Innovative Design and Comprehensive Aerodynamic Performance Investigations on Various Possible Propeller Positions of an Advanced Hexacopter for Easy Manoeuvring

This work deals with the computational investigations of the component performances of advanced hexacopters under various manoeuvrings of the focused mission profiles. The Advanced Hexacopter is one kind of multirotor vehicle that contains more propellers and flexible arms, which makes this multirotor very manoeuvrable and aerodynamically efficient. This hexacopter was designed specifically to detect leakages and the presence of harmful gases in and around nuclear power plants, along with enhanced payload-carrying capability. This advanced hexacopter contains a frame composed of modified arms equipped with coaxial rotors, which servo motors control. By providing specific and simple inputs to the microcontroller, the hexacopter can autonomously undergo forward and backward manoeuvrings. The primary objective of this study is to analyse and compare different propeller configurations that improve the manoeuvring capability of this unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), specifically emphasizing forward/backward and side manoeuvrings through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Especially, this research was to design and simulate a new model of the hexacopter frame and to obtain an optimal configuration of propellers that would provide the best aerodynamic performance for the hexacopter. Through the deflection of the propeller cum flexible arm configuration at particular angles, the thrust value varies. The results indicate that the thrust variation in hexacopter helps to attain the desired directional movements. CFD simulations are used to identify the best propeller position system, which could give better performance than conventionally existing UAV designs. This work deals with the analysis of how various propeller setups affect an UAV’s ability to hover at a fixed altitude and manoeuvre efficiently in forward as well as side directions. Thus, we concluded that this advanced hexacopter over conventional hexacopter models is its ability to perform forward autonomously and backward manoeuvres without altering the rotor RPM.