• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.513-520
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• 2014

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) should be designed to be as small and lightweight as possible to optimize the efficiency of changing the blade shape to enhance the aerodynamic performance, such as the thrust and power. In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of an unmanned multi-rotor aerial vehicle in hover mode was performed to explore the thrust performance in terms of the blade rotational speed and blade shape parameters (i.e., taper ratio and twist angle). The commercial ADINA-CFD program was used to generate the CFD data, and the results were compared with those obtained from blade element theory (BET). The results showed that changes in the blade shape clearly affect the aerodynamic thrust of a UAV rotor blade.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.343-352
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• 2016

A multi-rotor vehicle is an unmanned vehicle consisting of multiple rotors. A multi-rotor vehicle can be categorized as tri-, quad-, hexa-, and octo-rotor depending on the number of the rotors. Multi-rotor vehicles have many advantages due to their agile flight capabilities such as the ability for vertical take-off, landing and hovering. Thus, they can be widely used for various applications including surveillance and monitoring in urban areas. Since multi-rotors are subject to uncertain environments and disturbances, it is required to implement robust attitude stabilization and flight control techniques to compensate for this uncertainty. In this research, an advanced nonlinear control algorithm, i.e. sliding mode control, was implemented. Flight experiments were carried out using an onboard flight control computer and various real-time autonomous attitude adjustments. The feasibility and robustness for flying in uncertain environments were also verified through real-time tests based on disturbances to the multi-rotor vehicle.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.9
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• pp.752-761
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• 2014

With increasing of interest in quad-rotor which has excellent maneuverability recently, a various types of multi-rotor aircraft was developed and commercialized, and there are many kinds of leisure products to be easily operated. In these products, the AR.Drone manufactured by Parrot has an advantage that it is easily operated by user due to the its internal stabilization loop in the on-board computer. Thus it is possible to design the unmanned UAV system easily by using this AR.Drone and its inner loop for the stabilization. For this advantage, KARI(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) has been developing the indoor swarming flight system by using multiple AR.Drones. For this indoor swarming flight, it is necessary that not only the position controller for each AR.Drone, but also the collision avoidance algorithm. Therefore, in this paper, the collision avoidance controller is provided for the swarm flight by using these AR.Drones.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.153-165
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• 2014

Multi-rotor UAVs are utilized in various fields because of the advantages such that a hovering capability such as helicopters, a simple structure and a relatively high thrust. Recently, AR.Drone manufactured by Parrot is easily operated by beginner due to its internal stabilization loop in the on-board computer and it can be easily applied on various researches for the multi-rotor UAVs by providing an SDK(Software Development Kit). Further this platform can be suitably used for application to swarm flight since it is low cost and relatively small. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the development process of the controller for indoor swarm flight by using the AR.Drone.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2014

This paper describes the conceptual design and development test procedure of a unmanned scaled-down personal air vehicle(PAV) with drive and flight dual mode capability. Trade studies on operational requirements led to the suggestion of a quad tilt prop platform which has nacelle tilt capability with multi rotor configuration. Motors for propeller propulsion and driving mechanism were integrated into a single nacelle, then they were implemented by nacelle tilt mechanism for conversion between the drive and the flight modes. Primary design parameters and initial specifications were confirmed through conceptual design, then functional tests were performed with the test platforms for the drive and the flight modes.