Design of small-scale quadrotor unmanned air vehicles using genetic algorithms

Abstract

In the current paper, a new design methodology was proposed to automate the component selection, layout design and geometric sizing of small-scale quadrotor unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). Instead of using the swash plate mechanism employed in most rotary-wing flight vehicle, the UAV was controlled by four fixed-pitch rotors/propellers. The objective of this design optimization problem is to select the most suitable set of components from a range of commercial-off-the-shelf products, and organize the vehicle components/payloads, such that the resulting flight vehicle has the most compact overall size without violating any given physical or mission constraint. Genetic algorithms are employed as the optimization engine because of their proven results. © IMechE 2007.