Development of a lightweight airframe to enable drone delivery

The demand for online food delivery is rising rapidly and the main obstacles to future growth are the cost of delivery, time per delivery, environmental impact and safety concerns. An emerging solution to these obstacles is the use of drones for last mile delivery. However, traditional drones have not been designed to carry any significant payload and, therefore, the support structure of the drone needs to be adapted to facilitate this. To this end, the MI-DRONE project was conceived to develop a new lightweight airframe for Manna Aeros delivery drone [1], shown in Fig. 1 A. In this paper, the methodology for developing a new lightweight drone airframe is presented. A central aspect of the project is to develop a sustainable solution. Thus, a design-manufacture-test approach, with a sustainability analysis performed in parallel, will be taken for the technology development within the MI-DRONE project. The new lightweight drone airframe will be made from a recyclable thermoplastic composite material that is reinforced with carbon fibres, which will allow for the structure to be repaired or recycled at its end-of-life. The composite design for the airframe will be optimised using an advanced composite design software [2], which is based on the finite element method. A key element for the manufacture will be the ability to produce large volumes in a short timeframe and, therefore, the use of advanced manufacturing technologies, such as 3D composite printing and robotics, where an example is shown in Fig. 1 B, are being developed in the project. Drone components and the airframe will undergo structural testing to ensure their performance over the operational life of the drone, which will also validate the design and manufacturing technologies. Following the successful testing of the new lightweight airframe, a drone will be manufactured and undergo operational trials, which will demonstrate the new technologies in real life conditions.