Novel Conductive Polymer Skins for Morphing UAVs

GVD Corporation (GVD) proposes to develop highly-conductive, thermally-activated shape-memory polymer skins for morphing UAVs. These skins are based on GVD’s novel electrically-conductive polymer technology, which imparts low electrical resistivity to the skins. Conductive skin manufacture is simple, scalable, and easily inserted into current manufacturing processes. Conventional conductive skins suffer from poor mechanical properties and inhomogeneous heating (which leads to skin damage). GVD’s 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 I, a range of conductive skin formulations will be developed and screened. The most promising candidates will then be selected for mechanical testing to ensure their tolerance of real-world flight conditions. GVD’s conductive skin manufacturing approach will then be optimized in Phase II for prototyping and more rigorous testing in simulated flight environments.