Sealed Float With Integrated Battery Access Panel
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Solution Overview
Problem
New aircraft designs require components that satisfy unique combinations of design goals and objectives for emerging applications and environments, particularly in multicopters with wide span rotor configurations and protective fuselage systems, where existing solutions fail to optimize for compactness, safety, and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A multicopter design with a wide span rotor configuration and a float system that includes a watertight bottom, access panels, integrated batteries, and features like hygrometers, gore vents, and thermally conductive materials, which allows for efficient buoyancy, safety, and thermal management, while also supporting the aircraft's weight and protecting the pilot.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If batteries are integrated into the float system, then the multicopter achieves compact design and improved efficiency, but the float structure becomes more complex and harder to manufacture
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the float structure with battery compartments into a single integrated unit. The float serves dual purposes: providing buoyancy for water operation and housing the battery system. This merging eliminates the need for separate battery mounting structures, thereby improving operational efficiency while managing structural complexity through functional integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The float system is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: it provides buoyancy for water landings, houses and protects the batteries, and serves as part of the structural framework. This multi-functionality allows the multicopter to operate efficiently across different environments (water and land) while consolidating components to offset the added complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the multicopter is designed for water operation with float system, then adaptability to various surfaces is improved, but the device complexity increases due to additional protective structures
Solution Approach 1:
The float system serves multiple purposes: it enables water operation by providing buoyancy, houses the battery system, and contributes to the overall structural framework. This multi-functionality allows the multicopter to operate on both water and land surfaces without requiring entirely separate systems for each environment, thereby managing complexity while enhancing adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The float system provides buoyant force to counteract the weight of the multicopter during water operation. This natural physical principle allows the aircraft to float and operate on water without requiring complex active stabilization systems or additional protective structures specifically for water landings, thus improving adaptability while limiting the increase in device complexity.
3Ease of repair
If access panels are added to the float for battery access, then ease of maintenance is improved, but the watertight integrity becomes more difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
The float structure is divided into separate accessable compartments with removable panels that allow battery access while maintaining watertight integrity when closed. The segmentation allows for easy maintenance of electrical components without compromising the overall water-sealed structure, as the access panels can be securely closed to restore watertightness.
Solution Approach 2:
The access panels act as intermediaries between the external environment and the battery compartments. When closed, they maintain the watertight barrier; when opened, they allow access for maintenance. This intermediary structure enables both watertight integrity and ease of repair by providing a controlled interface for accessing internal components.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables a compact, safe, and efficient multicopter that can operate on various surfaces, including water and land, with enhanced buoyancy, thermal management, and crash protection, while maintaining a small footprint and reducing the risk of rotor interference and pilot injury.
Implementation Method 1
a float system that includes a watertight bottom
Implementation Method 2
features like hygrometers, gore vents, and thermally conductive materials, which allows for efficient buoyancy, safety, and thermal management
Data Source
AI summary
A float has a front-to-back length, a width, and a height where the front-to-back length of the float is strictly greater than the height of the float which in turn is strictly greater than the width of the float. At least a bottom portion of the float is watertight. The float includes an access panel to access the inside of the float. A battery is inside the float and is accessible via the access panel.