Conceptual design and construction of a small canister based deployable UAV from composite materials
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Date
2024-07-08
Authors
Κατσαμάνης, Ζαχαρίας
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Abstract
The term UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) covers all vehicles that fly in the air without a human pilot or passenger and are usually guided by remote control. UAVs offer some important advantages over manned aircraft in terms of performing certain specific missions. Some of these beneficial features are their ability to complete tasks quickly, efficiently and at low cost, the elimination of the need for humans to perform dangerous tasks, their revolutionary impact in the field of mapping and surveillance, and many others. In this work, our goal is to design a small UAV made of composite materials, launched from a tubular launcher. This innovative concept offers the possibility of taking off from anywhere, minimizing the take-off time, easy transportation, small occupied volume. The mission of this UAV is to participate in search and rescue operations in mountainous environments.
The first step is the preparation of a detailed study to define the general basic specifications of the aircraft. This study starts with a review of the historical evolution of UAVs, an explanation of the basic terminology, a presentation of the UAV classification categories and a description of the current state of the art in the field. A detailed description of the aircraft configuration options is also given, followed by an analysis of the Concept of Operations. Here, the mission is defined, its difficulties are highlighted and, through a market analysis, appropriate decisions are taken. This initial study concludes with a presentation of the aircraft design methodology.
The design process starts with the definition of the specific technical specifications of the mission and the calculation of the aircraft weight, wing area and engine power. The next step is the design of the wing, which includes the calculation of all its parameters and the definition of its geometry. A similar procedure is followed for the design of the horizontal and vertical tail section that follows. Next, we design the fuselage, taking into account the geometry of the folding sections, we design the control surfaces of the aircraft and we define the "flight envelope" by constructing the V-n diagrams. At this point, we make reference to the construction materials, where we propose specific composites for each part of the aircraft. The aircraft design process concludes with the structural analysis of the wing, followed by the 3D drawings of the aircraft.
With all the information about the aircraft, we continue designing the other parts of the system. These are the wing and tail section folding mechanism, the propulsion system, the UAV launcher and the canister that will carry the UAV. Finally, we present the steps required to reach the final construction of the UAV and we describe the proposed construction method.
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Keywords
Conceptual design, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Search and rescue operations, Deployable wing, Composite materials