Transition flight simulation of a hybrid VTOL fixed-wing drone

Aerospace Engineering Department, Institut Teknologi Bandung, recently develops a medical transport drone for distributing medical supplies to remote areas. A hybrid vertical take-off landing (VTOL) fixed-wing drone type is used as the basic design. In the early development process, a commercial of the self (COTS) drone product is used as the platform. This paper discusses the simulation of transition flight maneuver of the drone, specifically in the longitudinal mode. Two different transition scenarios are designed, simulated, and analyzed to obtain the energy requirement for each scenario. The energy requirement is defined as the propulsive energy spent during the transition. Furthermore, the dynamic characteristics of the drone during the transition phase is carefully analyzed to determine whether the maneuver can be performed manually or must be assisted by an automatic flight controller. It is obtained that the climb and fall scenario requires less propulsive energy than the constant altitude scenario. However, the transition requires a proper automatic flight controller since manual input given in the simulation can not make the drone fly in the desired condition.