24. Finite Element Analysis of Amphibian UAV Structure

Unmanned aerial vehicles are extensively exploited for diverse applications importantly surveillance, reconnaissance, defense, and military. Development of unmanned amphibious vehicle with integrating features of multirotor and hovercraft principles to navigate along and above water body, land surface, and also flying in the air is a challenging task. This article presents a conceptual design of amphibious vehicle for the payload capacity of 7 kg with an endurance of 20 min and provision for mounting water sampler to collect water samples in remote water bodies. Finite element analysis (FEA) is performed to evaluate the structural strength characteristics of each part of the amphibious vehicle, and the integrity of the structure is analyzed. FEA results indicated that the designed amphibious vehicle structure is well within the stress limit and the minimal displacement is obtained. Materials for various parts of vehicles are determined through structural analysis, and the overall amphibious structure is analyzed with a due consideration of lift carrying capacity, payload, battery, and other electronic module weights.