27th Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, 19 - 24 September 2010, Nice, France
Paper ICAS 2010-3.2.3

TESTING OF ADAPTIVE AIRFOIL CONTROL FOR UAV USING SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY ACTUATORS

E. J. Abdullah, C. Bil, S. Watkins
RMIT Univ., Australia

Keywords: adaptive airfoil, shape memory alloy, uav

Aerodynamic efficiency is one of the most important considerations for long-endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) operation. The use of SMA actuators is demonstrated in a wind tunnel test experiment to vary the camber line to give an maximum L/D ratio for a required lift-coefficient.

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