Design of Fixed-Wing and Multi-Copter Hybrid Drone System for Human Body Temperature Measurement during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to conduct aerodynamics study and design a hybrid drone system of fixed-wing and multi-copter. The mission of this drone is to measure human body temperature during COVID19 pandemic. The specific aim of the drone is to fly and cover larger industrial areas roughly about 50 km2 with longer flying time than the conventional drone, of about 1.5 hours. The applications of the simulation software such as XFLR5 and ANSYS have a big impact in identifying areas that need to be improved for the drone system. XFLR5 software was used to compare the characteristics of different airfoils with highest lift over drag, L/D ratio. Based on the airfoil selection, it was found that NACA 4412 airfoil produces the highest L/D ratio. The detailed geometry of the drone system includes a fuselage length of 1.9 meters and wingspan of 2 meters. Moreover, 10 sheets of solar panels were placed along the wing for sustainable flight operation to cover wider areas of mission. The structural analysis was done on ANSYS to test the elastic stress, equivalent strain, deformation, factor of safety pressure as well as lift and drag forces under various operational conditions and payloads. The landing gear was analyzed for harsh landing. ANSYS Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was utilized to study the aerodynamics of the drone at different parameters such as the velocities and angles of attack during the operation. This design ensures the stability of the drone during the temperature measurement phase. The best thermal-imaging camera for such purpose would be the Vue Pro R 336, 45° radiometric drone thermal camera with a resolution of 640 x 512 pixels. This camera has the advantage of a permanent continuous out focus that give the ability of taking measurements even if there was changing on the altitude or any kind of vibrations.