A UAV developed by the Japanese Ministry of Defence. The video's in Japanese unfortunately, but it does show some interesting concepts that I don't believe have been seen in many drones before.
The principle new concept is the single ducted fan that it appears to use. Unfortunately it's covered up in the close ups, but it appears to use thrust vectoring for stability and control. At the end (last 20 seconds or so) there's a video of the vehicle in flight, which clearly shows the four vectoring boxes twitching away.
Is a single ducted fan a viable method for a UAV? I understand that ducted fans have greater efficiencies than open propellers do, but do you think the extra weight of the duct would counteract that advantage? It's obviously something that works for these guys, and it'd be interesting to see how the concept could translate into DIY vehicles.
Comments
Coanda effect UAV flight demo 2 from Jean-Louis Naudin on Vimeo.
Regards, Jean-LouisCoanda effect UAV demonstration from Jean-Louis Naudin on Vimeo.
Regards, Jean-Louisplus the duct shields the prop well, looks safer to operate near people than say a heli
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.p...
These single ducted fan concepts are a bit complicated and bulky, I think the AESIR concept that uses the coanda effect is much better. Their website is under construction but you can see a small presentation and comparison with the 'conventional' ducted fan uas here: AESIR 'flying saucer' UAV