Reliable Actuators for Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)

"Recent advances and development efforts in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and sensor technologies have resulted in potential for increased capability in small and micro-sized UAVs. While advanced have been made in the capabilities of the vehicles and somesubsystems, a lack of emphasis has been placed on actuator technologies. Reduction in the size of the vehicle characteristically increases the vehicle dynamic frequencies. This has created a requirement for very lightweight and reliable miniatureactuators with higher bandwidth. This effort will result in a scalable actuator design that fills the current void in suitable actuators UAVs sized from approximately 3 to 12 inches. Actuator requirements for micro UAVs will be investigated includingapplications for fixed wing, rotorcraft and payloads. Technologies in various fields will be examined to determine what is the current state of the art and evaluate which technologies may be appropriate for micro UAVs. The resulting data will be used todesign a robust, high quality and scalable actuator for micro UAV applications. This effort will result in a design for a high quality actuator for micro UAV applications. Significant ongoing efforts in micro UAV development will benefit from acommercially available actuator. This will have the effect of extending micro UAV applications into new markets as the capability and cost improves. In addition small-scale actuators have wide use in