Flight Characterization of Micro Air Vehicles Using Morphing for Agility and Maneuvering

Document Number: 2004-01-3138

Date Published: November 2004

Author(s):
Rick Lind - Univ. of Florida

Abstract:
The international community is devoting significant resources to the development of a micro air vehicle (MAV) capability. The Black Widow, developed in the United States, is the first well-publicized MAV that achieved a limited level of mission capability. Germany has several ongoing programs for vehicles such as the Quattrocopter and Mikado. Organizations in Israel are developing the Skylark and Skylite as mini-unmanned vehicles along with the Mosquito for urban missions. The Swedish government is also looking to field a MAV. Clearly a wide range of mission scenarios, such as urban surveillance, have been envisioned for which a MAV is well-suited.

The issue of agility is critical for a MAV to achieve true mission capability in urban environments. Missions are anticipated to involve flight through or around buildings and tunnels, bridges and elevated walkways, roads and alleys, signs and trees, along with pedestrian and air traffic. The vehicle will certainly need to maneuver using sharp dives and climbs along with small-radius turns. Such a flight profile will require high angle of attack and high angle of sideslip fiight. Also, the vehicle will surely need high control authority to reject gusts and other disturbances.

The University of Florida is exploring methods to enhance agility for its class of micro air vehicles. The members of this class of MAV use a thin under-cambered wing constructed of membrane fixed to composite battens. As such, the wings have excellent aerodynamic properties with sufficient strength to support airloads. This class of MAV has been highly successful at performing various aspects of mission profiles; however, they all share a trait of being difficult to fly.

This paper describes the morphing program which is being used to enhance control authority for the class of MAV at the University of Florida. A variety of morphing is admitted using traditional actuation systems coupled with cables and rods. The focus in each case is control effectiveness rather than optimal strategies for actuation. As such, this paper is intended to relate the benefits of morphing and potentially provide guidance to future designs.

A MAV is an excellent platform to consider morphing. The use of morphing provides a clear benefit to controllability because traditional surfaces like ailerons, which give decoupled responses, can not be easily installed on a membrane wing. Such morphing is actually easy to do because the wings are quite flexible so little energy is required to alter their shape. Finally, morphing is truly a biologically inspired concept because the MAV can directly mimic selected properties of birds.

File Size: 637K
Product Status: In Stock

See other papers presented at World Aviation Congress _® & Exposition, November 2004, Reno, NV, USA, Session: UAVs

Purchase more technical papers and save! With TechSelect, you decide what SAE Technical Papers you need, when you need them, and how much you want to pay. Learn more >