Mechanical Design and Fluid Dynamics Simulation of a Reconfigurable Hybrid Aerial Underwater Vehicle

In this paper, based on the fixed-wing vehicle and the autonomous underwater vehicle, we design a new hybrid aerial underwater vehicle. We are able to fold and deploy the front wings in a very short period of time by a single electric actuator. Then, we consider the aerodynamic characteristics of each wing type and determine all of the wing types. Finally, we conduct computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of the aerial state of the vehicle to verify the feasibility and stability of aerial flight and underwater submergence of the vehicle.