VTOL 4+1 (TFG)
My Final Year Project in Industrial Technologies Engineering was developed within the European Ocontsolar project. It focused on the development of a drone with a lifting surface for taking direct normal irradiance measurements in solar plants, capable of integrating into an autonomous drone fleet.
You can access the full text and the summary video in the papers section.
1. CFD analysis
The most suitable VTOL type for the application was studied according to the flight requirements. After developing preliminary CAD models, a CFD analysis was performed to determine which VTOL 4+1 subtype offered the lowest aerodynamic drag.
2. Solar Tracking Device
We had to investigate how to measure direct normal irradiance from the Sun and design a lightweight device capable of taking measurements at an appropriate speed under the conditions imposed by being mounted on a UAV. Additionally, it was necessary to determine the position of the Sun in the sky, considering the UAV's change in heading or attitude.
During this process, several daylight tests were carried out to analyse the accuracy of the measurements obtained with the adopted solution.
This was an exciting and completely new field for me, and I have continued working on and developing new devices with the same purpose.
3. CAD design
The fuselage of a commercial RC plane was digitized step-by-step to serve as the basis for designing the necessary parts and components to transform it into a VTOL UAV. You can see the process in more detail in the video above.
Final result after CAD design
4. Construction
Soldering, cutting, gluing, reprinting parts, adjusting tolerances, weighing, balancing, wiring, measuring temperatures, rebalancing, securing connections...
Final outcome following construction.
5. Software
The open-source ArduPilot platform was used as a starting point for controlling and stabilising the UAV. However, independent software was developed to send instructions from a ground base to the entire fleet of aircraft, aiming to manage information and instructions for the fleet in real time.
It was also necessary to develop embedded software for each UAV to manage instructions with the flight controller, the solar tracking device and its software, as well as the ground station used to control the fleet. All of this was handled through several processes running in parallel.
6. Simulations
It was demonstrated that the software developed for both the UAVs and swarm control is fully functional. I modified the ArduPilot software to simulate a fleet of drones, in this case VTOLs, and overlaid a cloud model to simulate in parallel the potential irradiance measured by the fleet aircraft.
7. Tests
Various flight tests and data validation were conducted, including parameters of the aircraft and measurements of direct normal irradiance taken during these flight tests.
Following this work, I developed significant improvements in the solar tracking devices, as well as in some parts and designs of the VTOL itself to enhance reliability. You can view one of the flight tests in the YouTube video (link ).