Wingcopter Leverages Ansys Technology to Scale Drone Delivery of Medical Supplies
- Partnership enables potential 10% increase in drone flight range through simulation optimization
- Technology helps validate drone performance across diverse weather conditions and altitudes
- Simulation-driven approach accelerates virtual prototyping and certification processes
- Integration with Wingcopter's existing tools streamlines R&D processes
- None.
Insights
Ansys' simulation software enables Wingcopter to improve drone design, potentially increasing flight range by 10% for medical delivery applications.
Ansys has established a strategic partnership with Wingcopter to advance drone delivery technology for medical supplies, demonstrating practical applications of Ansys' simulation solutions in a high-growth sector. The collaboration showcases how Ansys' technology creates measurable improvements, with Wingcopter potentially achieving a 10% increase in flight range while maintaining payload capacity.
This partnership highlights Ansys' value proposition in enabling complex engineering challenges to be solved through virtual prototyping. Wingcopter is using multiple Ansys products including Discovery, LS-DYNA, Fluent, and medini analyze to optimize various aspects of their drone technology - from aerodynamics to crash behavior and safety certification requirements.
What makes this particularly valuable is the data-driven design loop created between simulation and real-world testing, allowing Wingcopter to rapidly iterate and improve their drones for challenging medical delivery scenarios. The ability to simulate diverse operational conditions (wind, rain, altitude variations) reduces physical testing requirements while accelerating development cycles.
For Ansys investors, this case study demonstrates how the company's simulation portfolio can address complex multiphysics challenges in emerging sectors like autonomous aviation. The partnership also underscores Ansys' role in helping customers meet stringent safety certification standards - a critical factor for companies developing autonomous systems in regulated industries.
Wingcopter refines its drone designs with simulation, increasing flight distance while retaining payload capacity and delivering essential supplies faster
/ Key Highlights
- Wingcopter develops drones that can autonomously deliver vital supplies to hard-to-reach areas, including vaccines, medicine, blood/other lab samples, and medical equipment — speeding deliveries and cutting costs
- Supported by Ansys, Wingcopter leverages simulation to accelerate virtual prototyping of its drone technology, enabling robust, scalable product design that could increase the flight range by over
10% - Ansys' technology easily connects to Wingcopter's legacy tools, empowering teams to follow rigorous R&D processes and complete stringent certification requirements
Designing vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft for a smooth transition from hover to cruise requires engineering for flexible propulsion systems, aerodynamics, energy efficiency, and safety. Wingcopter relies on Ansys' multiphysics and safety analysis solutions to validate its drone design featuring a redundant battery system and eight motors, four with tiltrotor technology for enhanced transition to cruising.
Simulation helps Wingcopter estimate drone performance across diverse conditions — strong winds, heavy rains, various altitudes, and more. The simulations are compared to field tests and operational data, and the results are fed back into the virtual environment creating a data-driven design loop that enables rapid optimization of parts for better performance and safety. Wingcopter enhanced and certified its drone design by leveraging multiple Ansys multiphysics simulation solutions:
- Ansys Discovery™ 3D simulation software family of products to facilitate simulation setup
- Ansys LS-DYNA® structural simulation software to analyze the crash behavior of the landing gears
- Ansys Fluent™ fluid simulation software to understand aircraft aerodynamics and rotating propeller dynamics for seamless transition from hover to cruise
- Ansys medini® analyze™ safety analysis software to develop the required assessments to meet safety certification standards of different international aviation authorities
"Simulation helps our teams analyze and optimize our drone design, as well as evaluate individual problems on a level of detail that is often not possible or very difficult to test," said George Robson, team lead for mechanical engineering and aerodynamics at Wingcopter. "By leveraging Ansys' sophisticated modeling, we can refine every aspect of drone performance, ensuring unparalleled efficiency, reliability, and innovation in aerial solutions."
"Ansys simulation empowers customers to move beyond linear product development and embrace comprehensive design loops for more innovative and efficient solutions," said Walt Hearn, senior vice president of worldwide sales and customer excellence at Ansys. "As the requirements for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles grow more complex, Ansys technology can efficiently manage and adapt to these demands without compromising performance or accuracy. This ensures that our solutions remain effective and reliable, even as the scope of projects expands, helping our customers like Wingcopter continue to push the envelope."
Visit Ansys at the Paris Air Show June 16-19, Booth AB168 Hall 4 to see Wingcopter and Ansys technology on display.
/ About Ansys
Our Mission: Powering Innovation that Drives Human Advancement™
When visionary companies need to know how their world-changing ideas will perform, they close the gap between design and reality with Ansys simulation. For more than 50 years, Ansys software has enabled innovators across industries to push boundaries by using the predictive power of simulation. From sustainable transportation to advanced semiconductors, from satellite systems to life-saving medical devices, the next great leaps in human advancement will be powered by Ansys.
Ansys and any and all ANSYS, Inc. brand, product, service and feature names, logos and slogans are registered trademarks or trademarks of ANSYS, Inc. or its subsidiaries in
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/ Contacts
Media | Mary Kate Joyce |
724.820.4368 | |
Investors | Kelsey DeBriyn |
724.820.3927 | |
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SOURCE Ansys