Proceedings ArticleDOI
Development of the Black Widow Micro Air Vehicle
Joel Grasmeyer,Matthew Keennon +1 more
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A Multidisciplinary Design Optimization methodology with a genetic algorithm was used to integrate the MAV subsystems and optimize the vehicle for maximum endurance.Abstract:
This paper describes the development of the Black Widow Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) over the past 4 years. An MAV has generally been defined as having a span of less than 6 inches, and a mass of less than 100 grams. The Black Widow is a 6-inch span, fixed-wing aircraft with a color video camera that downlinks live video to the pilot. It flies at 30 mph, with an endurance of 30 minutes, and a maximum communications range of 2 km. The vehicle has an autopilot, which features altitude hold, airspeed hold, heading hold, and yaw damping. The electronic subsystems are among the smallest and lightest in the world, including a 2gram camera, a 2-gram video downlink transmitter, and a 5-gram fully proportional radio control system with 0.5-gram actuators. A Multidisciplinary Design Optimization methodology with a genetic algorithm was used to integrate the MAV subsystems and optimize the vehicle for maximum endurance. Some of the potential missions for MAVs are visual reconnaissance, situational awareness, damage assessment, surveillance, biological or chemical agent sensing, and communications relay. In addition to these military missions, there are several commercial applications, such as search and rescue, border patrol, air sampling, police surveillance, and field research.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Challenges Facing Future Micro-Air-Vehicle Development
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the terms rotor disk area, sectional drag coefficient, and zero-lift drag coefficient for rotor disk areas, where the sectional coefficient is defined as the ratio of the area of the rotor disk to the length of the chord length.
Journal ArticleDOI
Aerodynamics of small vehicles
TL;DR: In this article, the aerodynamic problems that must be addressed in order to design a successful small aerial vehicle are described, including the effects of Reynolds number and aspect ratio (AR) on the design and performance of fixed-wing vehicles.
Journal ArticleDOI
Autonomous Vehicle Technologies for Small Fixed-Wing UAVs
Randal W. Beard,Derek Kingston,Morgan Quigley,Deryl Snyder,Reed Christiansen,Walt Johnson,Timothy W. McLain,Michael A. Goodrich +7 more
TL;DR: A feasible, hierarchal approach for real-time motion planning of small autonomous flxed-wing UAVs by dividing the trajectory generation into four tasks: waypoint path planning, dynamic trajectory smoothing, trajectory tracking, and low-level autopilot compensation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Flapping flight for biomimetic robotic insects: part I-system modeling
TL;DR: The system dynamic models which include several elements that are substantially different from those present in fixed or rotary wing MAVs, namely micromechanical flying insects (MFIs), are described.
Journal ArticleDOI
Low Aspect Ratio Aerodynamics at Low Reynolds Numbers
TL;DR: In this article, a study of the lift, drag, and pitching moment characteristics of low aspect ratio operating at low Reynolds numbers is presented, which includes comparison of lift-curve slope, nonlinear equation approximations, maximum lift coefficient, and center of lift.
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Proceedings ArticleDOI
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Proceedings ArticleDOI
Design of a Mechanism for Biaxial Rotation of a Wing for a Hovering Vehicle
TL;DR: The goal of this work is to design a light-weight compact mechanism that flaps the wings, inspired from the wing motion of hummingbird and hovering insects, to generate enough lift for the vehicle to hover.