Recipient Organization
NEOEX SYSTEMS, INC.
667 CHERRY VALLEY DR
AMHERST,OH 44001
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, in order to manage wildfires, minimize climate impact, and increase firefighter safety will benefit from the use of cost-effective, long-range/long-endurance, small UAS for monitoring and communicating to first responders. NEOEx Systems has developed a small UAS capable to meet 20+ hours of flight endurance, however, the on-board systems currently are unable to manage or operate in the extreme heat of areas in which wildfires occur. NEOEx therefore proposes to develop under this SBIR program an advanced fuselage that will be designed to house critical equipment and power systems for drone operation to meet the extreme operating conditions. The NEOEx power system is unique in that it contains a cryogenic cooling source on-board which can be integrated into a cooling system that can withstand the extreme heat. Anticipated results of the proposed Phase I research include ground testing of the new fuselage design and cooling system component. Expanding the operating temperature of the vehicle will allow NEOEx to grow our market potential by including applications such as the management and detection of wildfires, electrical line inspections, package delivery, and many more opportunities in areas such as Arizona, California, Hawaii, and the entire southwest region of the United States.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
100%
Goals / Objectives
In the Phase I effort, we are developing a cooling system that integrated into the fuselage of the NEOEx liquid hydrogen fueled Group 2 UAS aircraft. We will investigate using the cooling capacity of the liquid hydrogen stored on-board the aircraft as fuel. The liquid hydrogen requires a heat source to raise the temperature from 25 K saturated vapor to ambient temperature (290 K) prior to being consumed in the fuel cell to make electric power. The fuselage and the external environment would provide the heat source. The design will incorporate cooling of the fuel cell itself as well as any electrical components inside the fuselage for aircraft operations or payloads such as camera boards. Successful testing with liquid hydrogen of the newly designed cooling system inside the aircraft fuselage will enable a Phase II flight demonstration of the system in Arizona with the Arizona State Department of Forestry and Fire Management.The specific technical objectives of the Phase I research effort are as follows:1. Investigate use of cryogenic cooling capacity of liquid hydrogen.2. Design an integrated cooling system that increases the operating temperature of the unmanned aerial vehicle.3. Design a fuselage that will allow increased cooling effects as well as fit the cooling system on-board the aircraft.4. Investigate aircraft performance impact with new cooling system on-board the aircraft.5. Conduct ground tests of the system with cryogenic fluids.
Project Methods
NEOEx efforts will involve conducting systems engineering tasks to maintain technical control of the project using established Federal technical organization's Systems Engineering practices including but not limited to: tracking requirements, conducting design reviews, conducting safety and operational readiness reviews, developing Preliminary Hazards Analyses, and maintaining stakeholder engagement. Evaluation of the systems engineering efforts will be conducted using Design Reviews prior to fabrication of the systems to be developed and Safety and Operational Readiness Reviews prior to testing. Design requirements that are tracked throughout the project will be evaluated for validation using Inspection, Testing, and/or Demonstration methods.NEOEx efforts will involve developing test plans and ground testing the aircraft, cooling systems, and fuselage including simulated environmental heat load. The effort will involve NEOEx integrating the aircraft, on-board liquid hydrogen system, and cooling system with the liquid hydrogen refueling test rig. The effort will involve conducting integrated operational ground testing of the flight vehicle equipped with cooling system and fuselage to validate system performance. Evaluation methods will include measuring various temperatures to validate the design including the ambient environment, inside the fuselage at numerous locations, and of key electrical systems/components inside the cooled fuselage. This data will be compared to component environmental temperature limits to determine performance of the overall system to meet operational requirements in an extreme high temperature ambient environment.