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Design and Flight Testing of the Ducted-fan UAV Flight Array System

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Abstract

This study proposes a ducted-fan flight array (DFA) system that can change the array based on the mission environment and validate the feasibility through ground and flight tests. This DFA can carry out normal formation flight as separated UAV members and can also cooperate as a single entity by physical connection. The ducted-fan unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is manufactured in-house and equipped with a connected surface and an assembly device on the side to perform connection and separation tasks. Moreover, the control system was designed using an open-source autopilot environment, and the communication environment for multi-UAV flight was constructed using the Robot Operating System (ROS). Then, ground and preliminary experimental tests verified the feasibility and performance of the DFA system for connected and separated flight.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by research fund of Chungnam National University.

Funding

This work was supported by research fund of Chungnam National University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Chungnam National University, 34134, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Taegyun Kim, Hoijo Jeaong, Seongyoung Kim, Inrae Kim, Seungkeun Kim & Jinyoung Suk

  2. School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, MK43 0AL, Cranfield, UK

    Hyo-Sang Shin

Authors
  1. Taegyun Kim
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  2. Hoijo Jeaong
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  3. Seongyoung Kim
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  4. Inrae Kim
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  5. Seungkeun Kim
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  6. Jinyoung Suk
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  7. Hyo-Sang Shin
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Contributions

T.G. Kim developed the ducted-fan flight array system and performed simulation and flight tests. H.J. Jeaong developed the connecting device and performed flight tests. S.Y. Kim and I.R. Kim developed the communication system. Finally, S.K. Kim, J.Y. Suk and H.S. Shin conceived of the presented idea. All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seungkeun Kim.

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Kim, T., Jeaong, H., Kim, S. et al. Design and Flight Testing of the Ducted-fan UAV Flight Array System. J Intell Robot Syst 107, 32 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-023-01821-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-023-01821-6

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