Design of a Foldable Multirotor for Rapid Deployment in Complex Environments

To cope with complex scenarios and unexpected situations, it is important to improve the portability and rapid deployment capability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This work addresses a 120 mm diameter foldable multirotor for rapid deployment in complex environments called ALIENER by hand-launched and pneumatic tube-launched, carrying a 1.5 kg payload to meet a variety of different mission requirements. The arm folding mechanism uses using torsion springs and a locking mechanism for automatic deployment and reliable locking of the arm. The strength of the locking mechanism is calibrated to ensure that it can be locked reliably without structural failure. This work also includes the design of the launcher, which uses compressed air as the power source to eject 4 kg objects to a height of 5 m. The ALIENER's automatic attitude stabilization capability is tested through handheld throw flight deployment flight experiments, demonstrating its flight process and verifying the feasibility of the design and control.