DronesSuccessful flight test of UAV with mass-actuated controls

Published 4 August 2016

For the first time an unmanned aerial vehicle that uses moving weights in its wings, instead of traditional control surfaces or ailerons to turn, was successfully flight-tested. A recently graduated University of Texas at Arlington student  used existing UTA research to design, build, and test a UAV that uses mass actuation — weights that move back and forth within the wings to change the center of gravity from side to side — to turn while airborne.

A recently graduated University of Texas at Arlington student is the first person to successfully flight test an unmanned aerial vehicle that uses moving weights in its wings instead of traditional control surfaces or ailerons to turn.

Sampath Vengate, who graduated in May with a master of science degree in aerospace engineering, used existing UTA research to design, build, and test a UAV that uses mass actuation — weights that move back and forth within the wings to change the center of gravity from side to side — to turn while airborne.

He presented his findings in a paper at one of the two annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conferences, held in July in Washington, D.C.

The research team Vengate belongs to is led by Atilla Dogan, an associate professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. That team performed an exhaustive search of existing research, academic papers and publications, and found nothing like what this technology accomplished.

UTA says that Vengate became interested in the concept as an undergraduate when he entered a competition that called for a UAV to carry a weighted payload that was off-center on the aircraft and successfully drop it on a target. The challenge was to get the aircraft back to ground safely by coming up with a way to handle the imbalance after the drop. He failed to complete that objective. This is when the idea struck him that masses inside an aircraft can be used not only for getting back the aircraft to level, but also to help maneuver the aircraft in different directions.

“I missed the target and I realized that the ailerons, elevators of the aircraft can be completely replaced if I can develop a mechanism to perform the same actions as on a conventional aircraft,” Vengate said.

Ailerons/elevators is an aeronautic term that accounts for the movable surfaces, usually near the trailing edge of a wing and tail respectively. They control the roll and pitch of the airframe and affect maneuvers, like banks.

“I had seen research where fuel was redistributed to help stabilize an aircraft, and I wondered if I could build one with mass actuators that would be a constant in the aircraft,” Vengate said.