Design of a New Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Cyclocopter

摘要

A cyclocopter propelled by a cycloidal blade system is a concept of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle that has excellent hovering characteristics. The cycloidal blade system, which can be described as a horizontal rotary-wing, offers good thrust levels and a unique ability to change the direction of the thrust almost instantly. In this study, an unmanned, scaled cyclocopter was designed and developed by an optimization process. Flight experiments and numerical analyses were performed to show that the cycloidal blade system can be used as a viable propulsion system. The experimental results of the cyclocopter show good agreement with analytical predictions showing its potential as a VTOL vehicle.