Multistage Mass Optimization of a Quadcopter Frame
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are swiftly achieving their distinction in the fields of defence and agriculture. Of all the UAVs, quadcopters are widely used due to their inherent advantages like easy control and manoeuvrability. The need to operate for
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Abstract Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are swiftly achieving their distinction in the fields of defence and agriculture. Of all the UAVs, quadcopters are widely used due to their inherent advantages like easy control and manoeuvrability. The need to operate for a longer duration under suitable payload is perhaps an exacting task. The flight time and efficiency of quadcopter typically rely on its weight. Among all the parts of a UAV, frame is the structural member that takes up the entire load. Since it constitutes up to 30% weight of the UAV, optimization of the UAV frame is highly recommended. To study this, weight of an off-the-shelf model is optimized using numerical schemes in two stages. In the first stage, optimization is done for the shape of the frame using Design of Experiments (DoEs). In the second stage, optimization is carried out for mass using topology optimization. Despite the considerable reduction of mass in the design of experiments, mass is further reduced in the second stage, i.e. topology optimization. Topology optimization yielded a complex-shaped model that is difficult to manufacture using traditional methods hence the optimized model is redesigned and validated using static structural finite element analysis. Keywords Static structural analysis · Design of experiments · Topology optimization and quadcopter frame
N. V. S. S. Sagar (B) · B. Esakki Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr. Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Chennai, India e-mail: [email protected] B. Esakki e-mail: [email protected] C. Udayagiri Wipro 3D, Bengaluru, India e-mail: [email protected] K. S. Vepa GITAM (Deemed to Be University), Hyderabad, India e-mail: [email protected] © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 N. Gascoin and E. Balasubramanian (eds.), Innovative Design, Analysis and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6619-6_19
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1 Introduction The research in the area of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (also known as drones) is significantly increasing due to its huge potentiality in discrete applications. Usually, the aerodynamic performance of the drone depends both on its mass and shape. Of all the types of UAVs, owing to its need for less regulation, quadcopters with four motors and four propellers are widely used. Hence, it is aimed to design a lightweight quadcopter structure by integrating the concepts of design optimization, topology optimization and fused deposition modelling. In the first stage of optimization, design optimization is carried out to identify the optimum set of input parameters that define the shape and mass of the quadcopter viz., shell thickness, frame height and arm width using Design of Experiments (DoE). Non-dominated Sorted Genetic Algorithm (NSGA) is used to identify the optimum set of parameters. Eventually, in the second stage, the mass is further optim
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