SYRACUSE, N.Y. — BQP in Syracuse, N.Y., and Utica-based drone manufacturer Modovolo are using quantum-inspired computing to speed one of the most time-consuming parts of aerospace development: refining a design before building it.
The companies said Modovolo integrated BQP's BQPhy simulation platform into its engineering workflow to optimize new 3D-printed UAV propellers. Instead of evaluating only a limited number of designs through repeated trial and error, the software lets engineers explore a much larger range of blade geometries before selecting hardware for physical testing.
Related: Why aerospace engineers can no longer rely on trial-and-error design
Propeller design involves more than aerodynamics
At first glance, a drone propeller seems like a generally simple component. In reality, engineers have to balance a long list of competing requirements. Small changes to the blade's shape can affect lift, efficiency, structural loads, and vibration. Improving one characteristic doesn't always improve another.
That makes optimization difficult. Engineers often generate several candidate designs, simulate how each one performs, adjust the geometry, and repeat the process until they find a suitable balance. The approach has worked for decades, but it also limits how many designs a team can realistically evaluate before moving into physical testing.
BQP said its platform approaches that challenge differently. Instead of focusing on making one simulation slightly faster, the software explores a much larger design space during the same development cycle. The company's QuantumNOW solver uses quantum-inspired algorithms running on conventional high-performance computing and GPU hardware, letting engineers evaluate thousands of potential designs simultaneously instead of working through them one at a time
The goal is to help engineers identify promising designs sooner and spend less time repeating the same optimization cycle.
UAV development highlights the challenge
Modovolo said the technology supported development of its patent-pending 3D-printed propellers, which are designed to improve flight endurance and payload capacity while keeping manufacturing costs low.
According to the company, previous optimization efforts often required days or weeks of computing time because of the enormous number of possible blade geometries. Some simulations also converged on solutions that ultimately proved impractical, forcing engineers to restart the process with different design assumptions.
By expanding the number of configurations evaluated during each development cycle, Modovolo said it shortened the path from digital design to physical hardware and boosted overall propeller performance.
Digital engineering continues to evolve
Aircraft manufacturers, spacecraft developers, and defense contractors continue looking for ways to evaluate more design options before producing hardware. Advanced simulation, AI, high-performance computing, and optimization software all support that effort by helping engineers make design decisions earlier in a program.
As aircraft systems grow more complex, engineers are placing greater emphasis on exploring more design options rather than simply solving individual simulations faster. For companies like Modovolo, that can translate into fewer physical prototypes and more time refining designs before they ever leave the computer screen.
