Abstract
During the last decade, energy use in the transportation and distribution sector has been greatly changed by remarkable growth in delivery drones in the direction of sustainable development. In this respect, this paper introduces a novel reconfigurable drone called “SMPCOPTER” by considering reliability and sustainability as paramount goals. The SMPCOPTER is a hybrid helicopter with puller-pusher rotors comprising a 2DOF tilting mechanism, a folding wing system covered with solar panels, and subsystems modularity enabling it to fly in three configurations an airplane, helicopter, and gyrocopter. The conceptual design of this novel configuration is performed by providing a bridge between model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) using MATLAB System Composer and doing co-simulation between considered disciplines such as propulsion, weight and balance, OpenVSP, and performance. A multi-objective MDO is executed to propose optimal feasible configurations by maximizing range, minimizing gross weight, and fulfilling stability constraints. The proposed configuration improves the reliability of delivery drones as well as the sustainability pillars by applying systems thinking within the design process.