TY - CHAP A1 - Ludowicy, Jonas A1 - Rings, René A1 - Finger, Felix A1 - Braun, Carsten T1 - Sizing Studies of Light Aircraft with Serial Hybrid Propulsion Systems T2 - Luft- und Raumfahrt - Digitalisierung und Vernetzung : Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress 2018. 4. - 6. September 2018 - Friedrichshafen Y1 - 2018 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Ludowicy, Jonas A1 - Rings, René A1 - Finger, Felix A1 - Braun, Carsten T1 - Sizing Studies of Light Aircraft with Parallel Hybrid Propulsion Systems T2 - Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress 2018 Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.25967/480227 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Finger, Felix A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Bil, Cees T1 - Case studies in initial sizing for hybrid-electric general aviation aircraft T2 - 2018 AIAA/IEEE Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium, Cincinnati, Ohio Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2018-5005 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Finger, Felix A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Bil, Cees T1 - Impact of electric propulsion technology and mission requirements on the performance of VTOL UAVs JF - CEAS Aeronautical Journal N2 - One of the engineering challenges in aviation is the design of transitioning vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Thrust-borne flight implies a higher mass fraction of the propulsion system, as well as much increased energy consumption in the take-off and landing phases. This mass increase is typically higher for aircraft with a separate lift propulsion system than for aircraft that use the cruise propulsion system to support a dedicated lift system. However, for a cost–benefit trade study, it is necessary to quantify the impact the VTOL requirement and propulsion configuration has on aircraft mass and size. For this reason, sizing studies are conducted. This paper explores the impact of considering a supplemental electric propulsion system for achieving hovering flight. Key variables in this study, apart from the lift system configuration, are the rotor disk loading and hover flight time, as well as the electrical systems technology level for both batteries and motors. Payload and endurance are typically used as the measures of merit for unmanned aircraft that carry electro-optical sensors, and therefore the analysis focuses on these particular parameters. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-018-0352-x SN - 1869-5582 print SN - 1869-5590 online VL - 10 IS - 3 SP - 843 PB - Springer ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Korsch, Helge A1 - Dafnis, Athanasios A1 - Reimerdes, Hans-Günther A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Ballmann, Josef T1 - Dynamic qualification of the HIRENASD elastic wing model T2 - Motto: Luft- und Raumfahrt: Lehre, Forschung, Industrie - gemeinsam innovativ. Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress 2006 : Braunschweig, 06. bis 09. November 2006. Jahrbuch / Deutsche Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt. 2006 Y1 - 2006 SP - 1441 EP - 1450 PB - Dt. Gesellschaft für Luft- und Raumfahrt - Lilienthal-Oberth (DGLR) CY - Bonn ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Finger, Felix A1 - Götten, Falk A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Bil, Cees T1 - Mass, primary energy, and cost: the impact of optimization objectives on the initial sizing of hybrid-electric general aviation aircraft JF - CEAS Aeronautical Journal N2 - For short take-off and landing (STOL) aircraft, a parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system potentially offers superior performance compared to a conventional propulsion system, because the short-take-off power requirement is much higher than the cruise power requirement. This power-matching problem can be solved with a balanced hybrid propulsion system. However, there is a trade-off between wing loading, power loading, the level of hybridization, as well as range and take-off distance. An optimization method can vary design variables in such a way that a minimum of a particular objective is attained. In this paper, a comparison between the optimization results for minimum mass, minimum consumed primary energy, and minimum cost is conducted. A new initial sizing algorithm for general aviation aircraft with hybrid-electric propulsion systems is applied. This initial sizing methodology covers point performance, mission performance analysis, the weight estimation process, and cost estimation. The methodology is applied to the design of a STOL general aviation aircraft, intended for on-demand air mobility operations. The aircraft is sized to carry eight passengers over a distance of 500 km, while able to take off and land from short airstrips. Results indicate that parallel hybrid-electric propulsion systems must be considered for future STOL aircraft. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-020-00449-8 SN - 1869-5590 N1 - Corresponding author: Felix Finger VL - 2020 IS - 11 SP - 713 EP - 730 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Wellmer, Georg A1 - Chen, B.-H. A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Ballmann, Josef T1 - Numerical prediction of aeroelastic effects on twin-sting-rig mounted models for rear fuselage and empennage flow investigation in transonic windtunnel T2 - Proceedings / IFASD 2007, CEAS/AIAA/KTH International Forum on Aeroelasticity and Structural Dynamics, June 18 - 21, 2007, Stockholm, Sweden Y1 - 2007 PB - KTH CY - Stockholm ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Finger, Felix A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Bil, Cees T1 - Impact of Battery Performance on the Initial Sizing of Hybrid-Electric General Aviation Aircraft JF - Journal of Aerospace Engineering N2 - Studies suggest that hybrid-electric aircraft have the potential to generate fewer emissions and be inherently quieter when compared to conventional aircraft. By operating combustion engines together with an electric propulsion system, synergistic benefits can be obtained. However, the performance of hybrid-electric aircraft is still constrained by a battery’s energy density and discharge rate. In this paper, the influence of battery performance on the gross mass for a four-seat general aviation aircraft with a hybrid-electric propulsion system is analyzed. For this design study, a high-level approach is chosen, using an innovative initial sizing methodology to determine the minimum required aircraft mass for a specific set of requirements and constraints. Only the peak-load shaving operational strategy is analyzed. Both parallel- and serial-hybrid propulsion configurations are considered for two different missions. The specific energy of the battery pack is varied from 200 to 1,000 W⋅h/kg, while the discharge time, and thus the normalized discharge rating (C-rating), is varied between 30 min (2C discharge rate) and 2 min (30C discharge rate). With the peak-load shaving operating strategy, it is desirable for hybrid-electric aircraft to use a light, low capacity battery system to boost performance. For this case, the battery’s specific power rating proved to be of much higher importance than for full electric designs, which have high capacity batteries. Discharge ratings of 20C allow a significant take-off mass reduction aircraft. The design point moves to higher wing loadings and higher levels of hybridization if batteries with advanced technology are used. Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)AS.1943-5525.0001113 SN - 1943-5525 VL - 33 IS - 3 PB - ASCE CY - Reston, Va. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Stiemer, Luc Nicolas A1 - Thoma, Andreas A1 - Braun, Carsten T1 - MBT3D: Deep learning based multi-object tracker for bumblebee 3D flight path estimation JF - PLoS ONE N2 - This work presents the Multi-Bees-Tracker (MBT3D) algorithm, a Python framework implementing a deep association tracker for Tracking-By-Detection, to address the challenging task of tracking flight paths of bumblebees in a social group. While tracking algorithms for bumblebees exist, they often come with intensive restrictions, such as the need for sufficient lighting, high contrast between the animal and background, absence of occlusion, significant user input, etc. Tracking flight paths of bumblebees in a social group is challenging. They suddenly adjust movements and change their appearance during different wing beat states while exhibiting significant similarities in their individual appearance. The MBT3D tracker, developed in this research, is an adaptation of an existing ant tracking algorithm for bumblebee tracking. It incorporates an offline trained appearance descriptor along with a Kalman Filter for appearance and motion matching. Different detector architectures for upstream detections (You Only Look Once (YOLOv5), Faster Region Proposal Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), and RetinaNet) are investigated in a comparative study to optimize performance. The detection models were trained on a dataset containing 11359 labeled bumblebee images. YOLOv5 reaches an Average Precision of AP = 53, 8%, Faster R-CNN achieves AP = 45, 3% and RetinaNet AP = 38, 4% on the bumblebee validation dataset, which consists of 1323 labeled bumblebee images. The tracker’s appearance model is trained on 144 samples. The tracker (with Faster R-CNN detections) reaches a Multiple Object Tracking Accuracy MOTA = 93, 5% and a Multiple Object Tracking Precision MOTP = 75, 6% on a validation dataset containing 2000 images, competing with state-of-the-art computer vision methods. The framework allows reliable tracking of different bumblebees in the same video stream with rarely occurring identity switches (IDS). MBT3D has much lower IDS than other commonly used algorithms, with one of the lowest false positive rates, competing with state-of-the-art animal tracking algorithms. The developed framework reconstructs the 3-dimensional (3D) flight paths of the bumblebees by triangulation. It also handles and compares two alternative stereo camera pairs if desired. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0291415 SN - 1932-6203 N1 - Corresponding author: Luc Nicolas Stiemer VL - 18 IS - 9 PB - PLOS CY - San Fancisco ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Finger, Felix A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Bil, Cees T1 - The Impact of Electric Propulsion on the Performance of VTOL UAVs T2 - Deutscher Luft- und Raumfahrtkongress 2017, DLRK , München Y1 - 2017 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Finger, Felix A1 - Braun, Carsten A1 - Bil, Cees T1 - A Review of Configuration Design for Distributed Propulsion Transitioning VTOL Aircraft T2 - Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Aerospace Technology 2017, APISAT 2017, Seoul, Korea Y1 - 2017 ER -