Major research outcome
- Professor Sang Lee: A coupled LES-vehicle dynamics simulation framework for quadcopter response in urban turbulent flows
- 관리자 |
- 2026-06-12 16:10:17|
- 36
- 2026-06-12 16:10:17|
This paper presents a coupled simulation framework that integrates large-eddy simulation (LES)-generated urban wind fields with six-degrees-of-freedom quadcopter flight dynamics and a Dynamic Inversion (DI) controller to evaluate drone performance in complex urban turbulence. Under the guidance of Professor Lee, Donghyun Lee shows three representative urban flight scenarios—vertical ascent between buildings, rooftop hovering, and circular flight around buildings—by interpolating precomputed LES flow data into the drone’s real-time flight dynamics model. The key contribution is that, rather than relying on simplified artificial gust models, the framework captures realistic urban flow structures such as recirculation zones, horseshoe vortices, flow separation, and reattachment, allowing a more physically grounded assessment of drone control performance in turbulent city environments.
The results show that strong vortical structures and turbulence generated around buildings significantly degrade drone stability, increase trajectory tracking errors, and raise control workload. In particular, instability becomes most severe in building wake regions, near the ground, and in rooftop flow reattachment zones, where angular accelerations frequently exceed critical safety thresholds (1G). These findings suggest that safe urban drone operation depends not only on controller robustness but also heavily on flight path selection. The authors conclude that the proposed framework can serve as a practical numerical testbed for optimizing drone flight routes, evaluating controller robustness, and supporting future safety assessments for urban air mobility (UAM) operations.
This study was published in May 2026 in Advances in Engineering Software which is ranked in the upper 8.9% JCR category.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2026.104192
The results show that strong vortical structures and turbulence generated around buildings significantly degrade drone stability, increase trajectory tracking errors, and raise control workload. In particular, instability becomes most severe in building wake regions, near the ground, and in rooftop flow reattachment zones, where angular accelerations frequently exceed critical safety thresholds (1G). These findings suggest that safe urban drone operation depends not only on controller robustness but also heavily on flight path selection. The authors conclude that the proposed framework can serve as a practical numerical testbed for optimizing drone flight routes, evaluating controller robustness, and supporting future safety assessments for urban air mobility (UAM) operations.
This study was published in May 2026 in Advances in Engineering Software which is ranked in the upper 8.9% JCR category.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2026.104192
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