Co-Design Optimisation of Morphing Topology and Control of Winged Drones

• Main Authors: Bergonti, Fabio, Nava, Gabriele, Wüest, Valentin, Paolino, Antonello, L'Erario, Giuseppe, Pucci, Daniele, Floreano, Dario
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 10-10-2024
• Subjects: Computer Science - Robotics
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2309.13948

2024 International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) The design and control of winged aircraft and drones is an iterative process
aimed at identifying a compromise of mission-specific costs and constraints.
When agility is required, shape-shifting (morphing) drones represent an
efficient solution. However, morphing drones require the addition of actuated
joints that increase the topology and control coupling, making the design
process more complex. We propose a co-design optimisation method that assists
the engineers by proposing a morphing drone's conceptual design that includes
topology, actuation, morphing strategy, and controller parameters. The method
consists of applying multi-objective constraint-based optimisation to a
multi-body winged drone with trajectory optimisation to solve the motion
intelligence problem under diverse flight mission requirements, such as energy
consumption and mission completion time. We show that co-designed morphing
drones outperform fixed-winged drones in terms of energy efficiency and mission
time, suggesting that the proposed co-design method could be a useful addition
to the aircraft engineering toolbox.