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A Vtol Small Unmanned Aircraft System to Expand Payload Capabilities

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A Vtol Small Unmanned Aircraft System to Expand Payload Capabilities A VTOL SMALL UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM TO EXPAND PAYLOAD CAPABILITIES Steven Geuther∗, Francisco Capristan∗, Jason Kirk∗, Racheal Erhard∗∗ ∗NASA Langley Research Center , ∗∗ University of Denver Keywords: UAS Design, VTOL, UAM, Package Delivery Abstract airplanes that takeoff and land horizontally or with assistance, and vertical takeoff and landing One of the goals of Unmanned Aerial Systems (VTOL) vehicles. (UAS) is to increase the capabilities of flight Fixed-wing vehicles use wings as the main vehicles while maintaining small airframes that component to generate lift. Ultimately, the aero- are also lightweight. Private package deliv- dynamic and propulsive components have a large ery companies and government agencies have an effect on the payload capabilities. Fixed-wing ve- interest in vehicles that have large payload to hicles tend to have larger payload to weight ratios weight ratios; thus allowing to deliver heavy pay- than other configurations. The main disadvan- loads. Currently, UAS configurations suffer from tage of this type of vehicle is the large takeoff propulsive and aerodynamic limitations that de- distances required. This is often addressed by us- crease the payload weight and/or mission range. ing special takeoff equipment such as catapults. In order to decrease these limitations, the Kinetic Inside the category of VTOL vehicles, there and Potential Energy Alternation for Greater Lift are multirotors and vehicles that transition from Enhancement (KP EAGLE) concept provides a VTOL to horizontal fixed-wing flight (forward novel way to transport payloads that may be too flight). The design of multirotor configurations, heavy for vehicles in a similar weight class. The due to the lack of wings, focuses on propellers concept vehicle takes off vertically without the and motor selection in order to generate lift; thus, payload. It then performs a dive maneuver that the payload capabilities are determined by the transfers the gained potential energy into kinetic amount of thrust that can be generated by the mo- energy to pick up the payload. This concept does tors. Finally, a VTOL vehicle that can transition not require special equipment during takeoff or to forward flight has the potential of having better landing and provides a better payload to weight range due to the aerodynamic benefit of having ratio than other conventional vehicles in the same wings. In order to increase payload capabilities, weight class. multiple propulsors are often used. This paper presents a novel vehicle configura- 1 Introduction tion inspired by nature that has payload to weight ratios typical of fixed-wing vehicles but can take- In the emerging market of Urban Air Mobil- off and land vertically. This vehicle is called ity (UAM)[1], package delivery through the air the Kinetic and Potential Energy Alternation for has become appealing for easier and quicker ac- Greater Lift Enhancement (KP EAGLE) configu- cess. However, there are limitations in the pack- ration. This unique concept allows the vehicle to age weight and distances that can be covered by takeoff like a VTOL vehicle, transition to forward current Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS). Most flight, and use the vehicle momentum and aero- UAS vehicles fall into two categories: fixed-wing dynamics to snatch a payload at high speeds and 1 STEVEN GEUTHER, FRANCISCO CAPRISTAN, JASON KIRK, RACHEAL ERHARD angle of attack. The maneuver to pick up the pay- landing equipment can be used to deliver pay- load enables heavier payloads that can currently loads to and from rural areas since it does not only be delivered by drones that require catapults. need special equipment such as a catapult or paved runways. Companies such as Zipline2 have 2 Background proposed and implemented concepts that deliver medical supplies to rural areas by using a fixed 2.1 Motivation wing UAS. This type of concept is revolutioniz- ing humanitarian relief by using ideas being de- For companies like Google and Amazon or gov- veloped in the package delivery arena. ernment agencies like the Department of Defense Another potential market alternative is sci- (DOD) and NASA there has been an interest in ence missions proposed by NASA. Payloads can the capability of heavy lift for a specified range. be taken from one location to another with rel- In order to do this, the traditional way is to add ative ease. This type of approach would benefit more power to the aircraft, which in turn adds science missions where multiple samples from a to the overall weight and often size of the ve- variety of locations are desired. hicle. There is a unique gap in development of non-complex vehicles that are capable of provid- 2.3 Prior Examples ing substantial lift with a reasonable range. A vehicle able to takeoff and land with minimum There are different vehicles and ideas that ex- equipment and deliver heavy payloads while be- plore the delivery of heavy payloads (large pay- ing able to cover large distances can increase the load to weight ratios). Some of the vehicles that capabilities of UAS delivery. have been explored for heavy lift aircraft includ- ing the Boeing LIFT vehicle [3], which is large in size and must have tethered power for a long 2.2 Market endurance (greater than 18 minutes). The design Package delivery companies such as Amazon are showcases a modular quadcopter to accomplish a focusing on using drones to deliver payloads that higher payload capability by increasing the size 3 weigh 5 lbs or less. This is because approxi- and power options. Another company, Flytrex, mately 86% of packages delivered by Amazon utilizes a family of multicoptors that are rated are in that weight range.1 This means that 14% at different capabilities in order to overcome the of packages will not be able to be delivered by needs of the consumer. Flytrex’s largest vehi- a drone. Although the number of large payloads cle maxes out on payload at 6.6 lbs with a range (greater than 5 lbs) represent a smaller percent- of 5.4 nautical miles. Although Flytrex has sur- age of deliveries, a drone with those capabilities passed the payload capability, the range of the ve- could more effectively cover the available pack- hicle is low. Finally, Zipline has successfully im- age delivery market or increase the range of pack- plemented package delivery using an automated ages delivered at 5 lbs or less. In addition, in or- catapult launched fixed wing vehicle capable of der to deliver to a large portion of the US popula- 3.3 lbs of payload with a range of 80 nautical 4 tion (greater than 50%) through Amazon, DHL, miles. Some of the potential improvements for Walmart, and Target an approximate range of 180 the Zipline concept include handling heavier pay- nautical miles is desired [2]. loads and eliminating the need for a base to assist Another important market is humanitarian re- in takeoff and landings. lief. A vehicle that requires simple takeoff and 2http://www.flyzipline.com 3http://www.flytrex.com/ 1https://www.theverge.com/2013/12/1/5164340/delivery- 4https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608034/blood- drones-are-coming-jeff-bezos-previews-half-hour- from-the-sky-ziplines-ambitious-medical-drone-delivery- shipping in-africa 2 A VTOL Small Unmanned Aircraft System to Expand Payload Capabilities Nature has also provided a plausible solu- that a vehicle that can mimic bird-like maneuvers tion to delivering ‘heavy’ payloads. Birds of to pick up payloads mid-flight has the potential prey have weight carrying capabilities that ex- of having a high payload to weight fraction, a ceed their body weight [4]. Table1 shows the medium range, and it would not need complex weight carrying capabilities for some selected equipment for takeoff and landing. This is in birds of prey. These birds of prey can carry more part due to the fact that lift generated is a func- than their own body weight. This is in part, tion of velocity, so the faster a vehicle flies, the possibly, because they can acquire the payload greater lift force is generated. The bird-like ve- during flight, avoiding a power intensive takeoff. hicle would take the beneficial aspects of each of Thus, an UAS that is able to replicate some of the other types of vehicles and combine them into this behavior could potentially provide payload a single vehicle by utilizing the maneuver. to weight ratios similar to the ones obtained by birds of prey. Table 2 Vehicle comparison. Payload Ground Table 1 Weight carrying capabilities of selected Weight Range Ops birds. Fraction Complexity Approx. Body Approx. Weight Multicopter Medium Low Low Weight (lb) of Item (lb) Fixed-Wing High High High Pallas’s fish VTOL Low High Low 8 13 eagle Bird-like High Medium Low Bald 14 15 eagle 3 Vehicle & Mission Requirements Steller’s 19 20 sea eagle The main requirement of the proposed vehicle is to ensure that it can be used practically anywhere There are previous vehicles that have been while providing a payload to weight ratio that designed to behave like birds of prey by capturing exceeds what other vehicles in the same weight a payload during flight. In particular, the GRASP class can achieve. In order to operate nearly any- Lab at University of Pennsylvania has proposed where, the proposed vehicle must be able to take- a concept that can grab a payload at slow speeds off and land with minimal assistance. A fixed- [5]. This vehicle is a quadcopter and is able to wing VTOL configuration would satisfy the cri- capture the payload while flying at 4.5 and 6.7 teria of operating nearly everywhere but would miles per hour. This speed is slow but provides a not be able to deliver higher payload to weight point of reference of the current state of the art in ratios than multicopters because VTOL vehicles grabbing payloads mid-flight.
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