Development and Testing of an Unmanned Aerial System with Micro-Fiber Composite Actuators

Abstract

The development, deployment, and operation of Unmanned Aerial Systems have grown exponentially in recent years and have provided the opportunity to gain hands on experience with aircraft in a manner that was previously limited to institutions and companies with large budgets. This has allowed the generation and testing of aerial system advanced technologies using low cost systems. This paper presents the development of an unmanned aerial system to support the design, testing and validation of macro-fiber composite based aileron actuators. Macro-fiber composites, which consist of piezoceramic fibers and electrodes embedded in an epoxy matrix, are an attractive choice for unmanned aerial vehicles actuation because they are manufactured as lightweight, thin sheets and, when implemented as bending actuators, can provide both large structural deflections and high bandwidth. In this study, several aileron actuator designs were evaluated through a combination of theoretical and experimental analyses. The final configuration is integrated to a reduced-size controlled research aircraft equipped with low cost autopilot and sensors package. The evaluation of the system is performed in terms of performance of the actuators to produce required roll control. Nomenclature δ = beam deflection angle O = aircraft roll angle θ = aircraft pitch angle Ax = accelerometer readings in the x-direction Ay = accelerometer readings in the y-direction Az = accelerometer readings in the z-direction CL = coefficient of lift CM = coefficient of moment CD = coefficient of drag CY = coefficient of side force CN = coefficient of yaw Cl = coefficient of roll E = Tensile modulus g = Earth’s gravitational force I/O = Input/Output Jxx = moments of inertia in x-axis Jyy = moments of inertia in y-axis Jzz = moments of inertia in z-axis MAC = Mean Aerodynamic Chord t = thickness Graduate Student, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering Assistant Professor, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, AIAA Senior Member Ph.D. Student, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering