New Modular Product-Platform-Planning Approach to Design Macroscale Reconfigurable Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The benefits of a family of macroscale reconfigurable unmanned aerial vehicles to meet distinct flight requirements are readily evident. The reconfiguration capability of an unmanned-aerial-vehicle family for different aerial tasks offers a clear cost advantage to end users over acquiring separate unmanned aerial vehicles dedicated to specific types of missions. At the same time, it allows the manufacturer the opportunity to capture distinct market segments, while saving on overhead costs, transportation costs, and after-market services. Such macroscale reconfigurability can be introduced through effective application of modular product-platform-planning concepts. This paper advances and implements the Comprehensive Product Platform Planning framework to design a family of three reconfigurable twin-boom unmanned aerial vehicles with different mission requirements. The original Comprehensive Product Platform Planning method was suitable for scale-based product-family design. In this paper, important modifi...

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