Project name: A High Performance Metamorphic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Project acronym: MetaMorpher

Funding: HRZZ – IP-2024-05 

Total budget: € 193.080,00

This project aims to tackle challenges related to design and deployment of highly efficient and ecologically friendly flying machines by developing a system capable of changing its morphology during flight, thus reaping benefits of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and effortless gliding. This novel concept is based on our previous work where instead of using a single wing, the flying was based on two spinning wings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Q2bL8XaAE). Furthermore, a novel control concept, based on the pulsation of motors driving propellers, has been successfully implemented (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_pYDvfOAAo). The MetaMorpher UAV aims to unite two aerial vehicle types, rotary-wing and fixed-wing. The two forms differ in dynamics, aerodynamics, as well as actuation, making them fundamentally different in the way they operate. The hybrid nature of the vehicle implies one needs to apply hybrid control strategies to switch between different modes of operation, and the state-of-the-art control approaches support this idea. MetaMorpher does not merely change its structure (i.e. wing or rotor orientation), it completely transforms the whole concept of the aircraft. The transition between the two stable phases is likely to be performed under highly nonlinear and turbulent conditions. To stabilize the vehicle under these conditions, MetaMorpher will require a unified approach of control, mechatronics and aerodynamics.