1 / 8

Micro Air Vehicle Requirements Challenges

Micro Air Vehicle Requirements Challenges. Gilbert Islas Feb. 25, 2012 SYSM 6309. What are MAVs ?. A micro air vehicle (MAV) is a class of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Size restrictions and may be autonomous. Modern craft can be as small as 15 cm. Development is driven by:

emma-blackwell
Download Presentation

Micro Air Vehicle Requirements Challenges

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Micro Air VehicleRequirements Challenges Gilbert Islas Feb. 25, 2012 SYSM 6309

  2. What are MAVs? • A micro air vehicle (MAV) is a class of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). • Size restrictions and may be autonomous. • Modern craft can be as small as 15 cm. • Development is driven by: • Commercial applications (Hobby, Real Estate) • Research • Government and Military • Allows remote observation of hazardous environments inaccessible to ground vehicles. • Insect-sized aircraft expected in the future.

  3. History • Early 1990s: MIT Lincoln Labs builds concept model of tiny EO reconnaissance system. The CIA is interested in an insect-like platform for covert ops. • 1993: RAND Corporation studies sensor-carrying insects. • 1995: DARPA holds micro air vehicle technology workshop. Leads to $35M contract. • Loose requirement definitions. • What are the stakeholder objectives? • 1997: DARPA narrows vision for MAVs to be used by the individual soldier. • Reconnaissance, surveillance, battle damage assessment, targeting, nuclear, or biological substances.

  4. Preliminary Requirements • Micro Air Vehicles are “less than 15 cm”. • What does this mean? • Can it be a sphere, cylinder, or cube? • Can an MAV have moving parts (propellers and rotors) that extend beyond 15 cm? • Conduct real-time imaging. • Ranges up to 10 km. • Speeds of up to 30 mph. • Missions are 20 minutes long. • Technical requirements derived from conventional flight vehicles. • MAVs are not governed by the same aerodynamic principles.

  5. The Quest for a Useful MAV: WHY MAVs? • DARPAs vision was for outdoor use. • Environmental flight limitations(i.e. High Winds). • Is this system tactically practical? • A 15 cm MAV can support a maximum 15 cm antenna = 2 GHz frequency range. • Requires Line-of-Sight transmission. • Case Scenario • MAV is sent to a distance of 1 km to “look over the hill” • Hill is 30 m tall and at a distance of 60 m from MAV. • Requires altitude of more than 500 meters (1640 FT) to maintain line-of-sight! • Far out of sight and earshot of observers, even at 10x the size. So.... Why are MAVs needed when UAVs accomplish the same need??

  6. New Use Cases and Requirements • Size is important in indoor and confined spaces. • MAVs can navigate buildings, tunnels/caves, bunkers, etc. • Key Requirements: • Small size, slow flight, ability to navigate without GPS. • Must be able to fly, be controllable, and have useful endurance. • Critical implications for efficient aerodynamic structure and weight. • Surface area is limited. • Focus on propulsive power and energy density of fuel. • Controllable by operator or autonomous. • Self-stabilizing, “Inner Loop Control” • Direction control, “Outer loop control”

  7. Recommendations • Do not develop requirements until a useful use case scenario is identified. • Do not let the technology define the need. • Not all technology is scalable or makes sense. • Classical aerodynamics break down at small scales. • Reynold’s number takes effect (air is more viscous). • Use “Biological inspiration” engineering rather than “Biomimicry”.

  8. Video and Sources • NanoQuadrotor Swarm Behavior Literature Source Michelson, R. C. 2010. Overview of Micro Air Vehicle System Design and Integration Issues. Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering. Web Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_air_vehicle http://angel-strike.com/entomopter/EntomopterProject.html http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1111

More Related