Design and development of micro-aerial vehicle for tree inspections

This paper presents the design and development of a lightweight and low risk Micro-Aerial Vehicle (MAV) for tree inspections. The proposed MAV is utilised to make inspection process safer and more efficient by deploying the MAV to augment arborists with visual assessment of tree defects at high altitude. The needs of arborist and the environment that the MAV is operating is translated into design requirements that is incorporated into the MAV design. The composite mechanical frame of the MAV was designed and analysed using finite element analysis (FEA) in Solidworks, designed using the Tsai-Hill criterion. The MAV has a unique propeller guard to protect the spinning propellers from getting caught during flight in the tree canopy, as well as to extract aerodynamics gain from the ducted design. The theoretical aerodynamics gain over unducted propeller was analysed using momentum theory. The effects of the duct length and the number of spokes at the duct outlet on the thrust generated by the propeller was experimentally studied. The high-definition visual inspection system is driven by a compact and lightweight double-rocker mechanism synthesized using analytical approach for optimal transmission angle. The best performing ducted propeller guard design and mechanism design for the actuation of the visual inspection system was implemented on the MAV and achieved successful flight in an operational environment.