A investigation from the teacher of Public University of Navarra Daniel Aláez Gomez led to the development of innovative solutions digital twins of latest generation droneswhich exceed realism And precision to existing ones, allowing anticipate risks and suggest improvements in its operation.
The author of the thesis explains that drones have acquired an increasingly important role in various applications every day, like aerial photographyTHE inspection of infrastructureTHE monitoring and the work of rescue. However, the growing democratization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) poses some concernssince these aircraft share airspace with other aircraft, fly over living beings and infrastructure and carry out activities that may involve risks. Digital twins are presented as a more alternative economic And on to traditional flight tests, because they constitute a virtual representation of a physical object which faithfully reproduces its characteristics and its operation, which makes it possible to anticipate operational risks.
The thesis focuses on the development of a digital twin for unmanned aerial vehicles with capacity vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). Particular attention is paid to modeling the effects of adverse weather conditionslike the wind in different directions, as well as communications between the aircraft and the ground station.
In addition to offering innovative models to simulate wind and communications, research includes techniques who seek to reduce the cost in terms of time And money to obtain these models, facilitating the creation of new digital twins.
Through flight tests, laboratory measurements And simulation Using computers, Aláez developed virtual equivalents of various aircraft that accurately replicated the effects of wind and communications. He also recreated various flight controllerswhich allowed him to simulate complete missions in the digital twin without performing real flights, using flight simulators both open source and commercial. His work is distinguished by its orientation multidisciplinaryintegrating areas such as flight mechanics, aerodynamic, software development, telecommunications, aircraft assembly And piloting.
The results of this research open new possibilities for more realistic and accurate virtual drone models capable of predicting from potential risk situations until improvements in the design and development of new aircraft. The main contributions of the thesis were presented in two international conferences prestigious and published in six magazines high impact.
As for your academic careerDaniel Aláez is an aerospace engineer from the University of León (2020) and has a Master in Aeronautical Engineeringwhere he received a extraordinary reward. He was recognized for his graduate work, focused on the development of digital models. Currently, it is Associate Professor at UPNA, where he participated in three research projects and gave courses in subjects such as Software architecture, Data structure, Advanced programming, Operating systems and in the Specialization Diploma In Internet of Things And Industry 4.0.
