Addressing the Flight Duration Issues for Micro Air Vehicles - Innovative Concepts and Prototypes for Importing Energy into the System

摘要

Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) are used extensively in both military and civilian scenarios to perform Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations. A primary design challenge for these MAVs is to provide increased endurance, thereby allowing them to perform their ISR mission for increased time periods. In collaboration with the United States Air Force Academy, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the University of Texas at Austin, a six-Cadet design team researched techniques for achieving persistent (long duration) ISR capability of MAVs. Innovative conceptual and function-based design techniques were implemented to address this problem. This design process provided a framework for the genesis of innovative ideas for propulsion, aerial refueling, energy management, aerodynamics, and more. Far-field analogy methods were implemented resulting in new design directions for improved endurance of the MAV. The research specifically focused on aerial refueling concepts to include novel approaches to capturing and transferring energy. The concepts developed included both near-term solutions using current technology and futuristic concepts requiring further advancement of technological capabilities. The concepts were analyzed for feasibility and improved mission capability, with one concept potentially yielding unlimited ISR duration for the MAV. This concept involved coating the MAV with a consumable substance, so that a UAV could deposit fuel onto an MAVs surface to refuel while in the air. Another concept showed possibilities for compressed gas and chemical reactions as alternative energy sources. This paper details both the design process as well as preliminary concept variants, basic feasibility analysis and alpha-level prototypes for further research.