A system-of-systems perspective for simultaneous UAV sizing and allocation using design of experiments and simulation
Abstract
Traditional approaches to aircraft sizing focus on maximizing the performance of the individual airframe as a standalone system. Customers, such as the Department of Defense, have recently looked more towards all-encompassing solutions to large problems by using a System-of-Systems approach instead of maximizing capability from a single aircraft or similar monolithic system. Shrinking budgets call for making the most efficient use of existing assets and addressing capability gaps in broad frameworks. The result is that optimizing the aircraft alone may not provide the customer with needed capabilities. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) performing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions provide an example of systems designed to operate with other independent systems as part of a system-of-systems. In this research, a fleet of UAVs will provide wildfire detection in high terrain. The research investigates how to allocate existing systems along with a number of yet-to-be-defined UAVs. In this manner, the new UAVs may not be optimal for individual aircraft-based performance metrics, but they will enhance the capabilities of the fleet. Such a large, complex problem requires decomposition into a resource allocation problem using a Design of Experiments (DoE) to select configurations of UAV fleets to test by simulation using STK's Aircraft Mission Modeler software package at the System-of-Systems level, and an aircraft sizing sub-problem using an SQP algorithm and the Breguet endurance equation to size the new UAV. The STK output is modeled using main effects and a response surface that shows the tradeoff between cost and coverage, enabling the customer to select the optimal allocation of existing and new UAVs and determine the key characteristics of the new UAVs that fit into this fleet. The new UAV sized for this specific mission, but from a System-of-Systems perspective, complements the UAV fleet, enhancing the capabilities of the System-of-Systems while only occasionally displacing the existing UAV assets.
Degree
M.S.A.A.
Advisors
Crossley, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Aerospace engineering
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