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Autonomous UAV Aerodynamic Performance Analysis for the Near-Ship Environment

Award Information

Agency:
Department of Defense 		Branch:
Navy 		Award ID:
83404 		Program Year/Program:
2007 / STTR
Agency Tracking Number:
N074-004-0095 		Solicitation Year:
N/A 		Solicitation Topic Code:
N/A 		Solicitation Number:
N/A
Small Business Information
Combustion Research and Flow Technology,
6210 Kellers Church Road Pipersville, PA -
View profile »
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
 
Phase 1
Fiscal Year: 2007
Title: Autonomous UAV Aerodynamic Performance Analysis for the Near-Ship Environment
Agency / Branch: DOD / NAVY
Contract: N00014-07-M-0401
Award Amount: $69,948.00
 

Abstract:

The proposed research program aims to develop an efficient, high-fidelity simulation tool for ship-board flight testing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that provides a computational testbed for UAV design, autonomous control system design, and UAV/Ship integration analysis. The envisioned flight simulation approach will employ a library of existing high fidelity ship airwake datasets generated via CFD, coupled to a reduced-order aerodynamic model by an unsteady boundary condition. Offline models for the rotor disk loading, autonomous controllers, etc., can be linked to the aerodynamic model to predict the reaction of the UAV system to the unsteady ship airwake environment. Phase I will develop and demonstrate a simulation approach for a small UAV configuration recovering to a ship. Reduced-order aerodynamic modeling approaches including panel methods, one-way coupled Euler CFD, and one-way coupled Navier-Stokes CFD, will be evaluated. The relative fidelity and efficiency of the three approaches will be compared to a fully coupled CFD simulation of the same UAV/Ship combination. Experiments will be performed to demonstrate the capabilities to gather detailed data for validation of the numerical models. The proposing team consists of CRAFT Tech and Prof. Lawrence Ukeiley of the Research and Engineering Education Facility (REEF) at the University of Florida.

Principal Investigator:

Jeremy D. Shipman
Research Scientist
2157661520
shipman@craft-tech.com

Business Contact:

Neeraj Sinha
Vice President & Technical Director
2157661520
sinha@craft-tech.com
Small Business Information at Submission:

COMBUSTION RESEARCH & FLOW TECHNOLOGY, INC.
6210 Keller's Church Road Pipersville, PA 18947

EIN/Tax ID: 232759059
DUNS: N/A
Number of Employees:
Woman-Owned: No
Minority-Owned: No
HUBZone-Owned: No
Research Institution Information:
UNIV. OF FLORIDA-REEF
Dept. of Mech and Aero Eng
1350 N. Poquito Road
Shalimar, FL 32579
Contact: Lawrence Ukeiley
Contact Phone: (850) 833-9350
RI Type: Nonprofit college or university