms, and ensure redundancy optimization effectively. Additionally, the framework should also be combined with multidisciplinary design optimization for sizing. Such design models can contribute to the emergence of UAVs for safety-critical applications
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