Development of Deployable Wings for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Compliant Mechanisms

<p>Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) have recently gained attention due to their increased ability to perform sophisticated missions with less cost and/or risk than their manned counterparts. This thesis develops approaches to the use of compliant mechanisms in the design of deployable wings for small UAVs. Although deployable wings with rigid-link mechanisms have been used in the past to maintain flight endurance while minimizing required storage volume, compliant mechanisms offer many advantages in manufacturability and potential space savings due to function sharing of components. A number of compliant, deployable wing concepts are generated and a classification system for them is formed. The pool of generated concepts serves as a basis for stimulating future concept ideas. A methodology is also proposed for evaluating concepts for a given application. The approach to developing compliant designs for certain applications is illustrated through two example designs, which demonstrate key portions of the proposed design process. Each is modeled and analyzed to demonstrate viability.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Grantor dc:publisher

Brigham Young University - Provo

Author dc:creator

• Landon, Steven D.

• Compliant mechanism
• deployable wing
• UAV
• compliance
• concept selection
• product design process
• classification
• mechanical bistable rotating locking joint
• instant center
• centrode
• design for manufacturability
• 4 bar kinematic linkage
• MAV
• folding
• rolling
• flexible wing
• Mechanical Engineering

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/952

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-1951