The UNAV, a Wind-Powered UAV for Ocean Monitoring: Performance, Control and Validation
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icra_2018_with_reviews.pdf
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Author(s)
Bousquet, Gabriel David Elie Sylvain
Triantafyllou, Michael S
Slotine, Jean-Jacques E
Date Issued
September 2018
Journal
2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Citation
Bousquet, Gabriel D. et al. "The UNAV, a Wind-Powered UAV for Ocean Monitoring: Performance, Control and Validation." 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2018, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), September 2018 © 2018 IEEE
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Wind power is the source of propulsive energy for sailboats and albatrosses. We present the UNAv, an Unmanned Nautical Air-water vehicle, that borrows features from both. It is composed of a glider-type airframe fitted with a vertical wing-sail extending above the center of mass of the system and a vertical surface-piercing hydrofoil keel extending below. The sail and keel are both actuated in pitch about their span-wise axes. Like an albatross, the UNAv is fully streamlined, high lift-to-drag ratio and generates the gravity-cancelling force by means of its airborne wings. Like a sailboat, the UNAv interacts with water and may access the full magnitude of the wind. A trim analysis predicts that a 3.4-meter span, 3 kg system could stay airborne in winds as low as 2.8 m/s (5.5 knots), and travel several times faster than the wind speed. Trim flight requires the ability to fly at extreme low height with the keel immersed in water. For that purpose, a multi-input longitudinal flight controller that leverages fast flap actuation is presented. The flight maneuver is demonstrated experimentally.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1109/icra.2018.8462893
