Research on topological optimization in design of Drone components fabricated by 3D printing technologies

Abstract

Recently, drones have been widely used to perform tasks in different fields, such as military and agriculture. To improve exploitation performance, being compact and lightweight, drones are constantly designed and optimized. One of the current research directions in drone design is to optimize the structure and geometry of their main components, such as the arms and the body frame, and manufacture them using 3D printing. In this paper, the topology optimization and the geometrical optimization using lattice structures were investigated and applied to optimize the structure of the arms of a quadcopter Drone (DJI-f450) with the aid of Hyperworks software. The optimization design methods were performed according to the criteria of minimizing weight, increasing the rigidity and reliability of components. The results obtained show that all the methods considered enable the increase of stiffness and reliability while reducing the weight by at least 21.88% compared to the original structure. Among the studied optimization methods, the combination of topology and lattice optimization is more effective in increasing the rigidity and safety factor. The findings in this study confirm the necessity and performance of geometry optimization methods and 3D printing technologies to improve the product design and manufacturing process compared to traditional methods.