Research on safety drone with tilt-thrust propulsion mechanism instead of propellers

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21K18695
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 20:Mechanical dynamics, robotics, and related fields
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Nobuhara Hajime 筑波大学, システム情報系, 教授 (80359687)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 河合 新 筑波大学, システム情報系, 助教 (40803549)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-07-09 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: ドローン / サロゲートモデル / データ同化 / コアンダ効果 / 自己組織化マップ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purpose of this study is to propose a safe drone with a radically improved airframe structure and control design as a measure to positively promote drone utilization. More specifically, we proposed a new drone based on a propulsion mechanism using the coanda effect, instead of using a rotational propulsion mechanism (propeller), which accounts for most of the risk factors in drone accidents. The proposed propulsion mechanism has been assimilated with predictions from fluid simulations and thrust force measurements of the actual drone created by a 3D printer, and the optimal design mechanism was narrowed down using a self-organizing map. Furthermore, it was found that the granularity of the search space can be made finer by using the learning and prediction results from the surrogate model.

Free Research Field

計算知能・ドローン

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の成果は、これまでのドローンの回転機構によるリスクを払拭することができるので、プラント施設やインフラ施設の無人自律飛行による点検、植物工場やハウス内の無人点検、防除などあらゆる可能性が展開できる。学術的にみても、本研究で目的とするチルトスラスト機構は、従来のドローンの機構も包括した上で、今後のドローンのマーケットの潮流を大きく変革させることができ、学術的な意義および社会的意義を十分に有していると言える。