Design, Build and Testing of the MAVRIK with Distributed Electric Propulsion

What is it about?

This paper describes the design of MAVRIK, an unmanned aircraft capable of vertical take-off and landing using Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP). An analytical approach shows how required battery power changes with rotor diameter and amount of overlap between the different rotors. It is shown that with overlapping propellers the required battery power decreases for a certain thrust requirement. Experimental tests are performed using a thrust stand to show the effect of vertical motor position on the lift and pitching moment produced in a DEP configuration. Moving the motor higher increases the lift due to the increased difference in velocity over the top and bottom surfaces of the wing. Building and flight testing of MAVRIK are discussed.

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Photo by Ma Ti on Unsplash

Photo by Ma Ti on Unsplash