Design of UAV Systems Objectives

Lesson objective - to review the concept of

System Design
including...
• What is it?
• How is it different from other design?
• Discuss related concepts
• Requirements
• Defined and Derived
• Performance
• Allocated and Status
• How to start the process
• What are the expectations?
• Semester student design projects
• Example problem
• Homework
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-1
 Design of UAV Systems Definition

System Design

Design of a complete system - example, a

UAV system and all of its elements
• Air vehicle including • Control station
• Airframe • Payload
• Engine • Support system
• Avionics
• Training
• Software
• Etc. • Logistics
• Communications • Etc.

System Design addresses requirements and their

design implementation

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-2

 Design of UAV Systems Definition

Requirement
• What a product must or should do (i.e. the
documented expectations for a design)
• Example - The mission system software
must must employ an open system
architecture or ….
• The average unit cost for production
units 11-20 should not exceed $10 million
• Documents customer, program, functional
and designer expectations
• Requirements include performance, cost,
schedule and risk.

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-3

 Design of UAV Systems Another definition

Requirements based approach

• The design of a product from the “Top-Down” - a
downward looking activity
• From the highest level of definition to its many
layers of subsystems
• At the top-most level - driven by customer
expectations and needs
Called “defined requirements”
• At every other level - driven by what is required
to meet higher level requirements
Called “derived and/or allocated requirements”
• This is the essence of Systems Engineering
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-4
 Design of UAV Systems Example - defined requirement

High Altitude Endurance (HAE) UAV

top-level system requirement

Provide effective all-weather surveillance of 40,000

square miles in 24 hours at an operating radius of
3000 nm using altitude and standoff distance to
enhance survivability.

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-5

 Design of UAV Systems Example - design solution

This is not a very

good example of a
defined requirement
Global Hawk’s only
defined requirement
was cost <$10M

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/global_hawk.htm
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-6
 Design of UAV Systems Example - derived requirements
• Air vehicle
- Operating altitude - 65,000 feet
- Maximum range - 14,000 nm
- Maximum endurance - 42 hours
- 1 loss in 200 missions
- Etc.
• Airframe
- 25,600 lb gross takeoff weight
- 9,200 lb empty weight
- Cruise L/D = 33-35
- Etc.
• Engine
- Unmodified existing turbofan
- Installed thrust (SLS) = 7900 lbf?
- Installed thrust (65Kft) = 750 lbf?
- Etc.
 Generator
- Output power = Z http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/global_hawk.htm
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-7
 Design of UAV Systems Example - design solution

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/global_hawk.htm
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-8
 Design of UAV Systems Other requirement types

• There are two other types of requirements and they

must never be confused
• Threshold Requirement - the minimum level of
acceptable performance
• Goal Requirement - the maximum level of desired
performance
• What customers are telling you when they define
goals and thresholds
• If your design does not meet threshold levels it is
unacceptable
• If your design exceeds goal performance you get
no benefit (it is “gold plated”)
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-9
 Design of UAV Systems Expanded definition

Threshold Requirement - The lowest level of performance

acceptable for of a design. If performance is below a threshold, the
design must be changed. If redesign cannot solve the problem
within defined cost and risk, something else has to change.
Example - You are responsible for airframe design. Your customer
has established a UAV threshold design mission range of 13000
miles. Your project chief systems engineer has allocated you an
airframe a weight of 9,200 lbs. When performance is calculated, you
discover the airframe weighs 9,200 lbs but it can only fly 12,0000
miles. Your design team has to make a design change
• The deficiency is in a defined requirement (range)
If the deficiency were in a derived requirement (e.g. weight), you
might request an increased weight allocation (which might be
denied) to allow increased size. The best solution - optimize the
existing design to get better performance or try different designs
What you cannot do is hide the problem and hope that you can fix it
later. Engineering ethics !
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-10
 Design of UAV Systems Expanded definition
Goal Requirement - The highest level of performance needed
from a design. If a goal is exceeded, (1) the design is resized until it
meets the goal or (2) the design is retained and the excess performance
is turned into margin.
Example - You are responsible for airframe design. Your UAV has a
goal mission range of 14000 miles and an allocated airframe weight of
9,200 lbs. When performance is calculated, your team discovers it
weighs 9,200 lbs but it can fly15,0000 miles. The design team
(airframe, payload, support, etc.) has choices, two of which are:
1. Reduce the size of the airframe or…...
2. Hold the size and define a performance margin to cover an
unexpected (but probable) future performance loss
What you cannot do is to hide the excess performance from the rest
of the design team to provide a private margin for unexpected airframe
problems. Engineering ethics !
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-11
 Design of UAV Systems Performance
• In this course, “performance” can mean more than
technical performance (e.g. lift-to-drag ratio). It can also
mean cost and risk.
• Performance, cost and risk are all related.
• An example, a UAV might meet a mission range
requirement by (1) increasing wing thickness (increased
fuel capacity), (2) by using expensive (but existing)
advanced materials materials or (3) by developing a
potentially low cost (but risky) fuel transfer system to
maintain an optimum center of gravity location in flight.
• The designer has responsibility to address solutions
across all three areas.
• This can only be done if the designer (and everybody
else on the project) understands the requirements in
all three areas - technical performance, cost and risk.
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-12
 Design of UAV Systems Performance types
• There are two types of performance and they also
must never be confused
• Allocated performance - the level of performance
desired for a design to meet overall requirements.
Allocations are expressed in terms of thresholds and
goals and they trace directly to requirements
• Status performance - the level of performance
actually calculated for your design
• What the project is telling you when they allocate
performance thresholds and goals
• This is your design space
• What the design is telling you when you get status
performance
• This is what the laws of physics say about how
your design performs Engineering ethics !
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-13
 Design of UAV Systems Example - Goals vs. Status

STATUS

GOAL

http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/global_hawk.htm

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-14

 Design of UAV Systems Sometimes goals change
International Briefing, August 1999

Endurance at 3200 nm : 24 hrs

January
• Performance Goals 2001
– Range: 12,500 nmi
– Endurance: 35 hrs
– Endurance @1200nm: 24 hrs

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-15

 Design of UAV Systems “Performance” measures

Another important performance issue is to make sure

our design “performance” levels meet requirements
• All systems, whether simple or complex, have multiple
elements designed to meet multiple requirements
…and which are drivers and which “fall out”
• Example – Thrust required for takeoff may “fall out” of
thrust required to meet an acceleration requirement
It is also important to identify which are most critical
• While it is important to monitor all “tracking performance
parameters” (TPMs), the most critical or “key performance
parameters” (KPPs) need focused attention and visibility
Therefore, we identify a small number (5-10) of KPPs for
system level attention and related sets of TPMs for
attention at every other level of the system design
• This ensures that the entire team is focused on the most
critical issues at all times and at all levels of the design
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-16
 Design of UAV Systems System Design Product

Question - What does the system

design process produce?

• A product?

• A design?

• Something else?

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-17

 Design of UAV Systems System Design Product

Answer - DOCUMENTED TECHNICAL DECISIONS

• The primary product of any design process
- Everything else (including design, analysis and test)
substantiates design decisions
• What the decisions are (drawings and text)
• Data to convince others that the decisions are
correct (test and analysis results)
• Rationale behind the decisions (results of trade-
off studies)
• Instructions on how to implement the decisions
(drawings and specifications)
• Without good documentation, the product is useless
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-18
 Design of UAV Systems Expanded list

(1) Design decisions System design is about more than concepts

(2) Documentation and analysis – it is also about planning
• Requirements • Cost
• Defined • Development
• Derived • Production
• ConOps • Operations & support
• Description • Risk assessment
• Effectiveness • Identification
• System description • Mitigation
• Physical • Fall back planning
• Functional • Development plans
• Performance substantiation • Test & evaluation
• Analysis • Concept/technology demonstrator
• Test data • Prototype
• Design rationale/trades • Initial production
• Figures of merit • Pre-planned product improvement
• KPPs and TPMs (3) Simulation
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-19
 Design of UAV Systems How to start a system design

1.Define a baseline system concept - System Engineer leads

team to decide initial requirements and concepts for
- System At this point, customers often define

Customer leads
- Design team supports
project cost, risk and schedule
- Airframe
- The engineering supporting these
- Payload estimates better be good!
- Mission control - We will use our parametric methods to
-Support ensure good up front decisions
2. Develop good initial pre-concept design
-Trade requirements and fully explore potential approaches
3. Cycles (1-2) repeat until concept converges …..
4. Develop Initial Preferred System Concept - System

- Customer supports
Design team leads
Engineer leads functional teams in definition of initial baseline
- Each team proposes their design approach
- All teams discuss and reach agreement (Lesson 2c)
- Individual teams define designs to appropriate level for analysis
- Individual teams analyze their designs and report results
- System Engineer leads effort and assesses system effects
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-20
 Design of UAV Systems How to start (cont’d)

5. Assess initial system concept design-analysis results

• Led by System Engineer
• Allocated vs. status performance presented
• Some areas will be better than allocated
• Some areas will be worse
• Problems and potential solutions are discussed and documented

- Customer supports
Design team leads
• Trade studies to improve performance are proposed and agreed
• Revised allocations are discussed and agreed
6. Systems Engineer documents new allocations
7. Cycles (4-6) repeat until design converges
….. (sometimes to an acceptable conclusion)
8. Upon convergence, teams evaluate other options until
overall system converges to better performance. Studies
continue until improvement stops or budget runs out
9. Results are documented and presented to customer
10. Team has party and many beers are consumed
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-21
 Design of UAV Systems Expectations

You should now understand the concept of system design

1. Design follows requirements
2. Requirements define what a system needs to do as
appropriate for each design phase
3. Requirements do not document a design on an after-
the-fact basis
4. Design solutions are traded to ensure that they
reflect the best balance of cost, risk and performance
5. Design solutions (and performance) should not be
dictated (by the boss or individual designers)
Today requirements also evolve with the design
• Even threshold requirements are subjected to
trade off studies!
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-22
 Design of UAV Systems Next subject - Student projects

• Next generation tactical UAV (TUAV)

- Support army/marine type ground operations
• Maritime search UAV
- Support navy/coast guard type operations
• Standoff intelligence, surveillance and
reconnaissance (ISR) UAV
- Global Hawk follow-on type
• Penetrating ISR UAV
- Dark Star follow-on type
• Air-to-ground combat UAV (UCAV)
- X45 follow-on type
- You will select one of the five as a semester design project
- It will also be the basis for your homework problems

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-23

 Design of UAV Systems Next generation TUAV

Forward based operations from 3000 ft paved runway

- Provide continuous (24x7) day/night/under weather near real time
ISR coverage of 100 nm x 100 nm operations area
- Able to resolve range of ground moving targets to 10 m anywhere
within combat area and transmit detection data within 2 minutes
- Able to provide on-demand positive identification of friendly troops vs.
opponent forces (req’d resolution = 10-20 cm) and transmit imagery
to base and/or infantry units within 3 minutes of request
- UAV squadron is based within 70 nm of combat areas
- Each squadron provides simultaneous support of 10 infantry units,
each operating in 10nm x 10 nm combat area
- Ignore survivability effects
Minimum required trades
- Communication architecture - Air vehicle size and numbers
- Sensor(s) required - Air vehicle speed(s)
- Control architecture - Propulsion type and size
- Operating altitude(s) - Aspect ratio
- Time on station - Wing Loading
 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-24
 Design of UAV Systems Next generation TUAV

10 nm Combat area
70 nm

10 nm

100 nm
50 nm
Base

Area of operations

100 nm

 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-25

 Design of UAV Systems Maritime search UAV

• Land based with 5000 foot paved runway

- Squadron is based on the coast
- Able to provide continuous day/night/all weather near real time
search capability of 100 x 100 nm ocean surveillance area
- Able to launch on distress call or operate from loiter during
periods of heightened alert (24 hrs day/7 days a week)
- Able to resolve range of 10 sqm moving targets to 10 m within
surveillance area and transmit movement within 2 minutes
- Able to put sensors on target anywhere within search area and
transmit image within 15 minutes or less
- Able to ID small boat (req’d resolution = 0.75-1.2m) and identify
occupants as friendly (req’d resolution = 10-20 cm)
- Ignore survivability effects
• Minimum required trades - Air vehicle size and numbers
- Communication architecture - Air vehicle speed(s)
- Sensor(s) required - Propulsion type and size
- Control architecture - Aspect ratio
- Operating altitude(s) - Wing Loading
- Time on station
 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-26
 Design of UAV Systems Maritime search UAV

Search
area

100 nm
Base
Loiter
location(s)?

100 nm

 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-27

 Design of UAV Systems Stand off UAV

Land based with 5000 foot paved runway

- Provide continuous (24x7) day/night/under weather near real time
ISR coverage of 100 nm x 100 nm surveillance area
- Able to resolve range of ground moving targets to 10 m anywhere
within surveillance area and transmit detection data within 2 minutes
- Able to provide on-demand positive identification of 0.5m x 0.5m
targets and transmit imagery within 10 minutes
- UAV is based within 200 nm of combat area
- Ignore survivability effects
Minimum required trades
- Communication architecture - Air vehicle size and numbers
- Sensor(s) required - Air vehicle speed(s)
- Control architecture - Propulsion type and size
- Operating altitude(s) - Aspect ratio
- Time on station - Wing Loading
- Loiter pattern and location

 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-28

 Design of UAV Systems Stand off UAV
100 nm

Surveillance
area

200 nm
Loiter
location(s)?

 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-29

 Design of UAV Systems Penetrating UAV

Land based with 5000 foot paved runway

- Provide continuous (24x7) day/night/under weather near real time
ISR coverage of 100 nm x 100 nm surveillance area
- Able to resolve range of ground moving targets to 10 m anywhere
within surveillance area and transmit detection data within 2 minutes
- Able to provide on-demand positive identification of 0.5m x 0.5m
targets and transmit imagery within 20 minutes
- UAV is based within 200 nm of combat area
- Ignore survivability effects
Minimum required trades
- Communication architecture - Air vehicle size and numbers
- Sensor(s) required - Air vehicle speed(s)
- Control architecture - Propulsion type and size
- Operating altitude(s) - Aspect ratio
- Time on station - Wing Loading
- Loiter pattern and location

 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-30

 Design of UAV Systems Penetrating UAV
100 nm

Surveillance
area

Loiter
location(s)?

200 nm

 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-31

 Design of UAV Systems Air-to-ground UCAV

Land based with 5000 foot paved runway

- Provide continuous (24x7) day/night/under weather ground attack
capability against 10 sqm ground moving targets within a 100 nm x
200 nm operating area
- Able to put eight 500 lb precision guided (GPS) bombs on operator
selected target within15 minutes
- Able to provide operator with positive identification of 0.3m x 0.3 m
resolution targets prior to weapons release
- UCAV is based within 200 nm of combat area
- Ignore survivability effects
Minimum required trades
- Communication architecture - Air vehicle size and numbers
- Sensor(s) required - Air vehicle speed(s)
- Control architecture - Propulsion type and size
- Operating altitude(s) - Aspect ratio
- Time on station - Wing Loading
- Loiter pattern and location

 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-32

 Design of UAV Systems Air-to-ground UCAV
200 nm

Target area

100 nm
Loiter
location(s)?

200 nm

 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-33

 Design of UAV Systems Example problem

We will use a one continuous example problem

throughout the semester to demonstrate:
(1) How to approach the problem
(2) How to apply design and analysis methods
First half focus: System requirements analysis
- Target coverage
- Time on station and response time
- Sensor size and performance
- Communications architecture and bandwidth
- Payload type, size and performance
- Manpower
Second half focus: Air vehicle and design trades
- Air vehicle size and configuration trades
- Propulsion cycle and trades
- Performance and technology
- Effectiveness
- Cost effectiveness and system optimization
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-34
 Design of UAV Systems Example - surveillance UAV

• Predator follow-on type

• Land based with 3000 foot paved runway
- Mission : provide continuous day/night/all weather, near real time,
monitoring of 200 x 200 nm area
- Basing : within 100 nm of surveillance area
- Able to resolve range of 10m sqm moving targets to 10m and
transmit ground moving target (GMT) data to base in 2 minutes
- Able to provide positive identification of selected 0.5m x 0.5 m
ground resolved distance (GRD or “resolution”) targets within 30
minutes of detection
- Ignore survivability effects
Minimum required trades
- Communication architecture - Air vehicle size and numbers
- Sensor(s) required - Air vehicle speed(s)
- Control architecture - Propulsion type and size
- Operating altitude(s) - Aspect ratio
- Time on station - Wing Loading
- Loiter pattern and location

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-35

 Design of UAV Systems Surveillance UAV
200 nm

Surveillance
area

200 nm
Loiter
location(s)?

100 nm
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-36
 Design of UAV Systems Homework assignment

(1) Select one of the 5 student projects

- The one that interests you most
- All are of approximately equal complexity
• During the first half of the semester you will work as
a team of one to define your overall system
- During the second half, you will work on (or lead) a
team to define the air vehicle and optimize the system
• Team projects (and leads) will be based on mid-term
presentations
- The most feasible projects will be selected for
continuation
(2) Send Egbert a “capability” email (1 page max)
a. Which project you would like to work on
b. Why you want to work on it
c. What unique skills and capabilities you think you
have that are applicable to the selected problem
c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-37
 Design of UAV Systems Intermission

c 2002 LM Corporation System Design 4-38