Design, Manufacturing, and Flight Test of a Capstan Driven Variable-Span Morphing Wing sUAS

Morphing wing aircraft can adjust their geometry during flight to optimize power and range. This paper presents the design, manufacturing, and flight testing of a capstan drive actuation system for a small unmanned aerial system. The design features span extension and contraction of a full chord wing section, scalability, and reduces the weight penalty as compared to previously attempted actuators. The design was shown to achieve successful and repeatable in-flight morphing. Computational models were built and tuned to flight test data to analyze potential performance gains for the prototype system and for variations of the prototype with larger span and increased payload. Simulation results were leveraged into an optimal span extension control strategy for minimizing power required based on airspeed and aircraft effective weight. Case studies were simulated with and without span morphing to quantify potential power savings from the morphing scheme and results show promise to increase the endurance and range of the aircraft.