The Mesicopter: A Meso-Scale Flight Vehicle NIAC Phase II Technical Proposal

A team of researchers from Stanford University, with support from industrial partners Intel and SRI, propose to design and build the 'mesicopter', a centimeter-size electric helicopter designed to stay airborne while carrying its own power supply. This device represents a revolutionary class of flight vehicles at an unprecedented size and suggests a range of potential uses. Mesicopters may be used on earth for atmospheric science, permitting in-situ measurements of meteorological phenomena such as downbursts and wind shear, and on planets like Mars where atmospheric flight permits unique opportunities for exploration. Swarms of mesicopters could provide atmospheric scientists with information not obtainable using current techniques and could aid in the understanding of phenomena that play a critical role in aviation safety. Better characterization of atmospheric phenomena on Mars and other simple sensing tasks may be feasible, with these very low mass and low cost aerial micro-robots. The mesicopter will pioneer the application of new aerodynamic design concepts and novel fabrication techniques. These advances may ultimately allow the mesicopter to be scaled down to millimeter dimensions, although nearer term applications exist for 1 – 10 cm mesicopters. Significant challenges are anticipated in the areas of materials, battery technology, aerodynamics, control, and testing. In the first phase of the program, basic aerodynamic design methods were developed and fabrication processes evaluated. Successful constrained tests of a 4-rotor mesicopter demonstrated the basic feasibility of the design and manufacturing concepts. This proposal summarizes the results of the first six-month phase of the program and describes planned work for Phase II which will address the development of free-flying devices of interest to future NASA missions on Earth and other planets.