Design and Development of a Propulsion System for a Water-Air Unmanned Vehicle

This work aims to contribute on the design of a Bimodal Unmanned Underwater and Air System (BUUAS). This research project will first present background informations of current hybrid UAV concepts with a focus on the different types of propulsion mechanisms used in air/water transition. Then a brief description of BUUAS will lead to requirements for the transition mechanism that this work aims to develop. After a section dedicated to the description of a short-impulse thruster layout, theoretical and experimental approaches are used to determine the amount of thrust generated. As second design step, a simplified UAV version is used to test the transition phase using the designed thruster. Finally, a section is dedicated to a design layout description with the thruster and an optimized propeller. Future work is proposed to continue in the development of this project, with a short description of folding wing and propulsion system integration concepts.