• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.226-230
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• 2010

In this paper, the performance of an electric powered small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle which has a battery and electric motor is analysed. Aerodynamic data is obtained through flight test and flight performance is predicted. As a result, we present the optimum flight speed for the maximum endurance and predict endurance and range according to the variation of flight speed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.65-70
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• 2010

A small unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV), which uses a propulsion system consisting of electric motor and battery, weighs less than 8 kg, capable of hand launch. Because it is easy to operate and able to transmit image information in real time, the use of small UAV has been increasing. However, very few analysis methods or analysis results on flight performance of the small UAV have been known so far. In this paper, the performance analysis methods of a small UAV, which is manufactured to study an electric powered UAV, are suggested and their results are achieved. Aerodynamic data of the vehicle are obtained by making use of gliding performance from actual flight test, and required thrust and required power by flight speed are predicted. In addition, the methods to predict range and endurance in case of using battery as power source are suggested and their results are achieved.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.140-147
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• 2017

This paper describes the design and implementation of previously developed PMU (Power Monitoring Unit) for LiPB (Lithium-ion Polymer Battery) that is electric propulsion used as unmanned aerial vehicle's power source. Improved PMU provides stable voltage and current to various sensors and elctric motors necessary during flight. Voltage and current monitoring function that is measured by improved PMU more precisely be enhanced and the monitoring channel and temperature sensor is added. To verify the improved performance of the equipment, it is integrated to electric propulsion system of unmanned aerial vehicle. PMU is calibrated through the ground test. And PMU's performance is checked through the flight test.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.17-37
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• 2022

This paper discusses an improved unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, configuration characterized by telescopic booms to optimize the flight mechanics and fuel consumption of the aircraft at various loading/flight conditions.The starting point consists of a full-composite smaller UAV which was derived by a general aviation ultralight motorized aircraft ULM. The present design, named ToBoFlex, extends the two-booms configuration to a three tons aircraft. To adapt the design to needs relevant to different applications, new solutions were proposed in aerodynamic fields and materials and structural areas. Different structural solutions were reported. To optimize aircraft endurance, the innovative concept of Telescopic Tail Boom was considered along with two different tails architecture. A new structural configuration of the fuselage was proposed. Further consideration of hydrogen fuel cell electric propulsion is now being studied in collaboration between the Polytechnic of Turin and Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University which could be the starting point of future investigations.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.623-640
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• 2017

The full nonlinear equations of an unmanned aerial vehicle ground taxiing mathematical dynamic model are built based on a type of unmanned aerial vehicle data in LMS Virtual.Lab Motion. The flexible landing gear model is considered to make the aircraft ground motion more accurate. The electric braking control system is established in MATLAB/Simulink and the experiment of it verifies that the electric braking model with the pressure sensor is fitted well with the actual braking mechanism and it ensures the braking response speediness. The direction rectification control law combining the differential brake and the rudder with 30% anti-skid brake is built to improve the directional stability. Two other rectifying control laws are demonstrated to compare with the designed control law to verify that the designed control is of high directional stability and high braking efficiency. The lateral displacement increases by 445.45% with poor rectification performance under the only rudder rectifying control relative to the designed control law. The braking distance rises by 36m and the braking frequency increases by 85.71% under the control law without anti-skid brake. Different landing conditions are simulated to verify the good robustness of the designed rectifying control.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.11-17
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• 2019

In this paper, the performance of a small fixed wing unmanned aerial vehicle is predicted theoretically with the minimum specifications and a low Reynolds number. Based on the results, it was compared with the results of an actual flight test and simple electric motor wind tunnel test. As a result of the validity of the analysis, a 3.5 kilograms class fixed wing small UAV can predict aerodynamic performance by general theory analysis. However, the required thrust was analyzed as a possible design error. Based on the results of this study, this paper proposed a method to minimize the design error when developing small fixed wing UAV flying in a low Reynolds number.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2014

This paper presents the trade-off study of conducting a survey of the weights for various kind of propulsion systems installed in the Smart Unmanned Aerial Vehicle TR-100, a tilt-rotor vehicle, which is developed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute, in order to predict the appropriate propulsion system for present and future Personal Air Vehicle, which has single mode and vertical take-off & landing. In order to perform the trade-off study, we set the requirements that the vehicle hovers for 1 hour with 1,000 kg maximum take off weights. In this study, the power systems are classified engine, which uses the fossil fuel - turboshaft engine, piston engine, diesel engine and rotary engine, and electric motor with fuelcell or Li-Ion battery. The results of trade-off study shows the power systems using fossil fuel are superior to using fuelcell or Li-Ion battery for weight of propulsion system. Also turboshaft engine is the best power system for the aspects of system weight, and the nexts are rotary engine, piston engine, diesel engine, electric motor with Li-Ion battery, and electric motor with fuelcell.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.79-86
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• 2010

The characteristics and classification of UAV power plants were studied. The energy source for electric generation and power source for internal combustion engine for UAVs were compared. The advantage and drawbacks of power plants were analyzed respectively and the performance demand condition was suggested for next generation UAV power plant finally.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.51-56
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• 2015

This paper presents the procedure of drag prediction for EAV-1, based on a numerical analysis correlated to an in-flight test. EAV-1, developed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute, is a small-sized UAV to test a hydrogen-fuel cell power system. The long-endurance test flight of 4.5 hours provides numerous in-flight data. The thrust and drag of EAV-1 during the flight test are estimated based on the wind-tunnel test results for EAV-1's propeller performance. In addition, the CFD analysis using a commercial Navier-Stokes code is carried out for the full-scale EAV-1. The computational result suggests that the initial CFD analysis substantially under-predicts the in-flight drag in that the discrepancy is up to 27.6%. Therefore, additional investigation for more accurate drag prediction is performed; the effect of propeller slipstream is included in the CFD analysis through "fan disk" modelling. Also, the additional drag from airplane trim and load factor that actually exists during the flight test in a circular path is considered. These supplemental analyses for drag prediction turn out to be effective since the drag discrepancy reduces to 2.3%.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.252-261
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• 2023

Analysis of dynamic characteristics and flight vibration test for unmanned aerial vehicles was studied by using dummy test body. The FEM model for dummy test body was supplemented by results of modal and random vibration test. The free end boundary condition to simulate flight environments was made by test setup using bungee cable. Prior to the flight vibration test using a dual electric vibration exciters, the test procedure to calculate quantitative vibration level was studied by using military specification. The actual test was successfully done by using the analysis and pretest results. From the analysis results, it was possible to determine the feasibility of the test by predicting the excitation force of the flight vibration test and to get the response of any point which could not be measured by the test. The results of this study will much contribute to the Test and Evaluation of unmanned aerial vehicles.