DARcorporation engineers developed the Modular Air Vehicle Research Intelligent Kit (MAVRIK) as part of a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project in collaboration with the University of Kansas and Kansas State University. MAVRIK is a modular unmanned aerial system capable of vertical take-off and landing that can be easily reconfigured to perform different customized missions. Prefabricated components can be selected to better suit specific missions, such as high aspect ratio wings for long endurance missions. It can be used as a test bed for testing new technologies using specialized components, such as a wing with Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP). Download our paper titled “Design, Build and Testing of the MAVRIK with Distributed Electric Propulsion” presented in 2022 AIAA Aviation Forum.

DEP principles considered in the design of MAVRIK included the effects of propeller quantity, diameter, diameter ratio between propellers, spacing, overlapping and motor mount positioning with respect to the wing. Experimental tests were performed to compare against the analytical results.

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been performed to calculate the loads and stresses to ensure propellers and major airframe members that include wing, fuselage, tail, landing gear and 14 motors mounts are structurally sound.

In-house facilities are used to manufacture carbon fiber panels and frames. The nose cone and portions of the wing and tail are 3D printed in the DARcorporation Print Lab. The integrated avionics system includes a commercial-off-the-shelf flight controller, telemetry/communication system and power distribution/management system. DARcorporation developed an isolated, independent, kill system that can kill a single motor for use as a tool during flight test or all motors as a safety feature any time the engines are running.

DARcorporation developed a Hover Test Bed (HTB) vehicle to test hover characteristics of the MAVRIK layout. The HTB is a simplified beam structure with motors positioned in the same layout as the 14 motor MAVRIK configuration. Tether testing of the HTB validated the control scheme and flight controller gains. MAVRIK has been tether tested and control gains adjusted to assure MAVRIK is well-behaved during VTOL and hover testing. Additional hover testing, transition to horizontal flight and conventional flight testing is ongoing.