What if urban air taxis could, like birds, vary the configuration of their wings in flight? The answer to such questions could soon become reality through morphing wing technology assisted by artificial intelligence, with vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that can, in real-time, vary their wing configurations to minimize power consumption. What was once merely poetic ornament in past proposals is now fully achievable. The technology behind such morphing wings assisted by artificial intelligence could soon enable vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that, in real-time, can minimize power consumption through wing configuration changes.
However, this innovation comes together with the marriage of biomimicry and artificial intelligence. Years of research by engineers have been triggered by the curiosity of how flight adjustments by birds alter the shape of their wings. In an effort to develop something similar, innovators are applying technology related to elastic skin, actuation, and control in artificial intelligence in order to mimic such characteristics in nature. Adaptability in wing shape adjustment through algorithms developed by AI using the input of sensors in an instant allows for range and economic viability in crowded airspace.
Such capabilities have been demonstrated in fairly recent bird-inspired drones. The LisEagle morphing concept, which has eight degrees of freedom for morphing in wings and tail, utilizes Bayesian optimization algorithms in order to determine optimal morphing design parameters in terms of energy efficiency during flight. At a flight speed of 8-12m/s, it has resulted in a 11.5% reduction in energy consumption costs for neutral morphing configurations. The AI algorithm recalculated a state-dependent relation between the desired body rates and the actuator deflections in a 10Hz cycle in order to combine the effects of wing sweep angles, wing twists, and the tail shape. It enables the design of a drone that ensures flight stability even if there is a malfunction in the control of its actuators.
The material sciences make all these possible. The shape memory alloy (SMA) material example, NiTi wire composite skin structures, allows for high actuation forces and lighter designs for actuation over the conventional method for electromechanical systems. Regarding the Spanwise Adaptive Wing technology from the NASA platform, it has been shown that the SMA actuators have the capability of deploying the wings during flight operations with a system weight margin that is up to 80% lower compared to the hydraulic method. SMA morphing wings allow for a shape change that enables a laminar flow, postponing turbulence that is important for drag reduction. SMA composite structures allow for stiffness and flexibility based on multi-objective optimization.
Aerodynamic improvements also embrace more than shape modulation. There is hybrid laminar flow control technology, which has been researched under the project HERWINGT. The aim of the project is to combine shape modulation and techniques of suction or micro-texturing. As a result, it would be possible to preserve the laminar flow state over a bigger region of the wing. This option has great potential regarding fuel efficiency improvement and fits well into global carbon-neutralization policies. Other options include bio-inspired micro-geometrics, which can represent the flippers of the humpback whale and micro-ridges that represent the body of a dolphin.
Regarding control algorithms, robust control is essential for adaptive flight. A data-informed aeroelastic model that has an extended dynamic mode decomposition with control (DMDc) is able to satisfactorily predict nonlinear unsteady aerodynamics for elastic morphing wings in various flight conditions. These models can be used in MPC for real-time optimization of wing geometry without overloading flight computers. Urban air mobility solutions are also emerging.
Wisk Aero is developing Generation 6, an autonomous VTOL with foldable wings and a 50-foot wingspan, using AI-enabled navigation and efficiency for a lift or forward rotor design mode with the provision for morphing wings that would improve its 90-mile radius. As far as military development is concerned, morphing was successfully done by Indian DRDO for enhancing agility and survival against threats through shape variation using real-time geometrical modifications.
Battery performance has been recognized as impairing the ability of VTOL aircraft, although morphing wings can offset battery energy consumption in the power area by reducing power consumption. Fast-charging solid-state batteries and silicon-anode Li-ion batteries have the promise of higher energy density, although every percentage point increase in aerodynamic efficiency gains for morphing wings translates to direct benefits in terms of missions performed,such as extended mission endurance, recharge cycles, or payload carried. The job for engineers is in advancing these technologies.
Rates for SMA cooling, actuation cycles, and strength for composites are concerns here, although these canbe addressed. Government regulation is needed for commercial-scale autonomous morphing in populated regions. Thus, the benefits for environment and economics when aerodynamics are optimized by AI can then fully be tapped.
To aerospace engineers and scientists, morphing wings by AI represent an area where other technologies, for example, materials, control, fluids, or robotics, can, in essence, combine in creating an altogether novel field. Shortly, from the drawing board to practical applications in sky-scrapers, shape-shifting air transport systems are no longer concepts on papers; in fact, they are actually true blues, gliding effortlessly between towers.
.jpg){kind=link}