Review of vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing UAV and its application prospect in precision agriculture

Abstract

Abstract: Compared with multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and fixed-wing UAV, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) fixed-wing UAV has advantages such as good aerodynamic efficiency, high cruise speed and long flight duration, and has low requirements for the flatness and area of the landing site. Therefore, VTOL fixed-wing UAVs are widely used in many fields such as remote sensing, power line inspection, geological mapping and urban comprehensive patrol. However, there are still some problems in VTOL fixed-wing UAV, such as large aerodynamic interference of tilting propeller, high requirement of design strength of VTOL structure and complex power system matching in various flight states, which make it impossible to have a complete and reliable safety evaluation to guarantee the healthy development of VTOL fixed-wing UAV. In this paper, different types of VTOL fixed-wing UAVs are classified from aerodynamic layout and take-off mode, such as rotor, tilt-wing and tail-seat type. At the same time, the data of VTOL fixed-wing UAVs with certain representative design are compared, including maximum flight speed, maximum takeoff weight, range and flight time, etc. In addition, this paper also puts forward the application method and current situation of VTOL in precision agriculture. Finally, the future research direction and development suggestions are put forward to provide references for the performance improvement and further research of new VTOL fixed-wing UAV in the future. Keywords: vertical take-off and landing, fixed-wing, unmanned aerial vehicle, tilt rotor, composite wing DOI: 10.33440/j.ijpaa.20200304.130 Citation: Zhou M J, Zhou Z Y, Liu L H, Huang J, Lyu Z C. Review of vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing UAV and its application prospect in precision agriculture. Int J Precis Agric Aviat, 2020; 3(4): 8–17.