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 The
Pro Observer Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) sounds like
something straight from the pages of a James Bond story:
a miniature aircraft, weighing less than a bag of a sugar,
that can be stored in a suitcase, ready to be launched
on a "spying" mission within minutes
of being unpacked. Proving that truth is sometimes stranger
than fiction, the Pro Observer is now in flight-testing,
after having been designed extensively using CFD. It seems
somehow fitting that this seemingly futuristic technology
is designed with the aid of the world's most futuristic
CFD code: STAR-CCM+.
Although it is easy to associate UAVs with the covert world of international
espionage, the truth is somewhat less glamorous. UAVs are really designed
for work that is too "dull, dirty or dangerous" for the
pilot of a manned aircraft.
Put simply, for this type of mission, a pilot is simply a superseded component,
representing an unnecessary burden on the aircraft. A manned aircraft must
carry not only the pilot, but between two and five times their weight in
equipment required to support them. Critical systems need also to have multiple
levels of built in redundancy, which are required to bring the pilot home
(hopefully alive) in cases of severe malfunction and failure. By removing
the pilot, "pilot-error" can also be instantly eliminated
as the most significant cause of aircraft failure.
One such UAV, which is currently in development, is the Pro Observer from
the Italian company, Pro-S3, located in Turin, delivering high level innovation
services and products. The Pro Observer is a low-cost UAV developed specifically
for short-range observation missions. With a wingspan of just 80cm, and an
overall length of 75cm, the aircraft can be stored inside a small suitcase
and assembled and launched by a single person (whether a spy or not) in less
than 10 minutes.
 
Powered by a 40W electric motor, the Pro Observer has
a maximum speed of 27 kts (50 kph) and maximum flight time
of around 40 minutes, ensuring a 10 to 12 km radius of
action. The miniaturized avionics on-board Pro Observer
ensures a totally automated flight, from launch to recovery.
The missions are planned on a normal laptop computer and
uploaded to the aircraft through the wireless link. The
flight path can be modified during flight and the mission
re-tasked. During the flight, a small tiltable high resolution
camera is used to take live images of the ground that are
immediately sent to the ground station.
Typical missions for the Pro Observer include the following as well as any
other situation where a cheap aerial point of view is  necessary.
• over the hill view (military and civilian applications)
• traffic monitoring
• power lines monitoring
• surveillance of dangerous areas
• events monitoring
• agricultural monitoring
Pro Observer also has the distinction of being the first aircraft to be fully
designed with the aid of STAR-CCM+, the next-generation CFD code from CD-adapco.
For the tailless design of this UAV, accurate calculation of the aerodynamic
center was critical, influencing directly the flight performances and stability
of the aircraft. In the words of Daniele Camatti, CEO of ProS3 and designer
of the Pro Observer: "CFD analyses performed with STAR-CCM+ were
critical in determining if the initial airframe designs were good enough
to ensure the required flight performance. With STAR-CCM+ we were able to
estimate with great precision the position of the aircraft's aerodynamic
center, to such an extent that, from the first test flight onwards, we have
completely avoided crashes."
The aircraft was modeled using STAR-Design, CD-adapco's unique CAD-embedded
design tool. STAR-Design is able to automatically create high quality polyhedral
meshes, with enough extrusion layers around the aircraft to accurately predict
the aerodynamic coefficients of the aircraft using a low-Reynolds number
turbulence model. Through the power of associativity, changes to the CAD
geometry in STAR-Design are reflected automatically in a revised CFD solution.
This allows multiple design configurations to be tested both quickly and
accurately. Daniele explains the benefits, "By using STAR-Design
to run STAR-CCM+ we were able to quickly define the complete aircraft polar
giving us a good starting point in choosing an appropriate power plant. Having
completed a number of successful test-flights, most of the flight parameters
estimated with STAR-CCM+ have been confirmed by the test."
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