Drone Reconfigurable Architecture (DRA): a Multipurpose Modular Architecture for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Ferreira, Murillo Augusto da Silva; Tejada-Begazo, Maria; Lopes, Guilherme Cano; Oliveira, Alexandre Felipe de; Colombini, Esther Luna; Simões, Alexandre da Silva

doi:10.1007/s10846-019-01129-4

Cited by 26 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Furthermore, they can negotiate narrow gaps, fly in crowded environments, inspect sensitive locations, and transport multiple objects without auxiliary manipulator's arms. 1 According to recent studies, [1][2][3] the reconfigurable multirotors can be divided as shown in Figure 1. In the paper, 4 a new reconfigurable quadcopter, which can change its mechanical structure, was presented.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Adaptive integral backstepping control of a reconfigurable quadrotor with variable parameters’ estimation

Derrouaoui

Bouzid

Guiatni

2022

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part I:

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This work presents the control of a quadrotor capable of changing its configuration while flying. The designed controller should handle several arising issues since the drone geometric parameters are varying over time. This variation has a great influence on the quadrotor control, which prompts us to propose an efficient nonlinear adaptive integral backstepping controller. The control architecture includes an estimator of the inertia and other specific blocks to calculate the center of gravity and the mixing matrix. The performance of the proposed control approach has been compared with the conventional integral backstepping controller in two cases, with and without disturbances. The obtained results of the inertias and the center of gravity are also compared and confirmed with those calculated using Computer-Assisted Design–based model.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to recent studies, 1–3 the reconfigurable multirotors can be divided as shown in Figure 1. In the paper, 4 a new reconfigurable quadcopter, which can change its mechanical structure, was presented.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive integral backstepping control of a reconfigurable quadrotor with variable parameters’ estimation

Derrouaoui

Bouzid

Guiatni

2022

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part I:

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“…In this paper, we present an FTC for this type of UAV platform to sufficiently use the redundancy of the entire platform in both high-level and low-level control, thus improving the robustness of the platform against propeller failure. As a result, various UAV platforms [6,13,29,30,36,37] that may have different thrust generation capabilities among propellers/thrust-generation modules under propeller failure can have better rotor-failure robustness.…”

Section: B Fault-tolerant Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nullspace-Based Control Allocation of Overactuated UAV Platforms

Gerber

et al. 2021

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

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Propeller failure is one major reason for the falling and crashing of multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). While conventional multirotors can barely handle this issue due to underactuation, over-actuated platforms can still pursue the flight with proper fault-tolerant control (FTC). This paper investigates such a controller for one such over-actuated multirotor aerial platform composing quadcopters mounted on passive joints with input redundancy in both the high-level vehicle control and the low-level quadcopter control of vectored thrusts. To fully utilize the input redundancies of the whole platform under propeller failure, our proposed FTC controller has a hierarchical control architecture with three main components: (i) a low-level adjustment strategy to avoid propeller-level thrust saturation; (ii) a compensation loop to attenuate introduced disturbance; (iii) a nullspace-based control allocation framework to avoid quadcopter-level thrust saturation. Through reallocating actuator inputs in both the low-level and high-level control loops, the low-level quadcopter control can be maintained with at most two failed propellers and the whole platform can be stabilized without crashing. The proposed controller is extensively studied in both simulation and real-world experiments to demonstrate its superior performance.

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“…Recent advances in wireless networks [7] and artificial intelligence [8] allow intense progress in sensing and communication, and equivalent progress in the UAV mission capabilities is required. Although the available software is capable of performing all types of tasks, normally a different aircraft is required for each mission [9]. Therefore, a reconfigurable UAV can be devised for different tasks, capable of performing them at high performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Performance Boundaries of a Small Reconfigurable Multi-Mission UAV through Multidisciplinary Analysis

Santos,

Rogers,

De Rezende

et al. 2023

Aerospace

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The performance of a small reconfigurable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is evaluated, combining a multidisciplinary approach in the computational analysis of additive manufactured structures, fluid dynamics, and experiments. Reconfigurable UAVs promise cost savings and efficiency, without sacrificing performance, while demonstrating versatility to fulfill different mission profiles. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in UAV design produces higher accuracy aerodynamic data, which is particularly important for complex aircraft concepts such as blended wing bodies. To address challenges relating to anisotropic materials, the Tsai–Wu failure criterion is applied to the structural analysis, using CFD solutions as load inputs. Aerodynamic performance results show the low-speed variant attains an endurance of 1 h, 48 min, whereas its high-speed counterpart is 29 min at a 66.7% higher cruise speed. Each variant serves different aspects of small UAS deployment, with low speed envisioned for high-endurance surveying, and high speed for long-range or time-critical missions such as delivery. The experimental and simulation results suggest room for design iteration, in wing area and geometry adjustments. Structural simulations demonstrated the need for airframe improvements to the low-speed configuration. This paper highlights the potential of reconfigurable UAVs to be useful across multiple industries, advocating for further research and design improvements.

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Drone Reconfigurable Architecture (DRA): a Multipurpose Modular Architecture for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

Cited by 26 publications

References 29 publications

Adaptive integral backstepping control of a reconfigurable quadrotor with variable parameters’ estimation

Adaptive integral backstepping control of a reconfigurable quadrotor with variable parameters’ estimation

Nullspace-Based Control Allocation of Overactuated UAV Platforms

Exploring the Performance Boundaries of a Small Reconfigurable Multi-Mission UAV through Multidisciplinary Analysis

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