Dynamic Characteristics of a Rope with a Winder for Powering UAV

To ensure continuous, twenty four hour operation of a multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a powering rope, providing electrical power supply to the vehicle, is applied. The UAV flies over the board of a sea vessel and is equipped with a camera (vision) system. The vision system looks round the vessel to detect possible dangerous obstacles, that cannot be detected using standard collision avoidance systems, like AIS (automatic identification system) or marine radars. The powering rope is wound in the winder, mounted at the vessel's board. The winder maintains a prescribed tension in the rope to prevent it from loose hanging and consequently from chaotic movements in the wind. Model of rope's dynamics is formulated using the rigid finite element approach. Damping properties of the rope, as well as its aerodynamic lift and drag forces are included. Rope length reduction when winding is modelled. Finally dynamic characteristics of the rope are obtained and their importance for proper UAV flight control is demonstrated.