Gun-Launched Micro Air Vehicle: Concept, challenges and results

Within the framework of the protection of citizens and of vital infrastructures and networks, the French-German Research Institute of Saint-Louis (ISL) proposes an innovative concept of a Miniature Air Vehicle (MAV), whose goal is the remote observation of hazardous or inaccessible environments. It is launched as a subsonic projectile from a dedicated portable tube and deploys its blades and rotor system once arrived over the targeted site (at a height of 100 m and over a range of 500 m). This paper presents the concept, the current state of progress, the main challenges encountered (many of them successfully solved, others still to be overcome) during the creation and development of the prototype of this hybrid projectile/MAV, namely the GLMAV (Gun-Launched Micro Air Vehicle), as well as experimental results.