SOFAR and Auto-link: Software Tools that Bridge the Gap Between Multirotor Drone Design Optimization and CAD

6 Several types of tools are used to develop drones. Computer-aided design (CAD) is used for7 developing the drone geometry, and software such as ComQuest Venture's Typhon UDX is used8 for aerodynamic analysis. Presently, both are used independently, and a user then manually9 bridges the gap between the analysis and the CAD to create a final aero-structure. This manual10 process can lead to long design times and information transfer errors. An automated design11 process that automatically selects parts from a database optimizes drone parts cost while meeting12 key performance requirements could shorten the design time. This paper presents the Sensible13 Optimization for Aerial Robots tool for automatically minimizing drone systems' cost using a14 commercial component database and linking it directly to CAD software. As drones become15 increasingly popular, this streamlining of the drone development process will reduce both the time16 and cost required to develop an optimal structure.