Study of High Performance Propellers for Multi-Mission Micro Aerial Vehicle

摘要

Multi-Mission Micro Air Vehicle (MMMAV) is the new type of MAV that is capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), hovering, low speed translation, and high forward speed. Currently, there are two developed MMMAVs: the MiniVertiGo and the MAVion. MAVion is a tandem propeller system, whereas MiniVertiGo is a coaxial propeller system. Both of them perform VTOL, hovering, and forward flight. However, their aerodynamic and flight efficiency are slightly low since the operation range is largely wide (from 0 m/s to above 15 m/s). One of the barriers is a propulsion system that is optimized only for hovering or forward flight, depending on the selection. This project introduces and investigates the new propulsion system for MMMAV. The new coaxial propeller is studied; and the performance and efficiency are compared with the original coaxial propeller used by the MiniVertiGo. The result proves that this new coaxial propeller exhibits higher efficiency than the original MiniVertiGo propellers. Power required to perform vertical flight is reduced from 70-90 Watts to 55-60 Watts. In addition, the energy needed for horizontal forward flight at 15 m/s decreases from 61 Watts to 50 Watts.