Group 5 UAV Recovery and Handling via Robust Stowable Sponson

Diversified Technologies Inc. (DTI) proposes to develop a recovery system for Group 3 through 5 UAVs consisting of a stowable sponson assembly mounted on the port and/or starboard outside the hull of large ships such as ESB. The sponson is a semi-rigid truss-cable structure of high-strength composite materials. The direction of recovery is parallel to the ship’s keel and could be stern-to-bow or bow-to-stern depending upon operational and environmental conditions. The sponson serves as the UAV runway by supporting a carriage which can be customized for each aircraft. The components of the recovery system: sponson, UAV manipulator, energy storage, power systems, and controls are mounted to the ship. The sponson assembly is a cable system consisting of support trusses, a main Drive cable for motive force (deceleration) and two Support cables for the UAV and carriage. The carriage has an on-board high precision guidance system for the UAV that provides precise landing control for UAV recovery. The carriage system will be designed for UAV capture with and without landing gear, and an articulating arm enables rapid unmanned UAV loading/unloading from the carriage. The power system rapidly accelerates the carriage as the aircraft descends so that it matches the aircraft horizontal speed, which eliminates any deceleration shock occurring in conventional arrestor systems. The landing energy is recovered by the drive motor acting as a generator, storing energy in a flywheel. The recovery power system is driven by two independent synchronous motor/generators with variable motor speed drives. The DTI recovery system can also be implemented on land as a test bed, for training, or as a transportable recovery system. In Phase I, DTI will develop a preliminary design for the complete recovery system and demonstrate the key elements of the motor control and cable system stabilization. DTI will analytically calculate and numerically simulate various realistic recovery profiles, including evaluating the stresses on the aircraft and mechanical systems, and impact on ship mission performance. In the Phase I Option, DTI will demonstrate scaled system performance of the entire recovery process with a land-based sponson and a surrogate UAV payload. DTI will build the entire scaled cable arrangement and power system, but without the flywheel motor generator. DTI has extensive experience in the complex high-power and high-speed motor controls required to implement this UAV recovery system, minimizing the power flow to and from the ship. DTI also has transitioned to Phase III (delivering 120+ units) a landing beacon transmitter as an aircraft recovery aid on Navy aircraft carriers.