Version 1
: Received: 28 September 2021 / Approved: 29 September 2021 / Online: 29 September 2021 (09:50:49 CEST)
How to cite:
Macias, G.; Lee, K. Design and Analysis of a Helium-Assisted Hybrid Drone for Flight Time Enhancement. Preprints2021, 2021090483. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0483.v1
Macias, G.; Lee, K. Design and Analysis of a Helium-Assisted Hybrid Drone for Flight Time Enhancement. Preprints 2021, 2021090483. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0483.v1
Macias, G.; Lee, K. Design and Analysis of a Helium-Assisted Hybrid Drone for Flight Time Enhancement. Preprints2021, 2021090483. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0483.v1
APA Style
Macias, G., & Lee, K. (2021). Design and Analysis of a Helium-Assisted Hybrid Drone for Flight Time Enhancement. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0483.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Macias, G. and Kooktae Lee. 2021 "Design and Analysis of a Helium-Assisted Hybrid Drone for Flight Time Enhancement" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202109.0483.v1
Abstract
In this paper, a new design of a helium-assisted hybrid drone is proposed for flight time enhancement. As is widely known, most of the drones with a VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) feature have a short operation time, limiting their capability to carry out sustainable operations for the given missions. Thus, with the clear goal of enhancing the flight time, this study aims to develop a hybrid drone system, where a helium balloon is used to provide a lifting force for this purpose. The proposed design for the hybrid drone has several benefits including easiness to manufacture and relatively small size when compared to other types of hybrid drones. Various analyses are conducted for the design of the hybrid drone system including the balloon shape and size, buoyant force, flight time, and connector design. Since stability and performance are one of the most important issues for the new design, the pole location analysis is conducted based on the control theory. This rigorous analysis provides that the proposed hybrid drone design is stable as well as robust against swinging motions. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed design and flight time enhancement, simulations were conducted and experimental results are also provided using the manufactured hybrid drone system. Through the real experiments, it is proved that the hybrid drone can increase the flight time more than 2.5 times while guaranteeing stable motions.
Keywords
Hybrid Drone; Helium UAV; Drone Design; Flight Time Increase; UAV Stability and Performance Analysis
Subject
Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.