Emerging Threats: Cyber-Physical Attacks on Additive Manufactured UAV Parts

Additive Manufacturing (AM, or 3D printing) is an emerging manufacturing technology with far-reaching implications: AM is increasingly used to produce functional parts, including components for safety-critical systems, but its unique capabilities and dependence on computerization raise a concern that an AM generated part could be sabotaged by a cyber-physical attack.

In this paper, it is demonstrated the validity of this concern by presenting a novel attack: reducing the fatigue life of a 3D-printed quadcopter propeller, causing its mid-flight failure, ultimately leading to the quadcopter’s fall and destruction.

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Trends in Israeli Military Innovation

It should not be surprising that Israel has become a leader in military innovation given the demands of national security. Among the technologies that it has advanced are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Even though other nations have conducted experiments with these vehicles, Israel developed and fielded them as battlefield systems.

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Structure Analysis and Optimization of Transitioning UAV

With the aim to develop more efficient aircraft configurations, the Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles have grown attention in recent years. Compared to conventional aircraft configurations, the BWB structure has several advantages in aerodynamics and fuel efficiency.

Topology Optimization (TO) is also a relatively new structure optimization approach which has applied successfully in automotive industry for a considerable time. In this paper, topology optimization method will be applied on a special BWB structure UAV called BITU on both 2D and 3D models in ABAQUS.

The optimization goal is to minimize compliance energy under specified loading and boundary conditions which will be computed in modeling and simulation section. Finally, optimized result compared to initial design will demonstrate TO is a rational and efficient design tool for structure optimization, especially in Aircraft industry.

Enhancing aerospace engineering students' learning with 3D printing wind‐tunnel models

The purpose of this paper is to present the benefits offered by Rapid Prototyping (RP) models for wind‐tunnel testing as part of fourth‐year aerospace engineering student projects.

Ways of overcoming some of the difficulties associated with the 3D Printing Technology are also discussed.

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Innovative Approach for Future Aircraft Development at IAI

A description of the innovative approach of airplane development at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Engineering & Development Group is presented.

The approach is a structured process including several steps and is the key to new product introduction. The first step is the generation of ideas, followed by a feasibility study and a product definition.

These steps are preliminary for either a demonstration program or a full-scale development program. The paper defines the innovation and describes the main elements, including the market demand evaluation, technologies evolution and product characteristics definition.

Typical examples of results of the innovation process at IAI are the Heron I Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) and the Mosquito micro UAV. Planned programs are the next generation of a Very Light Jet (VLJ), more autonomous aircraft, Autonomous Personal Air Vehicle (APAV) and in parallel the evaluation of electrical propulsion, solar UAV and other directions. 

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¿May the Industry 4.0 Challenge the U.S. Tactical Dominance?

The convergence of dramatic improvements in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, materials, additive manufacturing and nanoenergetics is dramatically changing the character of conflict in all domains.

This convergence is creating a massive increase in capabilities available to increasingly smaller political entities—extending even to the individual. This new diffusion of power has major implications for the conduct of warfare, not the least of which are the major hazards or opportunities that it presents to medium and even small powers.

The outcome will depend on the paths they choose.

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Advanced Technologies and Approaches for Next Generation UAVs

This paper presents the advanced technologies and approaches which potentially form the basis for determining the “Next Step” in the capabilities of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), from the aspect of improvements in flight performance, operational safety, readiness and operating costs.

These technologies are currently under development but additional effort will be required to achieve a maturity level of technological availability.

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Effect of twist morphing wing segment on aerodynamic performance of UAV

The design space for morphing wings is incredibly broad and allows for a wide range of improvements versus fixed wing aircrafts such that each type of morphing can be useful for different purposes.

This work introduces a novel concept for a twist morphing wing segment where only a segment of the wing is actuated which causes a rotation of the tip of the wing while the base segment fixed.

The morphing segment consists of a smart soft composite structure made from PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) and PLA (Polylactic acid) which is actuated by multiple embedded SMA (Styrene maleic anhydride) wires.

This structure was implemented in a UAV-sized wing and was tested both in still-air conditions and in an open-type wind tunnel to determine the actual impact of this mode of actuation.

Results show that this concept can improve the aerodynamic properties of the wing, particularly at low angles of attack.

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Cloud-Based Automated Design and Additive Manufacturing: A Usage Data-Enabled Paradigm Shift

Integration of sensors into various kinds of products and machines provides access to in-depth usage information as basis for product optimization.

Presently, this large potential for more user-friendly and efficient products is not being realized because:

(a) sensor integration and thus usage information is not available on a large scale

and

(b) product optimization requires considerable efforts in terms of manpower and adaptation of production equipment.

However, with the advent of cloud-based services and highly flexible Additive Manufacturing techniques, these obstacles are currently crumbling away at rapid pace.

The present study explores the state of the art in gathering and evaluating product usage and life cycle data, Additive Manufacturing and sensor integration, automated design and cloud-based services in manufacturing.

By joining and extrapolating development trends in these areas, it delimits the foundations of a manufacturing concept that will allow continuous and economically viable product optimization on a general, user group or individual user level.

This projection is checked against three different application scenarios, each of which stresses different aspects of the underlying holistic concept. The following discussion identifies critical issues and research needs by adopting the relevant stakeholder perspectives.

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