Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024 - 38

Application Briefs
A recent partnership with Collins Aerospace, an RTX business,
proved how Parasanti's software could help. They collaborated
to demonstrate a new capability that combines
two technologies:
* Collins' RapidEdge Mission System, software that gives
teams of uncrewed aerial vehicles the ability to work together
- a capability Collins calls " collaborative autonomy. "
* Parasanti's UNITE application, which was originally named
Lasso and allows UAVs to download new software even
when they're in a contested environment or beyond the
range of their command center.
At Collins' RapidEdge Battle Lab in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the
team presented a simulated scenario, where they deployed a
team of UAVs from a helicopter.
During the mission, manned aircraft received intelligence
that required the UAVs to change their approach. Parasanti's
application deployed an additional UAV that flew to the
Morphing Aircraft Systems
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN
765-494-6792
www.purdue.edu
W
hat if components in aircraft could morph in response to
their external conditions, much like a bird changes the
shape of its wings? And what if those components could function
like an octopus arm, operating independently of a central
control system? Inspired by these natural phenomena, a
Purdue research team is developing morphing systems for
hypersonic vehicles that respond to their environment.
Current hypersonic vehicle designs are highly efficient,
but only in specific, preset conditions. As aircraft exceed
speeds of Mach 5, the external conditions acting on the
body of the vehicle change dramatically. For example, a
vehicle designed to perform at Mach 5 conditions becomes
increasingly inefficient as it climbs to speeds of Mach 10.
To combat this problem, Andres Arrieta, associate professor
of mechanical engineering, and Rodney Trice, Professor of
Materials Engineering, are designing aircraft systems with
multistable structures - components that can take on multiple
shapes in response to external forces. These structures
function through a combination of mechanical and material
interventions that not only make morphing hypersonic systems
possible but may also reduce weight and complexity.
" Current mechanisms that help aircraft maneuver, like
the aileron or tail, create noise and drag, " Arrieta said. " These
mechanisms are also chains of different parts, and each of
these parts are joined by a joint. The more parts and joints
you have, the more complex your system becomes. So if we
have a structure that is just one big part but is also capable of
deforming, then there is potential to reduce not only complexity
but also failure, maintenance costs and weight -
which is the most important consideration in aviation. "
38
team and, in seconds, installed the software they needed to
complete the mission - a step that saved the UAVs from having
to fly back to a helicopter for the download.
It saves time, keeps manned aircraft farther from danger,
and, by transferring data as close to the source as possible,
reduces the risk of an adversary intercepting the download.
The demonstration is an early success story for an initiative
called Powered by Collins that launched in 2023. Collins' Director
of Open Innovation, Jonathan Hartman, started it to help
the business find small-to-medium-sized companies with technologies
that could easily be integrated into Collins products.
Collins selected three companies to participate in its first
round and opened the program again in 2024 focused on key
research areas including designing new aircraft displays and
using data to improve air-travel time estimates, operations
and product lifecycles.
www.collinsaerospace.com
Developing this type of system requires advanced sensing
technology localized to and controlled within the morphing
components. The inherent structural responsiveness is
programmed to reshape the component depending on conditions
such as temperature and speed. This technology is
completely independent from other devices that typically
control an aircraft's movement, such as microprocessors
and actuators.
" Think about something like an octopus arm that can perform
certain behaviors in a completely autonomous way without
having to tap into the brain, " Arrieta said. " Similarly, you
can create a software program embedded into the structure
that is locally processing information and morphing without
any input from a central processor. "
The goal is to create a surface that can take on a variety of
shapes so the aircraft can maintain optimality over a range of
speeds, temperatures and altitudes.
www.purdue.edu
mobilityengineeringtech.com
Aerospace & Defense Technology, June 2024
http://www.collinsaerospace.com http://www.purdue.edu http://www.purdue.edu http://mobilityengineeringtech.com
Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace & Defense Technology - June 2024
