Joseph Davis
(Advisor: Prof. Mark Costello]

will propose a doctoral thesis entitled,

Topology for Modular Reconfigurable Unmanned Rotorcraft

On

Friday, March 25 at 1:00 p.m.
Montgomery Knight Building 317
 

Abstract
Traditional air mobility capability development consists of defining a set of requirements and subsequently designing an aircraft that satisfies these requirements.  Once designed, the overall structure or topology of the aircraft is fixed.  That is, the aircraft has certain fixed physical dimensions, number of rotors, number of engines, etc.  It is not possible to vary the topology of the machine.  The diversity of missions that can be performed and the operational capability of the aircraft is specified by the performance characteristics (payload, range, endurance, ceilings, maximum speed, etc) of this single aircraft.  The fundamental unit of capability lies at the aircraft level.  This research takes a different approach where a core set of components (fuselage, rotor, power plant, etc) will define the fundamental units or modules of the air mobility system. The modules will be designed so that they can be quickly connected to other modules to create a wide range of aircraft configurations with different capabilities ranging from simple and inexpensive fixed pitch quad copters to high-speed tilt rotors to expansive multi-rotor configurations designed to efficiently transport a wide variety of payloads.  This concept will be explored for autonomous missions targeted for nominal payloads around 500 pounds across ranges as far as 500 statute miles.  Trade studies will be conducted for major design features to include the propulsion system, connection mechanics, rotor systems, and payload modules. The performance and operating costs of various configurations will be compared to those of traditionally designed aircraft to quantify the advantages and adverse impacts of using a modular reconfigurable rotorcraft topology. The following three contributions will be made by the proposed research:

• Assessment of Modular Reconfigurable Rotorcraft for Autonomous Cargo Delivery
• Assessment of Modular Reconfigurable Rotorcraft for Unmanned High-Speed Rapid Response Missions
• Comparison of the Cost Effectiveness of Modular Reconfigurable Rotorcraft versus Traditionally Designed Rotorcraft based on Mission Spectrum Distributions

Committee

• Prof. Mark Costello – School of Aerospace Engineering (advisor)
• Prof. Jonathan Rogers – School of Aerospace Engineering
• Prof. Graeme Kennedy – School of Aerospace Engineering
• Prof. Brian German – School of Aerospace Engineering