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Aerodynamics and Design for Ultra-Low Reynolds Number Flight

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This vehicle does not currently incorporate active control, but the planned control<br />

Chapter 7<br />

scheme is common to all of the prototypes. No tail rotor is used. Instead, torque balance<br />

in the yaw axis is maintained by having one pair of opposing rotors spinning clock-wise<br />

<strong>and</strong> the other opposing pair rotating counter-clockwise. Pitch <strong>and</strong> roll are controlled by<br />

using pairs of rotors along a perpendicular to the desired axis, accelerating one rotor<br />

while decelerating the other to generate the necessary moment. The stability <strong>and</strong> control<br />

of these vehicles, including the development of linearized dynamic models has been<br />

explored by Kroo [43].<br />

TABLE 7.1 Mass allocation <strong>for</strong> the 15g prototype electric rotorcraft.<br />

Electrical energy storage is a key issue <strong>for</strong> micro-rotorcraft. For a given chemistry,<br />

battery cell capacity is closely coupled to the volume, <strong>and</strong> volume is quickly lost as the<br />

linear dimensions are reduced. The mass of casings <strong>and</strong> other supporting elements<br />

relative to the mass of the actual electro-chemical elements of a battery cell also<br />

increases as cell size is diminished. For this particular vehicle, current commercially<br />

available batteries do not offer a feasible solution. Instead, the use of four one-Farad<br />

super capacitors were investigated, but the capacitors were incapable of maintaining<br />

sufficient voltage over the course of their discharge cycle [32]. The absence of a suitable<br />

on-board power source has limited testing of this prototype to externally powered hover<br />

tests with reduced degrees of dynamic freedom.<br />

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The fully assembled prototype, including super capacitors, has demonstrated the ability<br />

to generate sufficient thrust <strong>for</strong> hover while constrained to only yaw <strong>and</strong> vertical<br />

translation. The rotorcraft is powered by an external power supply <strong>and</strong> constrained by a<br />

vertical rod via a guide tube passing through the center of the vehicle. The voltage<br />

153

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