Design, Construction, and Flight Testing of the World's Fastest Micro-Scale Quadcopter

Bramlette, Richard B.; Johnston, Taylor A.; Barrett-Gonzalez, Ronald M.

doi:10.2514/6.2017-0012

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abg5913 Sections S1 to S7 Figs. S1 to S15 Table S1 Movies S1 to S5 References (83)(84)(85)(86)(87)(88)(89) View/request a protocol for this paper from Bio-protocol.…”

Section: Propeller Lumped Model Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bioinspired revolving-wing drone with passive attitude stability and efficient hovering flight

Bai

Chirarattananon

2022

Sci. Robot.

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Among small rotorcraft, the use of multiple compact rotors in a mechanically simple design leads to impressive agility and maneuverability but inevitably results in high energetic demand and acutely restricted endurance. Small spinning propellers used in these vehicles contrast with large lifting surfaces of winged seeds, which spontaneously gyrate into stable autorotation upon falling. The pronounced aerodynamic surfaces and delayed stalls are believed key to efficient unpowered flight. Here, the bioinspired principles are adopted to notably reduce the power consumption of small aerial vehicles by means of a samara-inspired robot. We report a dual-wing 35.1-gram aircraft capable of hovering flight via powered gyration. Equipped with two rotors, the underactuated robot with oversized revolving wings, designed to leverage unsteady aerodynamics, was optimized for boosted flight efficiency. Through the analysis of flight dynamics and stability, the vehicle was designed for passive attitude stability, eliminating the need for fast feedback to stay upright. To this end, the drone demonstrates flight with a twofold decrease in power consumption when compared with benchmark multirotor robots. Exhibiting the power loading of 8.0 grams per watt, the vehicle recorded a flight time of 14.9 minutes and up to 24.5 minutes when equipped with a larger battery. Taking advantage of the fast revolving motion to overcome the severe underactuation, we also realized position-controlled flight and illustrated examples of mapping and surveillance applications with a 21.5-gram payload.

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Section: Propeller Lumped Model Identificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bioinspired revolving-wing drone with passive attitude stability and efficient hovering flight

Bai

Chirarattananon

2022

Sci. Robot.

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show abstract

“…[52], it is easy to see that these multi-copters are designed for limited performance. Variants of the above-referenced QuadSparrow are designed to perform in mostly hovering flight for novelty purposes or commercial videography [53]. The Quadsparrow is also designed to have good market appeal and as a side benefit of positive aesthetics, associated with "clean lines," they are very aerodynamic with lower hover cross-flow drag than other conventional quadcopters such as those of the DJI and Autel families.…”

Section: Differences In Design Procedures Between Conventional and Co...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Convertible aircraft must meet hover, rate-of-climb (ROC), transition, range, speed, and endurance specifications, all for a given useful load. Accordingly, the innermost cores of the nested design loops are typically cen- [53] (ii) conventional fixed-wing airplanes (Mothra) [55], and (iii) convertible aircraft (XQ-139) [52].…”

Section: Differences In Design Procedures Between Conventional and Co...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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High Performance Convertible Coleopter Drones

Barrett-Gonzalez

2022

Drones

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This paper opens with an historical overview of efforts to develop micro-, mini-, and organic aerial vehicles (MAVs and OAVs) in the 1990’s. Although conceived during WWII, coleopters would not see serial production for 60 years. The paper continues with programmatic aspects of hovering coleopter development of the 1990’s and describes the technical motivations behind in-flight conversion from hover-mode to missile-mode flight and the record-setting XQ-138 family of convertible coleopters. As the first commercially successful family of such aircraft, the XQ-138 was taken from initial concept through configuration design, detailed design, patenting, prototyping, proof-of-concept, production, flight testing, qualification, and eventually high rate production, all with private funding. The paper lists basic engineering drivers, covers fundamental sizing methods, presents weight fraction data, and describes flight test procedures, locations, conditions, and results. High-speed flight test data show the stock aircraft achieving speeds in excess of 164 mph (263 kph) with endurances in excess of an hour at that speed with a special dash-optimized version reaching 288 mph (463 kph) for a few minutes. Videos from flight testing and live-fire exercises are shown at Redstone Arsenal, Eglin Air Force Base, and Fort Benning test ranges under extreme conditions. The paper concludes with an assessment of civil and military variants for a variety of military missions and commercial uses.

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A Review of Current Research in Subscale Flight Testing and Analysis of Its Main Practical Challenges

2021

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Testing of untethered subscale models, often referred to as subscale flight testing, has traditionally had a relatively minor, yet relevant use in aeronautical research and development. As recent advances in electronics, rapid prototyping and unmanned-vehicle technologies expand its capabilities and lower its cost, this experimental method is seeing growing interest across academia and the industry. However, subscale models cannot meet all similarity conditions required for simulating full-scale flight. This leads to a variety of approaches to scaling and to other alternative applications. Through a literature review and analysis of different scaling strategies, this study presents an overall picture of how subscale flight testing has been used in recent years and synthesises its main issues and practical limitations. Results show that, while the estimation of full-scale characteristics is still an interesting application within certain flight conditions, subscale models are progressively taking a broader role as low-cost technology-testing platforms with relaxed similarity constraints. Different approaches to tackle the identified practical challenges, implemented both by the authors and by other organisations, are discussed and evaluated through flight experiments.

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Design, Construction, and Flight Testing of the World's Fastest Micro-Scale Quadcopter

Cited by 3 publications

References 11 publications

A bioinspired revolving-wing drone with passive attitude stability and efficient hovering flight

A bioinspired revolving-wing drone with passive attitude stability and efficient hovering flight

High Performance Convertible Coleopter Drones

A Review of Current Research in Subscale Flight Testing and Analysis of Its Main Practical Challenges

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