Novel Conductive Polymer Skins for Morphing UAVs

GVD Corporation proposes to develop electrically-conductive skins for morphing UAVs. These skins make use of GVD’s innovative coating technologies, which impart low electrical resistance to the skins. GVD’s approach to conductive skin manufacture is simple, scalable, and easily inserted into current manufacturing processes. The proposed solution preserves the desired deformability of the skin and enables efficient morphing. Further, the electrical properties of the GVD skin are not adversely impacted by significant in-flight deformation. In Phase II, the most promising Phase I conductive skin fabrication methods will be optimized for prototyping, and skins made using these methods will be incorporated with morphing structures and subjected to rigorous testing in simulated environments. BENEFIT: GVD’s conductive skin fabrication approach is applicable to many types of deformable polymeric materials, which could be tremendously important to the growing morphing air vehicles industry. Specifically, these skins can be used for RF signature reduction, EMI shielding, lightning strike protection, and structural health monitoring, among other Air Force applications. GVD’s conductive coatings technology has numerous commercial applications as well, such as in “smart” fabrics (e.g., for wearable electronics), EMI shielding gaskets, ESD materials, and biomedical implants.