Design and Application of Additively Manufactured Compliant Mechanism Ailerons for sUAS

A design study was conducted to bridge the gap between conventional hinged aileron and compliant mechanism controlled morphing wing aileron designs for small unmanned aircraft systems using additive manufacturing methods. Taking advantage of the rapid prototyping capabilities of fused filament fabrication machines, several design options were designed and fabricated using multiple materials. Final design selection was determined by part usability and by metrics of reduced part count, weight, material use, assembly time, and other factors are enabled by additive manufacturing. The final compliant design was printed, tested and compared to a printed, conventional-style hinged aileron on a flying test-bed to identify aerodynamic benefits and to prove functionality. Data suggests some aerodynamic benefit to be gained with the proposed compliant morphing wing aileron. Additional improvements include a reduction in total part count and time to assemble with improvements in final component weight and material usage possible using this design process. The use of additive manufacturing enabled rapid prototyping of concepts, greatly accelerating the design process and resulting in a novel design.