Reconfigurable Architecture Drone [RAD]

Cyberjaya - May 31

This White Paper / Research Article elaborated the Reconfigurable Multipurpose Drone Architecture (RMDA), which is a modular architecture for UAVs with electrical, mechanical, and computational specifications. The theoretical aspects of the architecture are introduced through practical implementations aiming to design a multi-rotor UAV. Our architecture can be used in a scenario where the capacity of physical reconfiguration of a UAV would have an enormous advantage to these aircraft in terms of applicability. This happens in the case where each task typically requires a robot with a particular physical architecture (number and position of propellers, autonomy, thrust, sensors, and communication). The (RMDA) methodology allows applications in a variety of scenarios like cargo transportation, support, agriculture, publicity, pest control, surveillance, inspection, and entertainment, among others. In these scenarios, although software with some generic components could easily control drones to perform all of them, it is unthinkable to consider that a single drone with a particular physical structure would be able to be adapted to all of the tasks necessary (as path following, localization, and mapping). Results of a set of tests with an aircraft assembly are presented to verify the versatility of the proposed architecture, demonstrating the better performance of these aircraft when compared with conventional UAVs. For example, If an organization buys an agriculture drone or surveillance drone, that drone can only be used for that particular application. RMDA drones, on the other hand, can be interconnected to assemble a particular physical architecture for a particular application. This will also benefit economically for many commercial and non-commercial applications such as agriculture, surveillance, construction, search and rescue oil and mining, delivery, etc. Imagine, if amazon started to deliver their package using drones today. If they only use one type of drone their delivery reach will be very limited. If they want to increase their reach, they need to gain a new type of drone, which will be capital intensive. But with RMDA drones, the organization can Customization the drone base on multiple geographical and non-geographical factors.

The main advantage of this architecture is modularity: an arbitrary number of propulsion modules (or eventually any new modules with grippers, advanced sensors, and so on) can be easily and quickly attached to the system without the need to rebuild the whole UAV. Considering the actual maturity of the UAV technologies, this generality could confer a strategic advantage to companies that can support multiple tasks. As the main disadvantage of the architecture, we emphasize the loss of efficiency due to the overweight caused by extra connectors, wires, and other devices. Depending on the desired configuration, the addition of some additional modules or connectors may be necessary to assure mechanical robustness or to provide electrical or data paths. We also proposed three distinct part models for this UAV. In the conducted simulation tests, a quadrotor has shown: i) mechanical robustness, ii) the capacity to properly share data and power among the modules, and iii) the capacity to take off and land, proving the feasibility of the RMAD. It is important to remark that in the proposed propulsion module, we embedded a motor that drew up to 20A. However, the propulsion module, as specified, would easily support more powerful motors that would draw up to 50A (the maximum current limited by wires and connectors in the propulsion module). Also, our simulation test results suggest that the proposed quadcopter will be able to fly with high volume batteries with any number of propulsion modules greater than 3 and sustaining design.

As future works, highlight

• The proposition of new architectures for multirotor drones, possibly incorporating new constructive technologies (chassis in carbon fiber, for instance);

• Development and tests of specialized modules, such as modules of specialized sensors (3D laser scanner, sonars, and others), manipulators (with distinct types of grasping), specialized propulsion modules (with directional propellers, contra-rotating propellers, and others), dispensers, sprinklers, and so on;

• The study of classical and intelligent flight control techniques that could be applied to flexible structures UAV;

• Development of new architectures based on RMDA that could improve the current architecture.

full White Paper Research article:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16mtR9RAHNgGvBBdjdzC-h3N5YZC_EmSc/view