Accelerated Particle Swarm Optimization for Endurance of MALE UAV

One of the most daunting task in the design of a medium altitude long endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV s) is the selection of the airframe parameters to give maximum possible endurance while satisfying the design constraints. In this paper, we have researched the endurance problem of MALE UAVs by casting it as an optimization problem. To tackle this, we have defined an endurance equation for the UAV in terms of the design parameters and then used accelerated particle swarm optimization (APSO) to get the optimal values for the airframe parameters. The considered design parameters are the dimensions of the UAV geometrical components which have been represented in terms of wing span and mean aerodynamic chord. The design constraints are airframe geometry, its dimension and UAV mass. The design geometry for the optimal parameters has been modeled and analyzed using XFLR5.