Micro Munition Adaptive Structure Flight Control Technology

Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAV) provide an important military and civilian capability to very rapidly deploy an aerial platform for surveillance and observation with minimal resources (i.e. single operator).  As a surveillance platform they can be used for reconnaissance, target identification, assessing bomb damage, search and rescue, locating survivors, etc.  The development of effective MAVs for these surveillance missions and strike missions will require simple, light, power efficient actuators that can be used for control and to morph the aircraft to fit a broader flight envelop as needed by the mission.  Radiance proposes to develop a piezoelectric actuator based on the proven concept of Post Buckled Pre-compressed (PBP) actuators as have been implemented in UAV design.  This actuator will provide an aero-surface morphing capability as well as control surface action to replace current servo technology.  Actuators of this kind have been shown to be simple, lighter and require less power than traditional actuation systems; all aspects that improve the aircraft performance. BENEFITS: Development of a simple, light and power efficient actuators for control surface actuation and aero-surface morphing in MAVs enhances the performance of this class of UAV.  Higher performing MAVs are potentially attractive for civilian surveillance applications such as search and rescue.  Further technology of this kind may be applied to small scale recreational RC aircraft.