NEXTGEN AERONAUTICS, INC. — Department of Defense STTR Phase I: A22B-T008

Description

The basic idea of a morphing aircraft wherein the vehicle changes its configuration to optimally perform in multiple flight segments holds the promise of achieving unprecedented levels of efficiency.  Morphing is most promising for small UAVs and taking inspiration from birds, we can exploit large shape changes, rapid inertia changes, articulation etc., to fly in congested urban and indoor spaces, in gusty and turbulent conditions, and other challenging environments. Currently, there is a lack of analytical tools which can be used to rapidly and efficiently analyze, and evaluate multiple configurations and morphing strategies to develop an optimal SUAV design. Hence our primary focus is the development, demonstration, and validation of a design framework for reconfigurable air vehicles that allows free exploration of a wide range of morphing concepts. Our uncoupled fluid-structure aeroelastic analysis provides, in a fully parallelized fashion, rapid performance predictions for multiple vehicle configurations.  In Phase I we will develop V1.0 of the SPARRO software and validate it with realistic examples. In Phase II we will develop successfully more capable and improved versions, and beta-test at multiple independent sites, culminating in a fully operational, easy-to-use product for developing novel, avian-inspired, Group 1 and 2 UAVs