Rapid UAV Manufacturing for HADR

When natural or manmade disasters occur, immediate humanitarian assistance and disaster relief is critical. Solutions have been developed and effectively utilized to transport supplies to regions that have experienced disasters; however, distributing those supplies to the people in need continues to be a problem. CRG and manufacturing partner RCO Engineering will develop and implement a kitted multirotor UAV solution that uses proven rapid manufacturing processes and a high domestic part content to delivery significant sized payloads for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. CRG’s team will leverage existing multi-rotor UAV kits (TRL 4) with an emphasis on component compatibility with high rate production materials and processes. CRG personnel have significant experience with low cost UAV kits. The approach to the CRG UAV kit will include simplifying the design to reduce part count, and thus increase assembly rate. The main UAV frame will be compression molded as it is a process highly proven in rapid manufacturing, with low costs once the initial tooling cost is obtained. A key advantage to compression molding is the frame can be designed and molded for integrated assembly, meaning attachment features for wires, motors, and other electronics are molded into the frame. RCO has proven experience in designing compression molded parts to reduce part count as well as high volume production experience with compression molding of structural aerospace hardware. For the payload, lightweight boxes of varying sizes with a common attachment feature will be utilized. This will allow for differing payload weights and volumes. Landing gear will be located near the propellers for maximum payload area under the UAV. Battery choice will be critical as standard drone batteries will not sustain a ten kilometer round-trip flight. The BB2590, already in use by the Department of Defense, is a top consideration. Battery considerations will be informed by CRG’s Power and Energy Systems Center. As thousands of drones will be needed to carry supplies, the typical camera/pilot setup will be replaced with an autopilot. Considerations for autopilot are PX4, Arduino, and Asymmetric. CRG is exploring strategic collaborations with Asymmetric for integration of the IronClad UxS controller.  The choice of motors and propellers will be informed by CRG’s AeroSystems Center.  For each component, an effort will be made to find a minimum of three suppliers. Suppliers with a certified quality system will be preferred suppliers. Vendor assessment surveys will be sent to all possible vendors in order to gauge their readiness level for high volume low lead-time orders, quality and on-time delivery metrics, and history with delivery of high volume orders. Phase I will culminate with build and testing of a prototype UAV to demonstrate flight range with the desired payload (TRL 5), as well as a rapid manufacturing plan that can be utilized for high rate production.