New York: The US Army will soon be able to deploy autonomous aerial vehicles or drones, that can change shape during flight, thanks to new research that led to the development of a key tool.
The capability to change shape during a flight will help optimise performance of the vehicle through different phases of flight.
"Consider a mission where the vehicle needs to get quickly to station, or dash and then attempt to stay on station for as long as possible, or loiter," said Francis Phillips, an aerospace engineer at the US Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory.
"During dash segments, short wings are desirable to go fast and be more maneuverable, but for loitering segments, long wings are desirable to enable low power, high endurance flight."
The new tool will enable the structural optimisation of a vehicle capable of such morphing while accounting for the deformation of the wings due to the fluid-structure interaction, he said.
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The findings of the study by researchers with the US Army Research Laboratory and Texas A&M University were presented at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aviation Forum and Exposition's virtual event this week.