Multicopter Design Optimization and Validation

Abstract

This paper presents a method for optimizing the design of a multicopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, also called multirotor or drone). In practice a set of datasheets is available to the designer for the various components such as battery pack, motor and propellers. The designer can not normally design the parameters of the actuator system freely, but is constrained to pick components based on available datasheets. The mixed-integer programming approach is well suited to design optimization in such cases when only a discrete set of components is available. The paper also includes an experimental section where the simulated dynamic responses of optimized designs are compared against the experimental results. The paper demonstrates that mixed-integer programming is well suited to design optimization of multicopter UAVs and that the modeling assumptions match well with the experimental validation.Keywords: Multicopter, multirotor, drone, UAV, mathematical modeling, design optimization, experimental validation.

An Analytical Design-Optimization Method for Electric Propulsion Systems of Multicopter UAVs With Desired Hovering Endurance

“…According to the optimization objective in Eq. (15), the optimal diameter should be chosen as the minimum diameter under constraint in Eq. (63).…”

“…Most of them adopt numerical methods (fixed-wing aircraft [13] and multicopters [12]) to search and traverse all the possible propulsion system combinations in the database based on the proposed cost functions. In [14], [15], the multicopter optimization problem is described as a mixed integer linear program, and solved with the Cplex optimizer. However, these numerical methods have following problems: i) a large and well-covered product database is required for a better optimization effect; ii) the calculation speed is slow when there are large numbers of products in the database because the amount of product combinations is huge (the algorithm complexity is O(n 4 ), where n is the number of the database products).…”

Нovering ceiling of an electric multicopter

“…В табл. 2 приведены значения минимального запаса тяги в зависимости от Δ и δ. Приведенные значения следует считать оценками снизу, поскольку для устойчивого висения необходим дополнительный запас тяги на управление [10]: возможность увеличить тягу отдельных ВМГ выше значений, определяемых массой ЛА.…”

Multirotor Sizing Methodology with Flight Time Estimation

“…A di erent approach was taken by Magnussen et al [11] who treated the propulsion system sizing problem as a mixed-integer programming problem. e strengths of this method are a solid de nition of the base problem and the ability to use external solvers.…”