A Novel Architecture for Multipurpose Reconfigurable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV): Concept, Design and Prototype Manufacturing

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) - or drones - are expected to have an impact on the global market about US 2 billion by 2022 [1]. New technologies are expected to make possible applications like cargo transportation, agriculture support, publicity, pest control, surveillance, inspection, entertainment, and so on. Each one of the potential applications typically requires a robot with a particular physical structure (number and position of actuators, flight autonomy, impulse capacity, set of sensors, the capacity of communication, etc.). It is unthinkable today to consider the use of the same drone in such distinct applications. Paradoxically, the software for all these applications shares very similar processes. The capacity of physically reconfiguring a UAV would confer an enormous tactical and commercial advantage in this expanding market. This work proposes a novel architecture for reconfigurable multipurpose UAVs that allows the connection of some specialized modules that can make robots suitable to attend applications that require different robots today. This paper describes the fundamental electrical, mechanical and computational concepts of this architecture and presents a prototype manufactured according to these guidelines. The first tests with the prototype corroborate that the technology is feasible.

I. Introduction

The enormous interest of people in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) - also known as drones - is only a small example of the commercial impact that these aircraft will have in our industries in next years. The UAVs' global market is expected to reach US$ 2 billion by 2022 [1]. New technologies are expected to allow the use of aerial vehicles to cargo transportation [2] [4], agriculture support [5] [6], mapping [7] [8], pest control [9] [10], surveillance [11], [12], inspection [13] [14], entertainment [15] [16], and so on.