INCREASED SPEED AND ENDURANCE OF ADVANCED MULTI-COPTERS THROUGH THE USE OF SIDE THRUSTERS

The Aqua-Quad is a quad-copter designed to float on the ocean, deploying an acoustic sensor at depth, in support of anti-submarine warfare operations, filling the same role as a sonobuoy but with added air mobility. It uses a solar array for power production to gain energy independence, but the array degrades cruise flight performance. The addition of horizontal side-thrusters is explored, with the objective of improving cruise flight efficiency, increasing both speed and range. A subscale quad-copter, representative of Aqua-Quad, is flight tested to prove the feasibility of the side-thruster concept. A secondary controller is designed to autonomously operate the additional motors using ArduPilot’s Lua scripting capability. Final flight tests are conducted on the subscale model configured with a mock solar array. The implementation of side-thrusters effectively regulates the pitch of the vehicle to zero in cruise flight, reducing the pitch angle required at the maximum cruise speed by more than 20 degrees. The vehicle is more efficient when using side-thrusters at high cruise speeds, reducing the required power by about 20% at the maximum tested cruise speed, and higher cruise speeds were possible with the addition of side-thrusters. Lua scripting within ArduPilot proved to be an effective means of implementing an autonomous secondary controller as the vehicle maintained proper control authority during all tests.

Department dc:contributor.department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE)

Grantor dc:publisher

Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Nafus, Samuel A.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jones, Kevin D.

Statement dc:rights

• This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/73194

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/73194