Camouflaged Miniature Air Vehicle - An Eagle Inspired Design

N Sai Srinivas*, Shiva Kumar**, Ch Naveen Reddy*, K Shanmukha Prasad^

*PG Student at JNTUH College of Engineering Hyderabad (Autonomous) Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India **Research Scholar at JNTUH College of Engineering Hyderabad (Autonomous) Kukatpally, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India ^B Tech Graduate from Symbiosis Institute of Technology and Science, Shameerpet RR dist Andhra Pradesh

E-mail: srinivas.think@gmail.com

Abstract. The objective of this project is to develop a Camouflaged Miniature Air Vehicle (MAV) inspired by an eagle. MAVs and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) which are used for military applications flying at low altitudes are often detected and destroyed since they take the form of small aircraft. MAVs and UAVs camouflaged like birds are difficult to detect and look natural in any territory. An MAV camouflaged like an eagle looks like a gliding native bird. In this project, biologically inspired flight is used as a framework to improve MAV performance since they operate in a similar flight regime to birds. Eagle is one of the most maneuverable and aerodynamically efficient bird, found in most regions of the world, has high gliding ratio and can reach high velocities. Aerodynamic advantages of wing with slotted winglets and gliding of eagle have been discussed and have been adopted in the design. A fixed wing MAV has been modeled similar to an eagle which inherits its aerodynamic properties and avoids detection by imitating in appearance. A radio controlled prototype is built with Styrofoam, reinforced with glass fiber using hand layup technique. The wing form, fuselage and tail have been modeled similar to the eagle. The model was flown, exhibited good flight stability, gliding properties and has taken the form of an eagle in appearance. Keywords: Camouflage, Eagle, Slotted wing tips, gliding, MAV Nature inspired design

Introduction
Miniature Air Vehicles and Micro Air Vehicles which are used for reconnaissance, surveillance and other military applications may need to loiter at significant altitudes to avoid detection, and thus require complex sensors to observe the target far below. MAVS and UAVs flying at low altitudes are often detected and destroyed since they take the form of small aircraft.

Miniature Air Vehicles camouflaged like birds are difficult to detect and look natural in any territory. Eagle being one of the most maneuverable and aerodynamically efficient bird which can soar for miles, It has high gliding ratio and can reach high velocities. Eagles are found in most regions of the world, an MAV which looks like an eagle flying above, would be natural and it can fly at low altitudes to get better data and return un noticed .Since the MAV can fly at low altitudes high resolution cameras and sensors need not be used as in case of UAVs Flying at high altitude. A Camouflaged Air Vehicle mimics a bird in appearance; it closely imitates bird during flight. A camouflaged MAV which are designed to appear like an eagle would be difficult to differentiate from a native bird. Aerodynamics of fixed wing MAV is simple and efficient than a flapping wing or a rotary wing MAV. Flapping flight is a far more complicated process than gliding. During flapping flight, the birds wings systematically change shape. Flapping involves up and down movement of the wings. During the down stroke (or power stroke), the wings move downward and forward. During the upstroke (or recovery stroke), the wings move upward and drawn in toward the body to reduce drag. During flapping flight, the wings also change their angle of attack depending on the stroke. Flapping flight is basically rowing in the air with the added complication that lift needs to be generated as well. A rotary wing MAV has an advantage of hovering but range and flight time are less compared to fixed wing MAV.

About The Eagle Aerodynamics

Eagles being one of the most aerodynamically efficient birds, it reaches high velocities and stays airborne for hours. Wingspan of a typical eagle Varies from 60 cm to 210. Salient features of eagle: a) High Lift to Drag Ratio Wings b) Slotted Wing Tips with sweep c) Variable Geometry wings d) Pointed nose

Figure 1: An eagle with fully stretched wings. High-speed bird wings, common to bird species like swifts, swallows, falcons, shorebirds etc. are built for speed, but require a lot of work to keep the bird airborne. The long and cumbersome, high-aspect ratio wings of these birds may not get them into the air quickly or easily, but these wings are perfectly designed for soaring long distances with little effort. In contrast, the short rounded elliptical game bird wings of a grouse, turkey, pheasant or quail can get them off the ground in a heartbeat, but the energy that it takes to lift that heavy body off the ground doesnt last long. The slotted, high-lift wing of hawks, eagles, swans and geese provides the extra lift that is needed to keep their large bodies airborne or to carry heavy prey. Birds such as eagles and osprey, which soar and glide. When soaring, the wings are fixed and rigid and act like those of conventional aircraft. For these fliers, flapping is restricted to limited operations, such as take-off, landing, and stabilization. Eagles have high lift wings with pin feathers at the ends that produce slotted wingtips. Biologists found that the pin feathers worked to reduce drag during gliding flight, as well as being used to provide roll control, in the same manner as ailerons on aircraft. Variable geometry wings aircrafts has taken inspiration over eagles (such as the golden eagle) that can reach the speed of 320 km/hr during a dive when they hold their wings close to their body in order to minimize the air resistance.

Gliding and Soaring of Eagles

Birds usually flap their wings to generate both lift and thrust. But if they stop flapping and keep their wings stretched out, their wings actively produce only lift, not thrust. Thrust can be produced by gravity force while the animal is descending. When this happens, we call them gliders. Eagles and other soaring birds appear to hang in the air effortlessly, gaining height with barely a twitch of a wing. Eagles with high lift-to-drag ratio wings generate a lot of lift without producing much drag. (Fig. 2)

Figure 2: An Eagle while gliding with its wings fully stretched.

To maintain level flight, a flying animal must produce both lift and thrust to balance the gravity force in the vertical direction and drag in the horizontal direction respectively. Because gliding occurs with no active thrust production, an animal always resorts to the gravity force to overcome the drag. In gliding, the animal tilts its direction of motion slightly downward relative to the air that it moves through. When the animal tilts downward, the resulting angle between the motion direction and the air becomes the gliding angle. The gliding angle directly controls the lift-to-drag ratio. The higher this ratio, the shallower the glide becomes. The lift-to-drag ratio increases with the Reynolds number, a parameter proportional to animal size and flight speed. Large flying animals fly at high Reynolds numbers and have a large lift-to-drag ratio. For example, a wandering albatross, with a wing span of over 3 meters, has a reported lift-to-drag ratio of 19, whereas the fruit fly, which has a span of 6 millimeters, has a lift-to-drag ratio of 1.88 Soaring flight is a special kind of glide, in which the bird flies into a rising air current. Because the air is rising, the bird can maintain its height relative to the ground without the need of flapping its wings. Instead of using gravity, Soaring uses energy in the atmosphere, such as rising air current.

The Physics of Gliding Flight in Birds

A steadily gliding bird, i.e. non-powered flight with fixed wings at a constant flight speed, converts potential energy to counteract the aerodynamic forces. It will glide at a certain horizontal forward speed and sink speed. The sink speed (Us) will depend on the birds weight, wing morphology and body shape (streamlining). Sink speed is calculated as: Us U sin, (1) where U is the angle of the glide path in relation to the horizontal (Fig.3). To standardize airspeed measurements, all speeds refer to equivalent airspeeds (UUtrue/0), where Utrue is the true

01.225kgm3 is the standard air density at sea level). At equilibrium gliding, the resultant of lift and drag balances the weight of the bird (mass gravity; mg). The lift component of the total force is directed perpendicular to the glide path. Note that lift in this case does not refer to the force keeping the bird aloft, but the force generated perpendicular to the wing surface (true lift). Lift is then given by: L mg cos . (1) Drag of the bird is directed backwards, parallel to the glide path and perpendicular to lift and is calculated as: D mg sin. (2)

Figure.3. Forces acting on a bird in equilibrium gliding. The glide path is inclined at an angle to the horizontal and the resultant of the vectors lift (L) and drag (D) is equal and opposite to the weight of the bird (mg). Total speed (U) involves the velocity component sink speed (Us), which is directed downwards and perpendicular to the horizontal.

Drag calculated in this manner represents the total drag of the bird. Drag of a flying bird is usually separated into three components: parasite drag, profile drag and induced drag. Parasite drag consists of friction and form drag of the body, caused when propelling the birds body through the air and is calculated as: Dpar Sb CD,par U2, (4)

Where is the air density, Sb is the body frontal area and CD,par is the parasite drag coefficient. Profile drag is the drag generated when moving the wings through the air and is calculated as:

Dpro Sw CD,pro U2,

(5)

Where Sw is the wing area and CD,pro is the profile drag coefficient. The third component is induced drag and is due to the downwash induced by the wings and tail of the bird when creating lift. Induced drag is calculated as: Dind 2kL2 b2U2, (6) Where b is the wingspan and k is the induced drag factor. k indicates how much the wing deviates from an elliptical lift distribution. This factor is typically set to 1.1 (e.g. Pennycuick, 1975; Pennycuick, 1989; Pennycuick, 2008; Rosn and Hedenstrm, 2001) Profile drag is the component of aerodynamic forces that has proved most difficult to measure (Pennycuick, 2008). Since the calculation of Dind is relatively well established and Dpar could be estimated from the wake (see below), Dpro could be estimated by subtraction as: Dpro D Dind Dpar. (7)

COEFFICIENTS OF LIFT AND DRAG: In order to make lift and drag of a particular bird comparable to those of others, the forces may be converted into dimensionless coefficients. These coefficients control for size of the bird, the flight speed and the air density. Lift coefficient is calculated as: CL 2L SwU2, (8) and drag coefficient is calculated as: CD 2D SwU2. (9)

Effect of multi / slotted winglets of an eagle

Eagles have high lift wings with pin feathers at the ends that produce slotted wingtips. It was found that the pin feathers worked to reduce drag during gliding flight, as well as being used to provide roll control, in the same manner as ailerons on aircraft the potential of multi-winglets for the reduction of induced drag without increasing the span of aircraft wings. (Fig 4) shows an eagle with slotted wingtips.

Figure 4: slotted wing tips of an eagle A substantial increase in lift curve slope occurs with dihedral spread of winglets set at zero incidence relative to the wing. Dihedral spread also distributes the tip vortex. Whitcomb showed that winglets could increase an aircraft's range by as much as seven percent at cruise speeds. The blended winglet of eagles reduces drag by eliminating the discontinuity between the wing tip and the winglet. Split wingtips of eagles are found to be highly effective. Vance Tucker, a biologist with an aerodynamics background, demonstrated that the tip slots of soaring birds reduce induced drag and increase the span factor of the wings. Researchers found that slotted tips of bird wings can have a strong effect on the aerodynamic yawing moment due to sideslip and, thus, on yaw stability. The sweep of slotted wing tips is of primary importance. It causes an aerodynamic yawing moment of considerable magnitude, being much larger than the same wing without sweep in the slotted tips would produce. Yaw Stability -The ability to generate an appropriate yawing moment in case of a sideslip disturbance is essential for the inherent stability with respect to this axis and, thus, for overall flight stability. The required level of aerodynamic moments for yaw stability in birds is a subject of recent research (Sachs, 2005a). While in aircraft yaw stability is primarily provided by the vertical tail, there is no such device in birds so that they have to rely on other mechanisms. Thus, the wing gains an increased importance as a means for producing a yawing moment large enough for efficient stabilization. Therefore, any wing feature which augments the ability to generate stabilizing yawing moments has a positive effect on flight stability Design and fabrication The main motive of the project is to make a MAV which looks like an eagle, inherits the aerodynamic properties and mimics its flight as a fixed wing aircraft. By choosing eagle as base airframe the MAV will have added advantage of longer flight time and better gliding characteristics compared to a regular aircraft with the same wing span.

Eagles flap their wings to generate both lift and thrust. But if they stop flapping and keep their wings stretched out, their wings actively produce only lift like a fixed wing aircraft but not thrust. For the fixed wing MAV a thrust source is required to maintain flight for long duration. An EDF (Electric Ducted Fan) system is used for propelling the model since, No moving parts like propeller should be visible outside, the EDF unit is placed inside the fuselage and necessary intake and exhaust vents are provided. The wing is the most critical part of the Camouflaged MAV. Apart from generating lift, the wing is responsible for the yaw stability. As discussed earlier, eagle wing has very complicated profile with multiple winglets at the end. It is the largest part of the MAV hence it should resemble an eagle in every aspect. The wingspan of the model is taken as 110 cm which is the average wingspan of an eagle found in Asia. Remaining components are scaled appropriately. Wing is fabricated using high density foam. The foam is reinforced with glass fiber cloth and carbon fiber tube is added along the spar to give added strength to the wing. The slotted wing tips/winglets are made of aluminum and are attached to the main wing. The fuselage with a head and beak in the front is made of foam, balsa wood and glass fiber the control surfaces design are scaled from an eagle. Fuselage is made hollow since it has to accommodate the propulsion system, battery, control system and payload. Fuselage is constructed using Styrofoam, balsa wood and fiberglass reinforcement is used in stressed areas on the fuselage. Horizontal stabilizer or tail of the aircraft is hinged at the exhaust of the EDF. Vertical stabilizer is not employed since the model attains yaw stability from slotted wing tips. The Legs and nose made out of balsa wood. A Li-Po battery (Lithium polymer) with 11.1 volts is used as power source. Special patterns are made on the surface for the plane, model is painted with brown and black paint making eagle like textures. Commercially available Ratio Transmitter and receiver are used for vision based control of the model which has a range of 1000m. Micro servos were used to activate the control surfaces i.e. ailerons and elevator.

Figure 5: Styrofoam Model of the MAV

Flight Test
We have successfully flown the Camouflaged MAV in multiple flight experiments, demonstrating stable and controlled flight. First flight lasted for around 11 min. The second flight test lasted much longer with 14 minutes flight time. The MAV had a stable flight and exhibited good yaw stability in spite of the rudderless tail. The model showed good gliding properties. Figure 5 shows the images of the MAV during flight and (Fig.6) shows image of an eagle. The two flyers i.e. the eagle and the Camouflaged MAV were identical.

Figure 6: Camouflaged MAV during flight tests captured at different altitudes.

Figure 7: Eagle captured from different altitudes A comparison can be made between eagle and MAV from (Fig.5) and (Fig.6) it can be concluded that the MAV has taken the form of an eagle in flight. Both eagle and the MAV look identical during flight

Conclusion and Future Work

A Camouflaged MAV mimicked from an eagle was successfully developed and flown; test flight results showed that a MAV camouflaged like a bird can deceive visually. Slotted wing tip and rudderless tail have been adopted successfully in the model. The method of camouflaging MAVS inspired by birds has shown positive results and can be adopted by MAVS and UAVS for secret operations. An Autonomous control system can be used for the guidance and control of Camouflaged MAV airframe. Nature inspired designs like eagle; hummingbird, swift albatross etc can be implemented in conventional aircrafts and MAVs. In future models flapping wing and variable wing geometry can be adopted which comes under different regime of aerodynamics and requires extensive study and research.

References
[1] Aerodynamics Of Gliding Flight In A Falcon And Other Birds By Vance A. Tucker And G. Christian Parrott ,Department of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina An Aerodynamic Analysis of Bird Wings as Fixed Aerofoils by Philip C. Withers Department of Biology, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207 Effect of slotted wing tips on yawing moment characteristics Gottfried Sachs, Mochammad Agoes Moelyadib Performance Analysis Of A Wing With Multiple Winglets M. J. Smith, N. Komerath, R. Ames, O. Wong, School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia And J. Pearson, Star Technology and Research, Inc., Mount Pleasant, South Carolina An Aerodynamic Analysis of Bird Wings as Fixed Airfoils by Philip C. Withers Department of Biology, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, Oregon 97207 Aerodynamics of Gliding Flight in Common Swifts P. Henningsson* and A. Hedenstrm, Department of Theoretical Ecology, Lund University, SE-223 62 Lund,

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Sweden Nature Inspired Design Application over aircraft design & geometry Authors: Vincent Audoire, Sahire Dogru, Chi-Ju Chiu M. Young, The Technical Writers Handbook. Mill Valley, CA: University Science, 1989. Chapter 2 Aerodynamics of Flapping Flight by Joel Guerrero Gliding Birds: Reduction of Induced Drag by Wing Tip Slots Between the Primary Feathers Vance A. Tucker Department of Zoology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27706, USA