Design Methodology for Heavy-Lift Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Coaxial Rotors

Ong, W., Srigrarom, S. and Hesse, H. (2019) Design Methodology for Heavy-Lift Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Coaxial Rotors. In: AIAA SciTech Forum, San Diego, CA, USA, 7-11 Jan 2019, ISBN 9781624105784 (doi: 10.2514/6.2019-2095)

Abstract

This work presents a novel design methodology for multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). To specifically address the design of vehicles with heavy lift capabilities, we have extended existing design methodologies to include coaxial rotor systems which have exhibit the best thrust-to-volume ratio for operation of UAVs in urban environments. Such coaxial systems, however, come with decreased aerodynamic efficiency and the design approach developed in this work can account for this. The proposed design methodology and included market studies have been demonstrated for the development of a multi-parcel delivery drone that can deliver up to four packages using a novel morphing concept. Flight test results in this paper serve to validate the predictions of thrust and battery life of the coaxial propulsion system suggesting errors in predicted flight time of less than 5 percent.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hesse, Dr Henrik
• Authors: Ong, W., Srigrarom, S., and Hesse, H.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Autonomous Systems and Connectivity
• Journal Name: AIAA Scitech 2019 Forum
• Publisher: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• ISBN: 9781624105784
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2019 Henrik Hesse
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher