TY - GEN
T1 - Conceptual design of a blended-wing-body tilt-arm hybrid unmanned aerial vehicle
AU - Abnous, Rosa
AU - Zeng, Chen
AU - Chowdhury, Souma
AU - Maldonado, Victor
AU - Mancuso, Peter
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The need for multi-functional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations (e.g., in disaster response), or for adapting to varying conditions, have given rise to hybrid UAVs. Of particular interest are hybrid platforms that provide some combination of VTOL, hovering, and long-range flight capabilities, by operating in and transitioning between distinct flight states. This paper proposes a new hybrid UAV that seeks to address the drawbacks (e.g., rotor under-usage and cross-wind vulnerability) of existing designs (tilt-rotor/tilt-body/tilt-wing), and thereby provide increased operational flexibility. This UAV, called the BWB-Integrated Transitioning UAV or BITU, comprises a pair of tilt-arms (with two rotors mounted on the ends) that can rotate about shafts; the latter are integrated into the wing tips of the blended wing body (BWB). A conceptual design framework is developed to explore the feasibility/performance of BITU, which includes numerical mass and inertia estimation, aerodynamic analysis, and simulation and control of the state transition dynamics. Two design case studies are performed using mixed-discrete PSO. The optimal designs of BITU are found to provide competitive combinations of weight (< 5.5kg), payload capacity (2kg specified), hovering endurance (20min @ 40km roundtrip range), and forward flight range (> 270 km), and substantial improvement over the baseline.
AB - The need for multi-functional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations (e.g., in disaster response), or for adapting to varying conditions, have given rise to hybrid UAVs. Of particular interest are hybrid platforms that provide some combination of VTOL, hovering, and long-range flight capabilities, by operating in and transitioning between distinct flight states. This paper proposes a new hybrid UAV that seeks to address the drawbacks (e.g., rotor under-usage and cross-wind vulnerability) of existing designs (tilt-rotor/tilt-body/tilt-wing), and thereby provide increased operational flexibility. This UAV, called the BWB-Integrated Transitioning UAV or BITU, comprises a pair of tilt-arms (with two rotors mounted on the ends) that can rotate about shafts; the latter are integrated into the wing tips of the blended wing body (BWB). A conceptual design framework is developed to explore the feasibility/performance of BITU, which includes numerical mass and inertia estimation, aerodynamic analysis, and simulation and control of the state transition dynamics. Two design case studies are performed using mixed-discrete PSO. The optimal designs of BITU are found to provide competitive combinations of weight (< 5.5kg), payload capacity (2kg specified), hovering endurance (20min @ 40km roundtrip range), and forward flight range (> 270 km), and substantial improvement over the baseline.
KW - Blended-wing-body (BWB)
KW - Hover to forward flight transition
KW - Hybrid un- manned aerial vehicle (UAV)
KW - Particle swarm optimization
KW - Vortex lattice method
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088409684&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2514/6.2017-1072
DO - 10.2514/6.2017-1072
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85088409684
SN - 9781624104534
T3 - 58th AIAA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, 2017
BT - 58th AIAA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, 2017
PB - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA
T2 - 58th AIAA/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference, 2017
Y2 - 9 January 2017 through 13 January 2017
ER -