Winged drone impact study

Abstract

The Swedish Sea Rescue Society (SSRS) is planning to start using a remotely piloted UAV with a camera to gain faster access to information about active accident sites in the archipelago. With images from the accident site, decisions about the size of rescue boats can be made more effectively and provide a psychological advantage for the personnel. The UAV that has been developed is of the flying wing type constructed in EPP, which is a soft foam material. As the UAV in many cases will need to fly beyond the operator's line of sight, the Swedish Transport Agency requires SSRS to present a risk assessment according to a format called SORA (Specific Operations Risk Assessment). SSRS is currently in the final stages of the assessment where potential risks associated with the use of the UAV are being examined. In a previous thesis conducted for SSRS, the risks of potential skull fractures in humans if the UAV were to fall were investigated, but no previous studies have been conducted on the potential impact of the UAV on other aircraft in the event of a collision until now. Interviews with Fredrik Falkman at SSRS and former helicopter pilot Paul Hedrén, as well as a literature review, were conducted. With information from these sources, potential aircraft that the UAV could theoretically encounter in the airspace over the archipelago and their most sensitive components were determined. Technical documents from helicopter manufacturers were also used to determine safety factors during loads. A mathematical collision model was established for the UAV and its collision scenarios with the various critical components. The different components were then modeled in Catia V5 or retrieved from CAD libraries online to be used in collision simulations in Ansys Workbench using the LS-DYNA plugin tool. In Ansys, several different collision scenarios were created for each component depending on the angles of incidence and velocity directions for the different components. The results show that the UAV, with its lightweight and soft foam material, as well as the durable materials of helicopters, should not cause any damage to critical components in the event of a collision. For the future, real tests should be conducted using a test rig where the UAV can be propelled towards materials of the same type as the used collision components to see if the simulated results are accurate.