The engineering of autonomous combat drones
Oliver D
Introduction It is clearer than ever that drones are a vital part of the battlefield. From transport and reconnaissance to being weapons themselves, they are a multi-purpose technology that is reshaping war (Molloy, 2024). The engineering in their creation must be of the highest quality, considering the many systems and principles working harmoniously, such as propulsion control on all axes, aerodynamic efficiency and radar evasion. Additionally, we are now entering the age of artificial intelligence, and its effect is already visible in the sector, and will only become more prominent in the coming years. As with all battlefield technology, it is an arms race between development and destruction, which leads to an incredible acceleration in the technology (Rose & Levantovscaia, 2024). I will aim to explore the characteristics and features that are making these drones so effective. Airframe and aerodynamic design Owing to a lack of human error during flight, the aerodynamic design of a drone is its key characteristic in terms of performance. Aerodynamic design consists of a plethora of different characteristics, features, and effects, so the focus in this essay will be limited to camber. Camber is the curvature of the aerofoil that shapes the wings; a higher camber increases drag but also increases lift and reduces stall speed (Glazer, 2023). Coppin (2014, p. 139) argues that, for optimal UCAV (unmanned combat aerial vehicle) lift characteristics, a high camber is needed.
To investigate the validity of this research, I used the NASA FoilSim software, and a Python plotting script to plot the values I obtained. An example of a single set of results is seen in Figure 1. The graph of all results obtained is shown in Figure 2 below. I tested from 0-16% camber, as above that range significant air splitting is seen (Figure 3), which Elliott (2008) argues leads to uneven and low-speed stall characteristics, which in turn contributes to very inefficient flight. Therefore, it would not be valuable to calculate and identify results in that range.
Figure 1 - Typical set of FoilSim results
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