I-Corps: Novel morphing drones with variable spanning and sweeping transition modes

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力基于一种多功能变形无人机，该无人机能够通过结合几种单一传统无人机的能力来优化性能。 与市场上现有的无人机相比，多功能变形无人机的推出将潜在地降低采购成本和存储空间，携带大型有效载荷，保持飞行稳定性，并提高续航能力。该技术将在农业、野生动物或林业监测等应用中发挥潜在的作用，这些应用需要覆盖大面积的高性能、大有效载荷能力和多任务能力。I-Corps项目进一步开发了一种具有跨越和扫描能力的多功能变形无人机。这种设计的新奇源于无人机在过渡期间具有吊杆稳定性的跨越和扫掠能力。所提供的概念的主要目的是设计一种最佳的无人机，可以根据定义的使命改变其尺寸。变形无人机过渡模式的稳定性是设计和飞行评估的挑战性步骤之一。因此，提出了一种新的概念，改变机翼和机身的尺寸。这种方法可以提高无人机的性能，扩大其飞行范围，增强其隐身能力，减少阻力，增加其续航力和有效载荷，并减少振动不稳定性。这种设计的优势不仅来自于最终的扩展形式，而且来自于过渡阶段。在机翼展开过程中，重心与翼展的增加无关，特别是在机翼几乎为矩形的情况下，这不会显著改变重心沿纵向轴线的位置沿着。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is based on a multifunctional morphing drone that is capable of optimizing performance through combining the capabilities of several single traditional drones. Compared to the existing drones in the market, the introduction of a multifunctional morphing drone will potentially reduce purchasing cost and storage space, carry large payloads, maintain flight stability, and improve the endurance. This technology will potentially be useful in applications such as agriculture, wildlife, or forestry monitoring where there are large areas that need to be covered with high performance, large payload capacity and multi-mission capabilities.This I-Corps project further develops a multifunctional morphing drone with spanning and sweeping capabilities. The novelty of this design originates from spanning and sweeping capability of the drone with boom stabilization during transitions. The main purpose of the offered concept is to design an optimal drone that can change its dimensions according to the defined mission. The stability in transition mode of morphing drones is one of the challenging steps for design and flight assessments. Consequently, a new concept that changes the dimensions of the wings and fuselage is proposed. This methodology can result in an improvement in the drones' performance, expansion in its flight range, enhancement of its stealth capability, reduction in drag, increase in its endurance and payload, and reduction in vibrational instability. The advantages of this design do not only come from the final expanded form, but also from the transitional phase. During the expansion of the wing, the center of gravity is independent of the increased spanning, especially in the case of an almost rectangular wing shape, which is not significantly altering the center of gravity position along the longitudinal axis.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.