Design Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Research Articles

Strong Electromagnetic Interference and Protection in UAVs

With the proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the escalating electromagnetic environment in space, there has been growing attention and research focus on the strong electromagnetic effects and electromagnetic protection design of UAVs. This paper aims to introduce the potential strong electromagnetic interference that UAVs may encounter during flight. It specifically concentrates on three crucial subsystems: the datalink system, the flight control and navigation system, and the power system. The goal is to provide an overview of the current state of research on the strong electromagnetic effects of UAVs, along with a discussion of commonly employed research methods. Additionally, this paper introduces various means of strong electromagnetic protection that can be utilized for UAVs. Finally, it concludes with a summary of the research status and development trends concerning the effects of strong electromagnetic interference and the corresponding protection measures for UAVs.

Design and Construction of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Nano Aluminum and Carbon Composite Materials

This project aims to design and manufacture an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) structure using nano aluminum and carbon composite materials named “Arabian Leopard.” Over the past period, the UAV market has experienced significant growth. In 2019, at least 60 countries were engaged in the development or implementation of at least 1,300 different drones. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is no exception; as a result, it prioritized this sector in Vision 2030 through investment and support to localize and develop it. The ANSYS fluent software will conduct a CFD simulation of the UAV design and airfoil. The airfoil CFD simulation is used to find the lift/drag characteristics of the airfoil used in the UAV design. In this CFD simulation, we conducted an airfoil simulation using Ansys Fluent software. From here, our project is to enhance the local content, present a unique design that embodies a national identity, and introduce nano-aluminum into the airframe to increase its durability, as the aerial vehicle (AV) is the primary component of the UAV system.

A Cooperative Heterogeneous System Design of Unmanned Aerial and Surface Vehicles

A Cooperative Heterogeneous System Design of Unmanned Aerial and Surface Vehicles

Large Eddy Simulation of Low Reynolds Number Flow Around a NACA0015 Airfoil with Modified Trailing Edges

The flow field of a low Reynolds number regime is three-dimensional and exceedingly complicated due to numerous forms of vortical phenomena, which has triggered the interest of many researchers. This study aims to investigate the influence of various trailing edge configurations on the aerodynamic characteristics and flow structure of airfoils. Specifically, five different configurations, namely baseline, serration, comb, and comb-serration are analyzed in detail. The study seeks to identify the configuration that provides optimal aerodynamic performance, which can then inform the design of more efficient airfoils for a range of applications, including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), wind energy, and automotive design. A Large-eddy simulation numerical model was developed to effectively evaluate unsteady pressure fluctuations and turbulence parameters at the source. The pressure coefficient and skin friction coefficient figures reveal that modifications result in an early negative pressure zone and uneven flow along the airfoil surfaces. This study presents numerical findings on the NACA0015 airfoil at a zero angle of attack. The pressure coefficient distribution along the airfoil surface exhibits a symmetrical pattern, with the highest pressure observed at the leading edge due to flow deceleration. Analysis of the skin friction coefficient confirms the absence of separation zones on the airfoil surface, except for the tip of the trailing edge. The velocity profile demonstrates a consistent and smooth flow, indicating stable and symmetrical conditions across the airfoil. Moreover, the velocity profiles of the baseline airfoil at zero angle of attack do not indicate any signs of flow separation. Notably, the serrated, combed and comb-serrated trailing edge configurations each yield distinctive effects on fluid flow. The serrated trailing edge promotes increased fluid velocity and pressure drop, while the combed configuration induces separation at the root. Meanwhile, the comb-serrated design sustains a continuous fluid flow over the airfoil surface. Overall, these results contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the aerodynamic behavior and flow characteristics influenced by various trailing edge configurations.

Accelerating model evaluations in uncertainty propagation on tensor grids using computational graph transformations

Methods such as non-intrusive polynomial chaos (NIPC), and stochastic collocation are frequently used for uncertainty propagation problems. Particularly for low-dimensional problems, these methods often use a tensor-product grid for sampling the space of uncertain inputs. A limitation of this approach is that it encounters a significant challenge: the number of sample points grows exponentially with the increase of uncertain inputs. Current strategies to mitigate computational costs abandon the tensor structure of sampling points, with the aim of reducing their overall count. Contrastingly, our investigation reveals that preserving the tensor structure of sample points can offer distinct advantages in specific scenarios. Notably, by manipulating the computational graph of the targeted model, it is feasible to avoid redundant evaluations at the operation level to significantly reduce the model evaluation cost on tensor-grid inputs. This paper presents a pioneering method: Accelerated Model Evaluations on Tensor grids using Computational graph transformations (AMTC). The core premise of AMTC lies in the strategic modification of the computational graph of the target model to algorithmically remove the repeated evaluations on the operation level. We implemented the AMTC method within the compiler of a new modeling language called the Computational System Design Language (CSDL). We demonstrate the effectiveness of AMTC by using it with the full-grid NIPC method to solve four low-dimensional UQ problems involving an analytical piston model, a multidisciplinary unmanned aerial vehicle design model, a multi-point air taxi mission analysis model, and a single-disciplinary rotor model, respectively. For three of the four test problems, AMTC reduces the model evaluation cost by between 50% and 90%, making the full-grid NIPC the most efficacious method to use among the UQ methods implemented.

Energy optimization for full-duplex wireless-powered IoT networks using rotary-wing UAV with multiple antennas

In this paper, we propose a novel design for the rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-enabled full-duplex (FD) wireless-powered Internet of Things (IoT) networks. In this network, the UAV is equipped with an antenna array, and the K IoT sensors, which are distributed randomly, use single-antenna to communicate. By sending the energy, the UAV as a hybrid access point, charges the sensors and collects information from them. Then, to manage the time and optimize the energy, the sensors are divided into N groups, so that the UAV equipped with multi-input multi-output (MIMO) technology can serve the sensors in a group, during the total time T. We provide a simple implementation of the wireless power transfer protocol in the sensors by using the time division multiple access (TDMA) scheme to receive information from the users. In other words, the sensors of each group receive energy from the UAV, when it hovers over the sensors of the previous group, and also when the UAV flies over the previous group to the current group. The sensors of each group send their information to the UAV, when the UAV is hovering over their group. Under these assumptions, we formulate two optimization problems: a sum throughput maximization problem, and a total time minimization problem. Numerical results show that our proposed optimal network provides better performance than the existing networks. In fact, our novel design can serve more sensors at the cost of using more antennas compared to that of the conventional networks.

Warehouse Small Cargo-carrying UAV Design and Environmental T265 Camera Placement Angle Study

The Intel RealSense Tracking Camera T265 is a tracking camera that uses its own Vi-Slam algorithm to output horizontal and vertical coordinates, which has a wide range of applications in drones, unmanned boats, and unmanned vehicles. In this paper, we utilize the T265 and the Pixhawk4 (PX4) flight controller to build a Robotics Operating System (ROS)-based, fixed-point cruise-capable, self-taking-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for cargo loading. The T265 is a fisheye black and white camera with powerful visual simultaneous localization and mapping (Slam) localization and a large visual range. The T265 features the Movidius Myriad 2 visual processing unit. Slam construction based on the comparison of feature points to output coordinates. Nevertheless, when the environment has a single color and insufficient feature contrast, it is easy to cause a SLAM error, leading to drifting of the drone's coordinates, which is very dangerous. It is easy to injure drone operators and other pedestrians accidentally, and at the same time, it is often accompanied by drone crashes that cause economic losses. We experimented with placing the T265 camera at multiple angles to test the best placement angle for more accurate drone positioning. The article also describes the mechanical mechanism design, hardware and software design of the cargo UAV, the optimal placement angle was verified in the environment described in the paper.

Aerodynamic performance study of propellers for Mars atmospheric environment

In terms of flight conditions, the Martian atmospheric environment is undoubtedly much harsher than the Earth atmospheric environment, with extremely low air density, ultra-low Reynolds number, and raging Martian sandstorms, all of which have serious impacts on the design of Martian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially for the design of the power system. The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the Martian atmospheric environment on the aerodynamic performance of the propeller system. The computational fluid dynamics numerical simulation was used to study the impact of varying degrees of sand and dust accumulation on the aerodynamic performance of Martian propellers caused by Martian sandstorms and widespread dust. It was found that in the Martian atmospheric environment, the rough surface of propeller blades after sand and dust accumulation has better aerodynamic performance than the smooth surface, which is greatly different from the Earth environment; The aerodynamic characteristics of the propeller are tested in the simulated Martian atmosphere vacuum chamber environment, and the experiment has shown that the propeller has better aerodynamic performance under the condition of 8° angle of attack; under the condition of 8° angle of attack, the aerodynamic performance of the propeller is simulated by different Reynolds numbers and different Mach numbers, so as to obtain the influence of the Reynolds number and the Mach number on lift–drag characteristics under the Martian atmospheric environment, and then, the modified blead element theory suitable for the Martian atmospheric environment is derived, which provides a detailed reference for the accurate modeling of the Mars UAV. It has important guiding significance for the design of flight controller.

Subjective Response Test of Auralized Brushless Direct Current Motor-Propeller System Noise

The auralization can be an effective asset in the design of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and urban air mobility vehicles, serving as a valuable resource in decision-making regarding the mitigation of noise-related issues. However, in order to be effective, the auralization must be perceptually accurate. During the process of auralization, a multirotor noise evaluation framework based on multidisciplinary principles was employed to model the periodical fluctuations in rotational speed. The subjective response test was utilized to evaluate synthesized UAV-like noise. The tests included participants becoming acquainted with different noise sources (ice-breaking), assessing participants' emotional responses to different noises (helicopter and UAV-like), and evaluating participants' ability to differentiate between measured and auralized sounds. Statistical analysis of the results of the subjective response test showed that the measured noise and the auralized noise were not identical, but were not perfectly indistinguishable. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of psychoacoustic methods and statistical analysis in the perceptual assessment of noise and validate a comprehensive rotor noise assessment framework based on a multidisciplinary approach.

Control Schemes for Quadrotor UAV: Taxonomy and Survey

Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is an unstable system, so it needs to be controlled efficiently and intelligently. Moreover, due to its non-linear, coupled, and under-actuated nature, the quadrotor has become an important research platform to study and validate various control theories. Different control approaches have been used to control the quadrotor UAV. In this context, a comprehensive study of different control schemes is presented in this research. First, an overview of the working and different applications of quadrotor UAVs is presented. Second, a mathematical model of the quadrotor is discussed. Later, the experimental results of various existing control techniques are discussed and compared. The various control schemes discussed and described for quadrotors are; Proportional Integral and Derivative (PID), Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), H-infinity ( H ∞ ), Sliding Mode Control (SMC), Feedback Linearization (FBL), Model Predictive Control (MPC), Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC), Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Iterative Learning Control (ILC), Reinforcement Learning Control (RLC), Brain Emotional Learning Control (BELC), Memory Based Control (MBC), Nested Saturation Control (NSC), and Hybrid Controllers (HC). Comparison is done among all the control techniques and it is concluded that the hybrid control method gives improved results. This survey presents a broad overview of the state-of-the-art in UAV design, control, and implementation for real-life applications.

Measurement-based fading characterization of multi-link UAV to mobile vehicle channel

To establish a stable, effective and reliable communication systems between unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and mobile vehicles, the propagation characteristics of air-ground (AG) wireless channels need to be better understand. In this paper, a narrowband multi-link channel measurement for UAV to mobile vehicles at 2.4 and 5.9 GHz is presented. Based on the measured data, some essential channel characteristics such as large-scale fading (LSF) including path loss, shadow fading (SF), and small-scale fading (SSF) including fading depth (FD), magnitude distribution and Rician distribution K-factor are analyzed. Then the cross-correlation characteristics of different channel parameters and receiving antenna numbers at 2.4 GHz and 5.9 GHz are systematically investigated. These researches provide some references to optimize antenna design and multi-link channel modeling of UAV to mobile vehicle communication systems in future intelligent transportation system (ITS).

A novel aerodynamic layout design of composite wing unmanned aerial vehicle based on canard configuration

With the development of information technology and technology, more and more cutting-edge industries have come into view of the public, among which one of the most representative technologies is UAV. The emergence of UAVs has reduced the labor cost of some businesses, such as farming, forest fire prevention, maritime patrol and so on. In response to the common problems of long preparation time and poor maneuverability of unmanned aerial vehicles, this paper studies the aerodynamic layout of unmanned aerial vehicles and proposes a new layout. Firstly, the aerodynamic layout of typical UAVs is introduced and compared and analyzed. Then, a new type of compound wing UAV is designed by screening and analyzing the wing, flight analysis, main wing and UAV production process with Reynolds number. Subsequently, simulation experiments were conducted to analyze and optimize the aerodynamic layout performance of the designed UAVs, thereby verifying the reliability of the proposed method.. Finally, the entire content is summarized and analyzed.

Analysis of the Pneumatics principles of several aircrafts

In recent years, the advancement of science and technology, particularly the development of flight control technology, has driven the progress of aircraft technology, which facilitates the rapid development of many kinds of aircraft. Pneumatics, the mechanics of gas flow, is used to study aerodynamics. In the design and manufacturing of aircraft, gas flow has a significant impact on the movement, control, attitude, stability, and other aspects of the aircraft. This paper describes the basic Pneumatics principles in aircraft design: aerodynamics is the discipline that studies the interaction between airflow and aircraft, it is the core foundation of aircraft external shape design, a pivotal discipline in overall design, and a prerequisite for conducting design analyses in fields, it plays a crucial role in aircraft design and force analysis for the aircraft, and this paper also introduces the aerodynamic layout design and aerodynamic characteristics of tilt-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), multi-rotor aircraft and bionic flapping wing aircraft, so as to offer some references for future study of air vehicles.

Smart Drone with Renewable Smart System

In order to lessen its negative effects on the environment and to maintain its future operations in a clear, renewable, and sustainable manner, the aviation industry has begun developing designs that are dependent on alternative energy sources but also friendly to the environment and conventional energy. Solar energy has been suggested as a potential remedy. Aerial vehicles driven by solar energy are viewed as essential to limiting the consequences of global warming. In this study, a MATLAB/Simulink environment is used to simulate a mathematical model of a solar-powered BLDC motor of a UAV. under photovoltaic (PV) array systems, the phrase "maximum power point tracking" (MPPT) is crucial to ensuring that, under specific circumstances, the connected systems receive the greatest power output. This study simulates "fuzzy logic control," one of the preferred MPPT methods, using a solar-powered BLDC motor for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design. The PV cell, MPPT, buck-boost converter, and BLDC motor models in the cascade structure are simulated, tested, and the results are compared to the DC motor technical data. As a result, despite changes in irradiance, the results of mathematical model simulation overlap with motor technical reference values. A mathematical model of a solar-powered BLDC motor for a UAV is created and simulated using the MATLAB/Simulink environment, in contrast to prior solar-powered BLDC motor literature efforts. The fuzzy logic control MPPT technique is preferred for adjusting the maximum power output at the solar cell, and a buck-boost converter structure is connected between the MPPT and the BLDC motor mathematical model. It is recommended for usage in solar-powered UAV designs in the future.

Experimental study on efficient propulsion system for multicopter UAV design applications

The usage of multicopter unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has increased for various military and civilian purposes. The choice of propulsion system of such a vehicle is crucial to fulfill the intended mission requirements. The present study focuses on evaluating the efficiency of propulsion system by experimenting with different motor, propeller and battery combinations. The connection between the electronic speed controller (ESC) signal, current, power, thrust and torque in relation to propeller size is determined. It is observed that regardless of battery capacity or motor type, the thrust and torque produced for a given motor speed (RPM) for a specified propeller are similar. The higher capacity battery with 6000 mAh, denoted as B2 battery, consumes less current and can attain higher motor speed to produce the required thrust force than a lower capacity battery with 3300 mAh, denoted as B1 battery. The most efficient propeller, 12 inches in diameter (P4 propeller), is observed to achieve efficiency levels of 12.9 % for the B1 battery and 11.4 % for the B2 battery. Similarly, the most efficient motor, 700 KV motor (M1), is determined to exhibit efficiency of 64.29 % when coupled with the B1 battery and 62.01 % when coupled with the B2 battery. It is identified that using the B2 battery results in an increased payload capacity of 5.82 N, compared to 2.02 N with the B1 battery. Furthermore, when considering both scenarios with and without payload, greater endurance is observed when B2 battery is used as opposed to the B1 battery.

Design and analysis of an electric tiltrotor unmanned aerial vehicle

The concept of tiltrotor aircraft has been around for over seventy years, but it was not until the last decade that the advancement in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology has made them a viable option. Although the design requirements of such UAV are complex and require careful consideration, the potential benefits are significant. Motivated by their potential capabilities, this paper aims to present a complete procedure for designing an electric tiltrotor UAV that incorporates the attributes of both fixed and rotary wing aircraft, including all necessary mathematical formulations. The paper explores the diverse aspects of the design and analysis of tiltrotor UAVs, from conceptual, preliminary, and detail design to aerodynamics, performance, and stability analysis. The detailed weight analysis is performed using six different methods from different references to assess their applicability for use with electric tiltrotor UAV. After designing and selecting the UAV components, an iteration process is performed to check and resize the estimated design parameters.

A real-time visual compass from two planes for indoor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)

Improving the accuracy of pose determination of UAVs in a Global Positioning System-denied (GPS-denied) indoor environment, visual Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (vSLAM) techniques have attracted more attention from scholars. RGB-D (Red Green Blue-Depth) camera is a widely used visual sensor as it can recognize unknown environments and behave accordingly, which is valuable for UAVs. However, high computational resources are often required in featureless and uncharacteristic indoor environments to achieve the robust performance of pose decisiveness. To solve this challenge, this paper presents a novel real-time visual compass to estimate the three Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) relative orientations of an RGB-D camera, where the surface-normals-based RANdom Sample Consensus Model (RANSAC) is integrated. In addition, the Manhattan World (MW) assumption is exploited to simplify perception tasks by giving a way of probabilistically modeling background clutter. The effectiveness of the proposed estimator is comprehensively evaluated based on depth datasets from different indoor man-made scenes. And a universal parameter setting of the model is determined. The experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of the visual compass with an average absolute rotation error under 2°. Additionally, the average time needed by the algorithm to process an image frame is under 20 ms, satisfying real-time requirements. The robust achievement by both accuracy and timing indicates that our outperformed state-of-the-art approaches can be more conducive to indoor UAV design.

Integrated Design and Flight Validation of Solar-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Structure and Propulsion System

The development of solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) primarily focuses on enhancing the efficiency of the propulsion system to minimize energy consumption during the conversion of valuable solar energy. However, due to the unique nature of UAV propulsion systems, there is limited cross-reference ability among existing solar-powered UAV systems. This paper proposes an integrated design approach for the propulsion system and UAV structure. Based on this approach, an overall design is conducted for the solar-powered UAV, including initial design goals and performance parameters. Aerodynamic layout design and performance estimation are carried out, and a prototype is fabricated and assembled for flight testing validation. The results demonstrate the significant importance of this approach in improving the efficiency of the solar-powered UAV propulsion system.

Integration and differentiation: comparison of photography behaviors using unmanned aerial vehicle data in China and Europe

The continuous improvement in the design and manufacture of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has enabled them to assist humans in aerial tasks. At present, UAVs are not only used for environmental data collection, but also used by photographers to take photos. As the popularity of consumer UAVs rises, an increasing number of tourists are transitioning from the traditional perspectives of mobile phone and hand-held camera photography to the aerial perspective of UAV photography. Therefore this study examines UAV photos and related data uploaded by photographers within China and Europe to the UAV forum SkyPixel by using cloud-based data from Microsoft Azure vision, and sentiment, social network and spatial analyses. In addition, this paper also investigates the commonalities and differences between the behaviors and preferences of photographers who utilize UAV photography recreationally. The results indicate that the core content of UAV photography revolves around three major themes: natural landscapes, destination transportation facilities, and the daily behaviors of people. However, photographers in China mainly exhibit neutral emotions, while European photographers display mostly positive emotions. Hot spots are concentrated in mature tourist areas, especially top destinations near waterbodies. This study fosters a new understanding of the emerging group of UAV users.

UAV-Aided Wireless Energy Transfer for Sustaining Internet of Everything in 6G

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are a promising technology used to provide on-demand wireless energy transfer (WET) and sustain various low-power ground devices (GDs) for the Internet of Everything (IoE) in sixth generation (6G) wireless networks. However, an individual UAV has limited battery energy, which may confine the required wide-range mobility in a complex IoE scenario. Furthermore, the heterogeneous GDs in IoE applications have distinct non-linear energy harvesting (EH) properties and diversified energy and/or communication demands, which poses new requirements on the WET and trajectory design of UAVs. In this article, to reflect the non-linear EH properties of GDs, we propose the UAV’s effective-WET zone (E-zone) above each GD, where a GD is assured to harvest non-zero energy from the UAV only when the UAV transmits into the E-zone. We then introduce the free space optics (FSO) powered UAV with enhanced mobility, and propose its adaptive WET for the GDs with non-linear EH. Considering the time urgency of the different energy demands of the GDs, we propose a new metric called the energy latency time, which is the time duration that a GD can wait before becoming fully charged. By proposing the energy-demand aware UAV trajectory, we further present a novel hierarchical WET scheme to meet the GDs’ diversified energy latency time. Moreover, to efficiently sustain IoE communications, the multi-UAV enabled WET is employed by unleashing their cooperative diversity gain and the joint design with the wireless information transfer (WIT). The numerical results show that our proposed multi-UAV cooperative WET scheme under the energy-aware trajectory design achieves the shortest task completion time as compared to the state-of-the-art benchmarks. Finally, the new directions for future research are also provided.