Additively manufactured lightweight monitoring drones: Design and experimental investigation

Surveillance of hardly accessible areas is one of the most attractive perspectives for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) application. Drones destined to ecosystems and environment surveillance must guarantee reliable flights, resistance to the specific environment, protection for the on-board devices and lightweight properties to be easily handled and carry all the required devices. Therefore, drone frames characteristics have a significant impact on the overall functionality of the vehicle. The current study suggests innovative lightweight design solutions for quadcopter drones destined for ecosystem surveillance. Different cellular structures and arrangements were analysed and compared. The application of additive manufacturing technologies was considered to produce the main structural components, with the aim of obtaining complex and highly customizable geometries. An experimental investigation was performed on specimens of two different cellular structures. Based on the experimental results, a concept of the final drone design was suggested.