Ultra-light, Quasi-active Noise Control Solution for Quiet UAVs Navy SBIR FY2010.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2010.1 Topic No.: N101-039 Topic Title: Ultra-light, Quasi-active Noise Control Solution for Quiet UAVs Proposal No.: N101-039-1831 Firm: KCF Technologies, Inc 336 West Fraser Street State College, Pennsylvania 16801 Contact: Michael Grissom Phone: (814) 867-4097 Web Site: www.kcftech.com Abstract: KCF Technologies in partnership with Insitu, Inc. proposes an ultra-light, quasi-active noise control method for quiet Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's). The main motivation of this proposed effort is reducing the SPL's of the radiated tones of UAV's, since stealth is critical to the success of their operation. In the present design of most UAV's, the propeller is rear mounted and thus operates in a push rather than a pull mode that is common in say, turboprop engines. With the push-type propeller, noise is generated by rotor interaction with the time invariant flow distortions that are generated due to the presence of the upstream components of aircraft, e.g. the fuselage. Since this is an inherent feature of the design, the only recourse to reducing the radiation noise is to attenuate it, either actively or passively. In Phase I, KCF will demonstrate the technical feasibility of the quasi-active noise control method for UAVs without significant impact to UAV performance, and develop a detailed analysis of predicted performance of the proposed technology. In Phase II, KCF in partnership with Insitu, will develop, demonstrate, and validate the proposed technology integrated on a production UAV. Benefits: Due to the surveillance nature of many UAV missions, there is a need to reduce the acoustic detection probability for a given system. The proposed approach reduces the acoustic signature of a propeller driven UAV and has the size, power and weight considerations that are appropriate to small UAV systems. Noise reduction technologies such as the proposed innovation have applications in almost any mechanical environment. Specifically, commercial UAV are limited in uses due to noise emissions. Additionally, technologies developed under this work have been demonstrated on other devices with similar noise sources such as fans/propellers and industrial facilities. The added restrictions for application to UAVs make the technologies more attractive to other applications in that they will be lower weight, smaller, and have lower cost. Return