Wingcopter, a pioneer in drone technology for delivering vital supplies to remote areas, is advancing its aircraft design with support from Ansys (NASDAQ: ANSS) simulation technology and Ansys Apex Channel Partner CADFEM Germany GmbH. The collaboration focuses on optimizing payload solutions to extend flight range by over 10%, enabling Wingcopter drones to deliver vaccines, medicine, blood and lab samples, medical equipment, and long-range LiDAR surveying services more efficiently.
Designing vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drones that smoothly transition from hover to cruise involves complex engineering of propulsion systems, aerodynamics, energy efficiency, and safety. Wingcopter employs Ansys’ multiphysics and safety analysis tools to validate its innovative drone featuring a redundant battery system and eight motors, including four tiltrotors for enhanced flight transition.
Ansys simulations enable Wingcopter to predict drone performance under diverse conditions such as strong winds, heavy rain, and varying altitudes. These virtual tests are continually validated against real-world flight data, creating a data-driven design loop that accelerates part optimization for improved performance and safety.
Key Ansys solutions used by Wingcopter include:
- Ansys Discovery™ for streamlined 3D simulation setup
- Ansys LS-DYNA® to analyze structural crash behavior of landing gear
- Ansys Fluent™ for aerodynamic and propeller dynamics simulations ensuring smooth hover-to-cruise transition
- Ansys medini® analyze™ for safety assessments meeting international aviation certification standards
George Robson, Wingcopter’s mechanical engineering and aerodynamics lead, emphasized the value of simulation: “Simulation helps our teams analyze and optimize our drone design, evaluating problems in detail that are difficult or impossible to test physically. Leveraging Ansys’ advanced modeling allows us to refine every aspect of performance, ensuring efficiency, reliability, and innovation.”
Walt Hearn, Senior VP of worldwide sales and customer excellence at Ansys, added, “Our simulation technology empowers customers to move beyond traditional product development and embrace iterative design loops for more innovative solutions. As autonomous drone requirements grow more complex, Ansys solutions provide the flexibility and accuracy necessary to meet these challenges. This partnership with Wingcopter exemplifies how simulation drives progress in aerial technology.”
Through this collaboration, Wingcopter continues to push the boundaries of drone capability, delivering critical resources with greater range and reliability to communities in need.
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