UAVs Able to Turn with Moving Weights’ Help

UAVs Able to Turn with Moving Weights’ Help

A MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle prepares to land after a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The Reaper has the ability to carry both precision-guided bombs and air-to-ground missiles. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson)

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Sampath Reddy Vengate, a recent MA graduate from University of Texas at Arlington in science and engineering, is the first person to successfully test an UAV that uses moving weights in its wings instead of traditional control surfaces to turn.

According to UTA’s website, uta.edu, Vengate used existing UTA research to design, build and test a UAV which uses weights that move back and forth within the wings to change the center of gravity from side to side and turn while airborne.

Vengate’s successful test could be important to future aircrafts because it would allow designers to eliminate ailerons and elevators, saving fuel and money.

Previous students of Atilla Dogan, an associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and leader of the research team, who also is Vengate’s graduate advisor, have studied how to control an aircraft in formation flight and during aerial refueling by redistributing fuel.

“We had shown that redistributing fuel between fuel tanks can be used to help trim the aircraft flying within the wake of another in aerial refueling or formation flight, which reduces or eliminates the need for deflection of control surfaces,” Dogan said. “In fact, the Concorde pumped fuel back and forth in its fuselage when it went supersonic to compensate for insufficient elevators.”

Vengate began his research by using a simulation environment created by another doctoral student, to test the feasibility and potential benefits of his theory in computer simulation.

Once the simulation showed that mass actuation could work, Vengate began designing his airplane using Computer Aided Design tools. He built it from scratch using a laser-cutter to create custom braces to form the wings and hold the actuators in place. His aircraft had ailerons, elevators and a rudder, in addition to the actuators in case the test failed. But he was able to successfully use the actuators to turn the aircraft.

“I was excited that my idea worked, and it’s even better that no one else has ever successfully applied this idea to an aircraft,” Vengate said. “I’m hoping to spend my career working with UAVs, and this is a great start.”