48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition

4 - 7 January 2010, Orlando, Florida

AIAA 2010-1021

Detailed Design, Construction, and Flight Tests of a

Remotely Piloted Ducted Fan MAV
Brandon C. Stiltner1, Christopher Olien2, Joel Faber3, Ryan Merritt4, and Shadie Tanious5
AVID LLC, Blacksburg, VA, 24060

The authors performed the detailed design phase of a ducted fan MAV. In house
techniques were used to size the propellers, servos, linkages, stators and vanes. With the
detailed design phase completed, the authors moved forward with the construction of the
MAV. It was during this stage that the authors found improved ways of fabricating the
vehicle. These methods allowed for the retention in strength of the materials while shedding
the GTOW of the vehicle, allowing for the possibility of the inclusion of payloads. Tests
conducted on the constructed vehicle include thrust testing, landing gear drop tests,
electronic benchmarking and the beginning of tethered tests on the duct fan MAV.

Nomenclature
aimpact
A
B
C
d1
d2
d3
d4
dA
dE
dR
Fimpact
g
m
Vimpact
Z

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

acceleration upon impact

state matrix
input matrix
output matrix
vane 1 deflection
vane 2 deflection
vane 3 deflection
vane 4 deflection
aileron deflection
elevator deflection
rudder deflection
force experienced upon impact
gravitational constant
mass of the object
velocity upon impact
vertical distance above ground

I. Introduction
A design, build, and fly project was tasked to an intern research team at AVID LLC. The project description was
to design a low cost, low weight, ducted fan micro aerial vehicle (MAV) that a human could remotely pilot. The
design had many requirements that limited the size of the vehicle, cost of materials, method of propulsion and
endurance. A brief list of the specific requirements is given below. Stiltner et. al.1 discusses the preliminary and
conceptual design phases for this vehicle.
Geometric and Size Constraints
o The vehicle must be roughly the size of a football (8 dia., 12 tall)
o Must be lighter than 4 lbs GTOW, with a target weight less than 2 lbs
1

Aircraft Design Engineer, AVID LLC, and M.S. Aerospace Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA, AIAA
Student Member.
2
Aircraft Design Engineer, AVID LLC, Blacksburg VA, AIAA Student Member.
3
Aircraft Design Engineer, AVID LLC, Blacksburg VA, AIAA Student Member
4
Intern, AVID LLC, and M.S. Aerospace Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA, AIAA Student Member.
5
Intern, AVID LLC, and M.S. Aerospace Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg VA, AIAA Student Member.
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Copyright 2010 by AVID LLC. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission.

 Propulsion and Performance Requirements

o Must have electric propulsion system
o 5 minute endurance
o Range of 1.2 miles (~2 km)
o Max cruise speed 30 fps
o Operating point at 5000 ft Above Sea Level (ASL) and 90 degrees Fahrenheit
Other Constraints
o The vehicle must be remotely piloted similar to hobby R/C applications
o $1000 budget, which included building materials, ground equipment, electronics and components,
tooling, but specifically excluded labor.
The project spanned a two summer time period, with little work being performed during the fall and spring
semesters. During the first summer (2008), the team designed the vehicle to the level of critical design review
(CDR). Here, the ducted fan design software AVID Organic Air Vehicle (OAV) was used as the primary design
tool during the conceptual and preliminary phases. By the beginning of the second summer (2009), the team was
tasked with the detailed design phase and construction of the vehicle. This paper focuses on the latter. The intern
micro air vehicle, or iMAV, is depicted in Figure 1 below as it is in its current state. The current vehicle GTOW is
roughly 13.6 ounces, with a maximum width of 9.
In Figure 1, the vehicle can be seen with an NFL regulation football superimposed onto the picture for a size
reference. The outer pods of the vehicle house the batteries. Four 5g micro servos, located radially around the duct,
are used to actuate the control surfaces located at the bottom of the duct. Spring steel, also know as music wire, was
used as the landing gear legs with an O.D. of 0.060. The upper pod, termed the upper centerbody houses the
avionics, which consist of an electronic speed controller (ESC), a PIC microcontroller and main circuit board, an
inertial measurement unit (IMU), and an XBee wireless transceiver. The brushless electric motor hangs from the
struts and is attached in a direct drive configuration with the fan. Inside the duct beneath the fan are the stators and
aft centerbody. The stators act to cancel the torque created by the propeller, and the lower centerbody serves as a
hard point to attach the control vanes.

Figure 1: An image of the iMAV superimposed on the image of a football (left); image of the
iMAV (right).
At the CDR, the vehicle design was locked in at a GTOW of 20 ounces. During construction, however, the
designers found that manufacturing qualities were severely underestimated and the result was a 32% decrease in
total vehicle weight. Furthermore, the vehicle was not designed to carry a payload, however, one could be added
without penalty up to a GTOW of 20 ounces. Additional payload may be added beyond the GTOW of 20 ounces
accepting a penalty on performance.
The remainder of this paper provides an in-depth look at the detailed design and construction of the iMAV. A
section on vehicle testing is given, which describes the tests conducted to characterize the performance of the
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vehicle and gives the results obtained from these tests. The vehicle testing section provides results obtained from
landing gear testing, control and avionics bench testing and thrust testing.

II. Detailed Design

In the aircraft design process, the detailed design phase is typically the final stage before construction of the first
prototype begins. In this stage of the design, most of the small details are ironed out. For instance, the selection of
servos based on measurements of the control surface hinge moments or the selection of the fan based on required
thrust and performance. In the following, the authors provide the detailed design of the individual components of
iMAV.
A. Stators
The purpose of the stators is to straighten the flow, countering the residual torque produced by the spinning fan.
They are placed inside the duct directly below the fan plane as close as possible to the fan. A total of eight stators
were chosen as a design compromise. More stators will produce a greater effective flow correction, at the cost of
increased flow blockage, skin friction, and fabrication complexities. Due to limitations in fabrication processes
available, it was necessary to constrain the stator design to constant chord (spanwise), linear twist distribution, and a
circular arc chamber. These properties can be easily manufactured through a simple cylindrical mold layup,
explained in section III.B. XROTOR6 is an interactive program for the design and analysis of a rotating blade
system developed by Prof. Mark Drela at MIT. This program was used specifically to analyze the propeller within
the range of 12,000-20,000 RPMs, as well as vehicle velocities to determine the torque generated by the propeller
that needs to be countered by the stators. The stator design variables were chord length, root angle of attack, and net
twist. Using XROTOR, solutions of the design variables were found so that the propeller torque and stator torque
canceled one another to within 3%.

Figure 2: Fiberglass stators used in the iMAV.

B. Propeller
Most of the iMAVs budget was allocated to the propulsion and avionics components. As such, a self designed
fan, though desirable, proved to be too expensive for the budget. Several off-the-shelf propellers were researched
and a study was made between three different sizes: 8x6, 9x7, and 10x7 Master Airscrew 3-blade propellers. Here,
the first digit is the propeller diameter in inches, and the second digit designates the advance ratio of the propeller.
If the propeller were rotated in a solid (assuming no slip), the propeller would travel this distance forward in the
solid. Thus, if the 8x6 propeller made one complete revolution in a solid, it would travel 6 forward. For the fan to
fit inside the duct, the previously mentioned propellers were trimmed to a 6 diameter.
To analyze the propellers, the geometry of each propeller was needed to create the necessary XROTOR files.
The chord length and blade span was measured using calipers. The chord was measured at eighth inch increments
from the hub out to the tip. The propeller was then projected onto a chalkboard using an overhead projector. The
researchers then measured the propellers projected chord length. Knowing both the actual and the projected chord
lengths allowed the researchers to determine the blade pitch angle at each station, depicted in Figure 3.

XROTOR
Mark
Drela,
http://acdl.mit.edu/research.html

Associate

Professor

of

Aeronautics

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and

Astronautics,

MIT.

Figure 3: Twist was obtained via trigonometric relations.

These measurements were recorded as r/R, c/R and , where r is the station radius, R is the total blade radius
and is the blade twist angle at that station. This data was then chopped at the 3 radius to simulate the effects of
trimming the propellers to a 6 diameter. In order to smooth out the data, plots of vs. r/R and c/R vs. r/R were
made and polynomial curves were fitted to the data. Using the polynomial equations, the data was recalculated to
provide smoother curves. Curves for the Master Airscrew 8x6 can be seen in Figure 4 and Figure 5. This cleaned up
data was used to create .prop files (readable by XROTOR) of the Master Airscrew 8x6, 9x7 and 10x7 propellers.

Figure 4: Twist at each normalized radii station for the Master Airscrew 8x6.

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Figure 5: Normalized chord at each normalized radii station for the Master Airscrew 8x6.
Using XROTOR, velocity sweeps were performed for a constant thrust of 1.5 pounds. These velocity sweeps
were converted to .avr files. These files were merged to form three separate thrust maps; one for each Master
Airscrew propeller. Once the individual thrust maps had been uploaded to AVID OAV, the results were used to
choose the best Master Airscrew for use on the iMAV. While little difference in performance was noticed, the
weight of the 8x6 Master Airscrew was considerably lighter than the others. Figure 6 shows the performance
comparisons between the three propellers.

Figure 6: COTS Propeller Comparisons.

C. Control Vanes
Control surfaces are a key component in the design of ducted fan MAVs (Unmanned/Uninhabited Aerial
Vehicles) if controlled flight is to be achieved. In short, the control surfaces must be large enough to provide
adequate control authority, yet light enough not to result in a severe impact on CG location. This, in itself, is a
complete contradiction that the designer must be aware of and a design trade is necessary to obtain an adequate vane
size. During the conceptual and preliminary design phases, AVID OAV was used to compute trade studies, which
analyzed trimmed vane deflections vs. forward flight speed, vehicle CG location, vane chord length, and number of
vanes. These initial trade studies showed a vane chord length of 1.25 and two vanes per set (8 total vanes) were
optimal. The trade studies also revealed an optimal CG location of 0.5 above the duct lip, or duct highlight. Stiltner
et. al.1 discusses these trade studies in further detail.
AVID OAV models the aerodynamics of the vanes using two dimensional (airfoil) theory, and so further
analysis was devoted to analyzing the vanes performances in a 3D sense. While a 2D analysis gives the researchers a
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good starting point for the vane size, it doesnt accurately model the vanes behavior in a real world sense due to tip
loses and other inherent wing behavior. To that end, it was known that the actual vanes must increase in planform
area compared to those modeled in OAV, to obtain the desired performance. XFOIL7, a program for the design of
subsonic airfoils, was used to generate a 2D polar of a NACA 0012 airfoil operating at 100k Re #. The 2D polar was
then used as an input to the aerodynamic software RAPT, to generate 3D polar of the control vanes. This allowed
the researchers to correct the vane area based on more realistic aerodynamic data. The outcome was a control vane
size of 1.5" chord length and 2.5" span, which was approved at the CDR (Critical Design Review).
D. CAM (Computationally-created Aerodynamic Model)
A computationally generated aerodynamic model (CAM) was created to provide data on the forces and moments
acting on the iMAV during flight. This CAM, essentially a virtual wind tunnel aerodynamic model, accepts
prescribed data concerning a desired flight condition as its input, and returns the forces and moments acting on the
vehicle based on those inputs. The CAM is primarily used for the flight controls development. Here, the designers
can use the CAM to develop the six-degree of freedom equations of motion (6DOF EOMs). The control system
development will be discussed later in section II.E.
The iMAV CAM was created using the AVID OAV software. Force and moment data were generated by OAV
at various flight conditions, i.e. flight speed, angle of attack, throttle/fan rpm, and control vane deflections. The
generation of the CAM can be thought of in parallel to a wind tunnel generated look-up model. In a wind tunnel
experiment, data would be collected at various wind tunnel speeds, angles of attack, throttle, control surface
deflections, etc. The data would then be compiled into arrays so that the forces and moments could be obtained or
looked up based on user input wind speed, throttle setting, control surface deflections, and so on. The difference
here is that, rather than performing a wind tunnel experiment to collect the data, the OAV software was used to
simulate a wind tunnel and compute the force and moment data. Furthermore, it is understood that the CAM is
based on aerodynamic theory and assumptions, and may not capture some of the realistic aerodynamic phenomena
of the iMAV.
After obtaining the data from OAV, it was organized into arrays as a response surface using MATLAB. Thus, at
this point the CAM is a large grid of data points. However, as is the case with wind tunnel testing, data cannot be
collected at every conceivable point in the vehicles flight envelope. The same mindset holds for the CAM because
computing data at every possible flight condition would consume too much time. For instance, data may be
collected at flight speeds from 0-50 fps in increments of 5 fps. To fill in the holes of the grid, the data is interpolated
so that every point in the flight envelope contains data.
Once completed, the results of the CAM were used to compare with AVID OAV data. Figure 7 depicts the fan
RPM vs. the forward flight speed, and Figure 8 depicts the power required for flight speed. The CAM data predicts a
lower fan speed and power requirements than that of AVID OAV. These differences amount to just 3% lower in fan
speed and only 0.2% lower in power requirements. The forces and moments for a hover flight condition of iMAV
were used to create a linear model and develop control gains, which is discussed in Section E.

Mark Drela, MIT. Harold Youngren. http://web.mit.edu/drela/Public/web/xfoil/

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Figure 7: AVID OAV and CAM Comparison of RPM data vs. velocity.

Figure 8: AVID OAV and CAM Comparison of Power Required vs. Velocity.

E. Control Law
Typically, ducted fan vehicles of this nature are unstable and thus some form of stability augmentation is
necessary for human piloted flight. This instability is because the vehicles optimal CG location is above the duct
highlight (most windward point of the duct). So, in hover the vehicles dynamics mimic that of an inverted
pendulum. In Stiltner et. al.1, the authors discuss the reasons why the CG is located above the duct highlight and
describe how the optimal CG location is found. For iMAV, the optimal CG location is roughly 0.5 above the duct
highlight. In the following paragraphs, the iMAV control system is discussed. First, a brief overview of the pilotvehicle interaction is necessary. This is followed by a discussion of the control system architecture, which is a
Command Augmentation System (CAS).

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1. Pilot-Controller-Vehicle Interactions
The human pilot will use a two-stick transmitter, similar to those used in radio controlled (R/C) aircraft
applications, to control the vehicle (Figure 9). Typically, R/C fixed wing aircraft have four control channels made up
of throttle, aileron, elevator, and rudder. On the transmitter, the sticks are directly linked to each of these channels:
the left hand stick is used for throttle (up/down) and yaw rate (left/right), and the right hand stick for pitch rate
(up/down) and roll rate (left/right).

Figure 9: Aircraft Radio Controller.

On iMAV the left hand stick remains the same, controlling throttle and yaw rate, however, the right hand stick
differs in the following way. Here, the aileron stick input commands a roll angle and an elevator stick input
commands a pitch angle, or tilt. For initial testing, these angles are limited to +/- 5 degrees from vertical (hover).
These limits are in place so that the pilot doesnt get the vehicle in a non-recoverable state.
As mentioned above, a CAS architecture was used for the flight control system. This particular control system
was based on a linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) and a linear-quadratic tracker (LQT) as described by Stevens and
Lewis2. The first portion, LQR, attempts to regulate the system state error to zero (drive the system states to their
equilibrium values). An LQT control system, also called the servodesign problem, is a reference-input tracking
system. Here, these two control methods are used in conjunction with each other described in the following.
First, as previously mentioned the pilot will command a roll angle or pitch angle via the right hand stick on the
transmitter. These commands will act as the reference-input and this is where the LQT portion of the control system
will be used. Here, the control system will compare the reference-input with the actual vehicle state to compute an
error. For instance, the commanded pitch angle minus the measured pitch angle. This error will then be multiplied
by the control gains to obtain the required control surface deflections. Thus, the control system will actuate the
control vanes in a manner such that the vehicles pitch and roll angles are equal to that of the transmitters stick
location.
As an example, assume the vehicle is in a hovering flight condition. How does the pilot drive the vehicle
forward? The pilot will push the right-hand stick forward causing the vehicle to tilt forward, and he or she will
simultaneously decrease throttle to maintain a level flight path. It should be noted that for ducted fan vehicles, a
hovering flight condition typically requires more power than forward flight for low speeds. As can be seen in Figure
9, the right hand sticks neutral position is centered both vertically and horizontally, which translates to a vertical
orientation for the vehicle (commanded pitch and roll angles are zero). Thus, if the vehicle is in forward flight and
the pilot releases the right stick, the vehicle will return to a vertical orientation.
A similar discussion for the left hand stick is to follow. Again this stick controls throttle and yaw rate. For the
iMAV, throttle has been decoupled from the control system, meaning that it is left up to the pilot to control. Here,
the fan rpm is directly related to the stick location, i.e. a full back stick location is 0% throttle, and full forward stick
is 100% throttle. The yaw rate channel on the left stick is set up similar to the two channels on the right hand stick.
Here, a left or right stick movement is a commanded yaw rate, thus causing the vehicle to spin about its vertical (fan
shaft) axis. Again assume the vehicle is in hover and the pilot desires to change the vehicle heading from due North
to due East. The pilot will push the left-hand stick to the right, resulting in a positive rotation about the body frame
z-axis (axes are depicted in Figure 10). The pilot will release the stick when the desired heading (East) is achieved.

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The commanded yaw rate was limited to a maximum of 30 degrees per second so the pilot can avoid getting the
vehicle in a non-recoverable state.

Figure 10: iMAV with superimposed coordinate frame.

2. Derivation of the Equations of Motion

As with most aerospace control systems, numeric simulation is used to determine the control gains offline
rather than tuning the gains during vehicle flight tests. MATLAB and Simulink were used to simulate the vehicle
dynamics. The first step in deriving the control law is linearizing the equations of motion (EOMs) about an
equilibrium condition. This step is necessary if linear control techniques are to be used. As mentioned above, the
tilt angles (roll and pitch) were both limited to +/- 5 degrees from hover. Thus, it was deemed sufficient to only
linearize the vehicle dynamics about hover. Future efforts will be devoted to obtaining trim solutions for many
points in the vehicles flight envelope. The vehicle dynamics will be linearized about each of these points and
control gains will be obtained for each point. This will allow the use of gain scheduling for vehicle control.
First, using MATLAB and the CAM described in Section D, a trim solution was found for hover. This trim
solution consisted of values for angle of attack, traditional attitude angles (phi, theta, and psi), and control surface
deflections. Upon obtaining the trim solution, the nonlinear vehicle dynamics were linearized to obtain the classic
state-space form of the linear dynamics, which is given below.

x = Ax + Bu

(1)

y = Cx
The first equation is the classic state space representation of the linearized equations of motion. Here, x is the
state vector, u is the vector of control inputs, and the A and B matrices are the Jacobians termed the state matrix and
the input matrix, respectively. The second equation is the output equation, which gives the measureable states, or
output, y. Typically, y is a subset of the state vector and the matrix C, termed the output matrix, is a mapping from
the state to the output. Here, the state vector was made up of the velocity (vehicle body frame), the attitude, and the
vehicle angular velocity. Similarly, the control vector is made up of throttle, aileron, elevator, and rudder.
Inputs of aileron, elevator, and rudder are hard to visualize for these vehicles. For instance, an aileron deflection
is typically a combination of control surface deflections. Because of this inconvenience, aileron, elevator and rudder
commands are transformed into individual control vane commands. This is done based on the following equation.

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d1 = dA dR
d2 = dA + dR
d3 = dE + dR
d4 = dE dR

(2)

In the above equation d1-d4 are the individual vane deflections. Similarly, dA, dE and dR are the aileron,
elevator, and rudder deflections respectively. Figure 11 gives an OAV parametric geometry model of the iMAV and
lists which vanes correspond to d1-d4.

Figure 11: Parametric geometry model of iMAV listing the individual vanes.

Lastly, the output vector y, is made up of the attitude and angular rate terms, but excludes the body velocity
terms. This was due to available sensors on the vehicle. The iMAV had an onboard IMU (inertial measurement
unit), which can measure angular rates and accelerations. Using a Kalman filter, the angular rate measurements and
the accelerations are used to estimate the roll and pitch attitude of the vehicle. The accelerations can be integrated to
determine the vehicle velocity, but a second form of sensing is needed to correct integration error. Future versions
of the vehicle will employ a GPS chip to sense the vehicles velocity.
3. Control System Architecture
As mentioned above, the control architecture used for iMAV is a CAS. The specific system is an LQT/LQR
based control law. Simply speaking, an error is computed to compare the desired state with the measured vehicle
state. The control gains then actuate the control surfaces such that the computed error is driven to zero. A basic
block diagram can be seen in Figure 12. In the figure, the plant contains the linearized vehicle dynamics, which were
linearized about the hover equilibrium.

Figure 12: Block Diagram of iMAV control system.

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In the block diagram, the plant is the linearized vehicle dynamics discussed in the preceding subsection. The
input to this block is the error, which is the reference command minus the measured output. Here, the reference
commands are made up of the attitude angles roll and pitch, and the angular velocity terms roll rate, pitch rate, and
yaw rate. The yaw attitude is decoupled from the system, because the vehicles dynamics arent affected by how it is
pointed relative to the ground.. The reference commands for roll rate and pitch rate are always zero. This defines
the LQR portion of the control system in that these states are always driven to zero. This is in place to damp out
high frequency oscillations in the vehicle, making it appear to fly steadily rather than jittery. The remaining
values are the commanded inputs, which were discussed in the pilot vehicle interaction subsection.
F. Structures
The two battery pods are located on opposite sides of the duct. The pods provide support for the battery and two
of the four control servos. The battery placement in the pods is high due to the desired vehicle CG location. The
servomotors are mounted beneath the batteries to minimize the control rod length and so that they dont have a
negative impact on vehicle CG location. Two similar pods are mounted at 90-degree stations around the duct from
each battery pod. These pods are only used as servo treys, and therefore do not include the upper structure to house a
battery. For a detailed explanation of component placement, refer to Stiltner et. al.1 The four pods structures
additionally serve as axial stiffeners for the duct. See Figure 13.

Figure 13: Battery pods (left and right), and stator pods (located
front and center), allow for axial stiffeners of the duct wall.
As can be seen in Figure 13, the center-body of the aircraft is located above the lip of the duct in order to achieve
the desired center of gravity. The motor is mounted below the center-body plate such that the propeller is oriented
directly below the lip of the duct. The printed circuit board, IMU, wireless transmitter/receiver, and speed controller
boards are secured to the top of the center-body plate. These electronics and avionics equipment are actively cooled
by the flow entering the duct. The center-body is supported by two perpendicular struts, which are inserted and
glued into the duct lip via epoxy. The struts also serve as a logical path to route the wires from the batteries and
servos to the upper center-body.
The total weight of the iMAV is 13.4 ounces. To this approximate one pound, a factor of safety of 20% is added
to the vehicle weight, resulting in a weight of 1.2 pounds, and a mass of 0.0371 slugs. The landing gear must sustain
an engine out fall from 3-feet AGL. In order to determine the approximate load each landing gear will receive from
the fall, equations of energy and kinematics are employed. First, the velocity upon impact is found using
conservation of energy:

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m g z =

1
1
m V 2 (0.0371 Slugs)(32.2 ft/s2 )(3 ft) = (.0371 slugs)Vimpact 2
2
2

Vimpact = 13.8996 ft/s (downwards)

(3)

(4)

m corresponds to the mass of the iMAV, g is the gravity term, z is the height above the ground and V is the
velocity. Assuming an impact time of 0.005 seconds, the acceleration at impact is calculated, where Vo is zero for
the initial velocity.

a impact =

[Vo - (-13.8996 ft/s)]

= 2779.92 ft/s2
0.005 sec

(5)

This results in 86.3 gs experienced by the iMAV. The force experienced on impact is found using Newton's 2nd
Law:

Fimpact = (0.0371 Slugs)(2779.92 ft /sec 2 ) = 103.8 lbs

(6)

Fimpact is the force experienced by the iMAV upon impact with the ground. Therefore, each landing gear
(dividing Fimpact by four) will experience 25.9 lbs of force. The modulus of elasticity needed to sustain this force on
impact was calculated to be 7.91 x 105 psi.
Spring steel (ASTM A228) is chosen to be the material of the landing gears as it was cheap, available and met
the modulus of elasticity requirement. ASTM A228 has the following properties:

FTU = 120 ksi (Tensile Ultimate)

FTY = 90 ksi (Tensile Yield)
FCY = 90 ksi (Compression Yield)
E = 30 x 106 psi (Young's Modulus)
= 0.304 lb/ft3 (density)
K = 2.2 x 107 lb/ft (Spring Constant)

G. Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

The initial circuit schematic was tested on a breadboard and then prototyped on perforated circuit boards. The
first thrust tests were completed using the perforated circuit board for proof of concept. Of particular interest were
the wireless communications and PWM control of servos and the ESC. Once the circuit was proven, a printed
circuit board (PCB) was developed in CadSofts EAGLE software package and an online PCB service, BatchPCB,
was used to fabricate the board.
The PCB is a two-layer design with 1.75x3.37 inch outer dimensions as depicted in Figure 14. The IMU module,
shown under the PCB in Figure 14, plugs directly into the board. Headers are included for in-circuit serial
programming (ICSP), UART serial communications, and PWM outputs for servos and the ESC. A tri-color LED is
included as an indicator for power on, low battery, etc.
The PCB greatly reduced the weight of the circuitry and increased durability. Weight reduction came from
replacing copper wires with small traces on the PCB and replacing large through-hole components with smaller
surface mount components. A major improvement was changing the microcontroller package from the 20g dual
inline pin (DIP) package to the 1.8g thin quad flat package (TQFP). Durability was increased by reducing the
number of solder joints and loose wires. The soldermask layer on the PCB protects the board as well. All of the
components were soldered onto the PCB in house.

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Figure 14: Printed Circuit Board installed on the iMAV.

III. Construction
As mentioned previously, the iMAV was constructed in house at AVID LLC in Blacksburg VA. Low cost
building materials, custom tooling, and COTS components have been purchased to ensure that iMAV stays within
budget. The following chapters describe the construction of the iMAV based on its individual components.
1.

Construction Materials
Fiber Glass
Carbon Fiber: tow, rod, mat
Hobby Epoxy (15 and 30 minute cure)
Various sizes of balsa wood and hobby ply wood
Insulation foam
Spring Steel (music wire) of various O.D.s
CA (cyanoacrylate) and wood glue
MDF and rough lumber

A. Duct and Duct Mold

The duct proved to be the most difficult component of the vehicle to fabricate due to its complex shape and
relatively small size. First, it was desired for the duct to be fabricated from carbon fiber and fiberglass composites.
This proved troublesome due to the complex shape of the duct lip. The difficulty came from cutting the fiberglass
into the correct shape. Secondly, the researchers had only hand layup methods to use due to the low budget
requirement and thus vacuum bagging was not an option. Initially, a female mold was built for the duct layup,
which can be seen in Figure 15. The female mold was hand crafted in a fairly complex process using a clay form,
plaster of Paris, and rigid foam. The lip portion of the mold is very small, and so it was hard to lay the wetted
fiberglass in the lip mold correctly. Furthermore, when wetted with epoxy the fiberglass has a small amount of
residual tension, causing it to pull itself loose from the inside of the duct lip. After a few failed attempts at
fabricating the duct, this mold was scratched in favor of an opposite, or male mold seen in Figure 16.
The male mold was crafted using layers of medium density fiberboard (MDF). Five layers of MDF (0.75 thick)
were stacked and glued together using epoxy, resulting in a 10x10x3.75 inch block. The piece was then turned on a
lathe to obtain the duct shape. Using the male mold made the duct layup much easier, although it still had its
drawbacks. Because the cylindrical section of the duct is small (6 diameter), it was hard to smooth out the wet
fiberglass inside this section. Ultimately, the male mold made the duct fabrication easier because it eliminated the
problems mentioned earlier with the duct lip. Figure 17 gives a picture of the duct before it has merged with the
vehicle. As can be seen, it is primarily a monocoque structure made of fiberglass composite forming the inner wall
and lip.

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Figure 15: Original female duct mold.

Figure 16: Male mold used to create the iMAV duct.

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Figure 17: iMAV Duct.

B. Frame and Structure

The internal structures of the pods and centerbody are balsa joined with cyanoacrylate (CA) adhesive. The pod
structures are trusses attached to radial ribs in the duct. Their main purpose is to support the batteries and hold them
securely in place. The purpose of the centerbody structure is to secure the IMU, ESC, wireless transceiver, and
microcontroller in place above the motor. These are much lighter components than the batteries and less structure is
needed as a result.
Initially, 1/8 O.D. music wire was selected as the material for the landing gear. The 1/8 wire proved to cause
complications due to its stiffness as the researchers discovered in the drop tests. Therefore 1/16 O.D. music wire
was selected. The complications that ensued with the 1/8 wire are discussed further in Section IV.B.
The shape of the landing gear was hand fabricated. With four pieces cut to the appropriate length of 6.5, the
duct attachment ends of the wires were all bent to rectangular shapes for a larger bonding surface. This provided
better attachment to the duct body and allowed for better stress disbursement along the duct. Beginning at the
rectangular attachment end, all four landing gear legs were bent at a 20 degree angles. The feet of the legs are curved
outward and upward, creating a slight hook. To help aid in stabilizing and strengthening the landing gear, fishing
line was attached between each leg. This is discussed further in Section IV.B as well. This landing gear design
provides a 2.75 clearance to the duct wall and 1.25 clearance to the bottom of the vanes. Care was taken to ensure
these pieces had the same dimensions as possible. Figure 18 depicts a single iMAV landing gear leg.

Figure 18: Prototype build of iMAVs landing gear.

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The stators where constructed with 2-plies of 3 oz. fiberglass. One layer with 45/45 degree fiber orientation
relative to the span direction, and the second at 0/90 degree orientation relative to the span direction. A 6 O.D.
cylindrical mold (PVC pipe) was used to create stators with constant twist and circular camber. The fiberglass was
laid on the mold at an angle to the cylinders axis, forming a gentle helix shape. The researchers found that the
linear twist distribution is roughly equal to the offset angle between the span axis of the stators and the height axis of
the cylinder for small offset angles. Again, the stators are depicted in Figure 2.
C. Vanes and Related Hardware Fabrication
Many concepts were brainstormed to construct the control vanes in attempt to make them light weight. Initially,
the designers had intended to cut the vanes from foam using a hot-wire foam cutter. After trade studies revealed the
size of the vanes (~ 1.25 chord), the designers threw out this idea for fear of a poor quality foam cut. Another
consideration was hollow fiberglass or carbon fiber vanes. Unfortunately, the limitation here was that the designers
were required to fabricate the mold of the vanes. Without proper tools and using only hand techniques, this would
also be a tedious job and so it was thrown out for fear of poor manufacturing qualities. Fabricating the vanes from a
sheet of balsa wood proved to be the best solution. Here, the vanes would be hand sanded from a 1/16thick balsa
sheet. A paper template of a NACA 0012 airfoil was used to obtain the proper cross section and chord length.
Due to the relatively low strength of balsa wood, vane coatings were considered for hardening and strengthening
the vanes. Four test articles were built using CA glue (Cyanoacrylate), hobby brand 15 minute epoxy, Elmer's Wood
Glue, and a no coating (control) article. The hobby epoxy coating yielded the most durable part, but was also the
heaviest. The CA glue was the lightest of the coatings, but most brittle, and wood glue came in at 2nd behind the
epoxy. In the end, the coatings were thrown out for weight savings as strength was deemed a secondary penalty
compared to weight. As the project neared completion, a small CNC (Computer Numeric Control) mill had been
purchased, which was used to precision cut the flight article vanes. The use of the CNC mill allowed for accurate
fabrication of the vane dimensions, specifically regarding the NACA 0012 profile. 45 degree cutouts were made to
the inside corners of the vanes to prevent pitch vanes from colliding with the set of roll vanes.
Even at their maximum thickness, the vanes are very thin due to their chord length. So, rather than running a
single axel through the span, separate axels were fixed to the root and tip of the vane. The tip axels were formed out
of wooden dowel rods and the root axels of 1/16 diameter carbon rods. A jig was made to ensure that the axels
remained perpendicular to the vane at the root and tip. The axels are located at the vane quarter-chord location so
that low control (hinge) moments are required.
The vanes were designed such that 1 vane in the set of 2 would drive the set. For example, the servo linkage
would attach to the axel of the driver vane. A passive linkage would then be connected from the driver vane to the
passive vane, such that when the driver vane is actuated the passive vane is also actuated by the same amount. The
passive linkage was fabricated using 0.015 music wire (spring steel), and 0.015 ID aluminum tube for the hinges.
Figure 19 depicts the servo linkage and driver vane and passive vane linkage.

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Figure 19: Servos are linked to the driver vane via carbon fiber rods.
The passive vane is linked to the driver vane via .015 inch wire.
The vane endplates were constructed from balsa and measured one inch wide for the narrow section, 1.5 wide
for the wider section and are 1.75 tall. Each endplate was fitted between the four sets of ribs and attached to the
outer duct wall via epoxy (Figure 19). Nylon bushings were used to act as bearings where the vane axels and
endplates meet. This helped the vane axels rotate smoothly. Regarding the inner vane support, a rapid prototype
cylinder was used as the lower centerbody. The rapid prototype element contained hollowed out tubes for which the
vane axels could be positioned. Using rapid prototype material allowed for stiffening of the lower portions of the
duct wall.
The servos used for iMAV were four HXT500s. These servos weigh 0.18 oz and provide 11 in*oz of torque.
The servos and control horn of the vanes were connected via carbon fiber rod. This carbon linkage connected to a
1/64 diameter spring steel wire on both ends. The portion of wire connected to the servo was set 3/16 from the
servos center. In order to ensure that a servo movement of 3 degrees corresponded to a 1 degree deflection of the
vanes, it was calculated that the control arm should be offset 0.125 from the axels center. All attachment points
between the carbon rod and spring steel was accomplished via epoxy.

IV. Vehicle Testing

Tests conducted on the iMAV consist of landing gear drop tests, constrained thrust tests, electronic bench tests
and the early stages of tether testing. The drop tests looked at the maximum height the iMAV could sustain without
causing damage to the vehicle body and whether the legs or joint attachment would fail first. Thrusts tests,
conducted in a constrained stand allowed for the measurements of the actual thrust produced by the motor and
propeller. Bench testing was conducted on the vehicle avionics to test the readiness of the electronic and control
systems for flight. Tether testing is currently being conducted and will allow for the analysis of natural yaw
tendencies and the ability of controlled flight and the sensitivity to disturbances. The iMAV has just entered this
phase of testing.
A. Landing Gear Drop Tests
Drop tests were performed to test the landing gear legs strength and their attachment to the duct. The test model
used for the drop tests was created using foam blocks to approximate the duct. These foam blocks were cut to
measure six inches in diameter and stacked and glued to represent the duct height of 3.25. A 1/2 hole was drilled
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through the center of the foam. This hole was used to house a wooden dowel which protruded from the bottom of
the foam duct by 1.75. This simulated the vanes that protruding from the duct in the actual vehicle. Lead weights
were added to the top of the foam to simulate the weight of the designed vehicle (20 oz). Fiberglass and epoxy were
used to attach the landing gear to the test duct. The landing gear legs were constructed out of the previously
mentioned 1/8 O.D. music wire.
The crude drop test model can be seen in Figure 20. The model was dropped from specified heights to test the
landing gear in an engine out failure. The model was then inspected for yielding of the landing gear or failure at the
attachment location. The dowel position was also inspected to determine whether it had impacted the ground and
receded up into the foam, indicating the potential occurrence of damage to the control vanes. The drop tests showed
that the landing gear were capable of sustaining a fall from 30 inches AGL without excessive deformation to the
landing gear or the attachment method. At a 30 fall, the attachment point failed, and the landing gear were slightly
bent. The researchers observed that the fiberglass was tearing at the bottom of the attachment point and believe that
this is due to splaying of the legs. Also, based on the dowel position, a fall from this height may cause significant
damage to the control vanes.

Figure 20: Landing gear test model.

A secondary observation was that, at drops from above 2ft and above, the model would bounce off the ground,
flip over and land on its side or top. This is not desirable because the key components of the vehicle are located in
the upper centerbody, and severe damage may result if the actual vehicle behaved in this manner. The researchers
determined that the actual vehicle (13.6 oz) should have smaller diameter landing legs, providing a softer landing.
Thus, if the vehicle is damaged on landing, it should be to the bottom section of the vehicle as these components are
easier and cheaper to replace than those contained in the top portion of the vehicle. This was accomplished by
reducing the music wires O.D. from 1/8 to 1/16. This smaller diameter allows for more flexibility and absorption
of force upon impact, diminishing the chance of flipping the vehicle over. While this solved the chance of tip over,
the trade off resulted in the 1/16 landing gear bending enough that the researchers were concerned of damage to the
control vanes. A solution was needed which would retain the provided flexibility of the 1/16 wire while yet being
stiff enough to protect the control vanes from ground impact. Attaching fishing line around the perimeter of the
landing gear solved this complication. The fishing line was attached to the gear while the vehicle rested on a flat
surface. Thus, the landing legs were in their splayed out form. As the landing gear return to their natural state (no
bending) upon leaving the ground, the fishing line becomes slack. This allows for the landing gear to flex upon
impact, absorbing the initial force and preventing the vehicle from bouncing. As the landing gear continues to splay
from the force of the landing, the fishing line becomes taut, adding stiffness to the landing gear and preventing the
control vanes from contacting the ground. The fishing line attached to the landing gear is shown in Figure 21 below.

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Figure 21: Fishing line attached around the perimeter of the landing gear.

B. Thrust testing
A thrust stand was constructed to measure actual thrust capabilities of fan, duct, and motor combination. The
thrust stand is a simple balance arm with the vehicle on one side and a scale on the other. When the vehicle
produces thrust, the opposing end of the balance compresses an electronic scale, and thrust force is obtained. In this
configuration the duct exhaust can be placed over the edge of a table to minimize ground effect. During thrust tests,
the throttle is commanded by a microcontroller, which also records battery voltage and current draw. To detect fan
RPM, a laser beam was aimed through the fan plane onto a phototransistor. A multimeter was used to detect the
frequency at which the phototransistor was shaded from the laser beam by the fan. Multiplying this frequency by
the number of fan blades (3) and dividing by 60 seconds yields fan RPM.
The thrust tests demonstrated that the system was capable of producing thrust greater than 1.5x the gross weight
of the completed vehicle. Thrust tests also demonstrated that as the battery voltage dropped, fan RPM decreased for
a given throttle command. Currently the pilot has full command of the throttle, but if the throttle command were
given in part or whole to the onboard system, this discrepancy would have to be characterized and accounted for.
Figure 22 shows the XROTOR predictions and results of thrust tests plotted as Thrust versus RPM and Figure 23
depicts the thrust stand.

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Figure 22: Comparison of actual thrust for a given RPM with the theoretical
prediction.

Figure 23: Balance arm and scale used for thrust testing.

C. Bench and Tether Testing

Bench testing was conducted to bridge the difference between flight design and flight readiness for the avionics
and controls systems. All individual components were verified to work properly before being tested with the fully
assembled system. These components included servos, the IMU, the ESC, and microcontroller board. All
components were powered via the battery eliminator circuit (BEC) on the ESC, as would be the case in flight. When
possible, a 12V wall supply replaced the batteries as the power source to the BEC.
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The microcontroller forms the backbone of the avionics system gathering information from the IMU and
wireless connection while simultaneously controlling the servos and sending information back over the wireless.
Once the wireless link was tested, it was used to monitor the other processes such as ADC readings of the IMU and
individual servo commands. Once the IMU and servo commands were working, the onboard control algorithm was
tested.
The basic function of the control algorithm is to translate the IMU signals into servo commands. The first step in
the process is to estimate the angular orientation of the vehicle by Kalman filtering accelerometer and gyroscope
readings. Then the LQR control code is calculated to give elevator, aileron and rudder deflections. Finally the
deflections are mixed into the four servos and translated into PWM commands out to the servos.
A Kalman filter was used to mix accelerometer and gyroscope readings to obtain the best estimate of the actual
vehicle state. Using two perpendicular accelerometers the angle of the vehicle with respect to gravity can be
calculated as an arctangent. A second method is to integrate the gyroscope readings. One method of testing was to
hang the vehicle by a string and let it move as a pendulum. The filter was tested by comparing the observed angles
to those calculated by the Kalman filter. Another test was to subject the vehicle to large translation accelerations,
which would produce inaccurate angles from the acceleration arctangent calculations while, the gyroscope influence
on the Kalman filter kept the angle estimates accurate. During the course of testing it was found that the fan RPM
produced a large amount of noise in the accelerometers. A fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis of accelerometer
outputs at various fan RPMs demonstrated this clearly as in Figure 24. The current solution is low pass filter with
cutoff frequency as low as 2Hz. A small range FFT onboard the vehicle is being looked into as a method of
determining the cutoff frequency on the fly. Rubber vibration dampeners are also being implemented on the IMU
board and motor bolts to reduce the magnitude of these vibrations in the acceleration data.

Figure 24: A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) analysis of accelerometer output.

Initial tether testing was conducted with the vehicle constrained from above by a single tether line and 4
additional tether lines linking the landing gear to eyebolts on the floor. One person controlled the upper tether while
one or two others controlled the lower tethers. A separate electrical umbilical was connected to the vehicle to
provide a kill switch at a safe distance. This also offered the option of running external power to the vehicle for
longer test times without having to recharge the batteries. During the tests, the vehicle was first switched on and
allowed to work through its IMU sensor reading initialization for 1-2 seconds. The Kalman filter gains also reach a
steady state during this time. The throttle is then increased until thrust is nearly weight. Tether testing is in its very
early stages and as of this writing the vehicle has not been able to attain free flight, but is expected to in the near
future.

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V. Conclusions
The final preliminary design of the iMAV detailed a vehicle weight of 1.25 lbs. The vehicles overall dimensions
called for a height of 10.25 and an overall width of 9. During detailed design, the authors compared various COTS
propellers using in house analysis to choose the appropriate propeller. AVID OAV and XROTOR were used to
accomplish this. These same tools were used in combination with XFOIL to design the MAVs stators in order to
provide torque cancellation. Using AVID OAV, a computationally-created aerodynamic model was created which
provide analysis on forces and moments the iMAV would encounter during various flight conditions. These results
aided in the formulation of the vehicles control law.
During the fabrication phase, the authors learned of improved techniques and lighter materials, which aided in
the vehicles construction. These techniques included methods of stator layups by using fiberglass draped over a
cylinder to acquire the desired camber and twist distribution, the use of a CNC to construct the vanes with a NACA
0012 profile among others. These methods combined with data received during initial drop tests of the landing gear
allowed for the reduction of the GTOW by 32% and yet retaining the propulsion power of 22 hp. This has yielded
the possibility of the addition of a payload up to 7 oz without the incursion of performance penalty.
As it stands, the iMAV has entered the testing phase. The first rounds of tether tests have begun. The authors are
pleased to report that the iMAV first achieved hover status on December 29, 2009 during its first run of tether tests.
Future tests and free flight are planned to occur within 2010.

References
1. Stiltner, B., Olien, C., and Faber, J., Conceptual and Preliminary Design of a Remotely Piloted Ducted Fan MAV,
AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Orlando, Florida, Jan. 4 - 7, 2010.
2. Aircraft Control and Simulation, 2nd Edition, Stevens, B., and Lewis, F., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey,
2003.

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