Design and analysis of an unmanned small-scale air-land-water vehicle

• Main Author: Arhami, Arhami
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General); TA630-695 Structural engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2193/1/24p%20ARHAMI.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2193/2/ARHAMI%20WATERMARK.pdf; http://eprints.uthm.edu.my/2193/

The designs of small-scale unmanned aerial, land and water vehicles are currently being researched in both civilian and military applications. However, these unmanned vehicles are limited to only one and two mode of operation. The problems arise when a mission is required for two and three-mode of operation, it take two or three units of vehicles to support the mission. This thesis presents the design and analysis of an Unmanned Small-scale Air-Land-Water Vehicle (USALWaV). The vehicle named as a “three-mode vehicle”, is aimed to be an innovative vehicle that could fly, move on the land and traversing the water surface for search and rescue, and surveillance missions. The design process starts with an analysis of requirements to translate the customer needs using a Quality Function Deployment (QFD) matrix. A design concept was generated by developing an optimal configuration for the platform using QFD with a non-exhaustive comparison method. A detailed analysis of the concept followed by designing, analyzing and developing main components of the drive train, main frame, main rotor, rotor blades, control system, transmission system, pontoon mechanism and propeller system. Further, the analysis was done to determine the vehicle weight, aerodynamics, and stability using several software; SolidWorks, XFLR5, and Matlab. Then, the model of USALWaV has been fabricated, tested and successfully operates using remote control system. The final USALWaV configuration is main coaxial rotor 460 mm in diameter, propeller diameter 85 mm, weighing 550 grams; it is capable of hovering and flying with forward speed between 0 and 0.7 m/s, move forward and backward speed between 0 and 0.11 m/s, and operation speed between 0 and 0.47 m/s on the water surface. It is powered by an Xtreme Lithium Polymer battery, and has an endurance of 10 minutes. The main contribution of this design results is provide a new concept of an unmanned vehicle system in three-mode of operation i.e. in air, land and water surface.