Performance Evaluation of Multirotor UAV by Considering the Balanced Pattern

The multirotor UAV is a typical k-out-of-n pair: G model, which means that the two rotors distributed on the same axis must be synchronized operating. That is to say, if a rotor is failed, then the opposite one soluble shut down to keep the UAV in a balanced state. However, the above-mentioned model does not consider the effect of torque generated by rotating rotors. Thus, the neutralization of torque, which is ignored by k-out-of-n pair: G model, must be considered. In this situation, we employ the k-out-of-n pair: G balanced model to describe the balanced pattern of the multirotor UAV. We use the finite Markov chain imbedding approach to establish the system reliability calculating equations for the UAV and we also derive the performance evaluation indexes, the mean residual capacity and the expected time to failure, which can be used to determine the usage of the UAV. Then, we use some numerical examples to demonstrate it is worthy of involving the balance pattern in the system modeling process, otherwise, the we may obtain an over optimistic reliability evaluation result that misguides the operation of the UAV.