Hakoniwa Lab and Shonan Institute of Technology Begin Technical Verification of Virtual Experiment Environment for Drone Motor Failure Issues

Hakoniwa Lab, LLC has begun technical verification of a virtual experiment environment designed to safely and reproducibly evaluate drone failure cases through simulation, based on research findings from Shonan Institute of Technology regarding 'motor failure issues in flying drones'.

This initiative is grounded in research by Professor Hideaki Okazaki and Kaiho Isogai of Shonan Institute of Technology on 'motor failure issues in flying drones'. Their research systematically analyzes flight conditions that enable crash avoidance during complete motor failure in multirotor drones, along with relationships to operating points and equilibrium points.

As drones become increasingly integrated into society, safety evaluations for in-flight motor failures, control anomalies, and external disturbances are gaining importance. However, fault testing using actual drones presents significant challenges in terms of safety, cost, and reproducibility. In particular, abnormal conditions such as complete motor failure are difficult to intentionally reproduce in real environments, creating a strong demand for virtual experiment environments capable of identifying risks before physical testing.

This initiative aims to combine Shonan Institute of Technology's research findings on motor failure issues with Hakoniwa Lab's distributed simulation platform 'Hakoniwa' and 'Hakoniwa Drone PRO' to build a process for safely evaluating failure cases prior to physical validation.

Hakoniwa Drone PRO is not merely a flight visualization or pilot training simulator; it is a virtual experiment environment designed to connect research insights, real-world physics models, rotor characteristics, failure scenarios, and control programs for failure case validation and control evaluation. In research and development using open-source simulators, specialized expertise is often required for environment setup, model tuning, integration with control software, and evaluation automation. Hakoniwa Lab supports researchers and developers by providing an integrated domestic distributed simulation platform and technical support for drone simulation, enabling them to focus on their core validation objectives rather than environment preparation.

This initiative aims to identify, within a virtual environment, what flight conditions can be sustained during complete motor failure, taking into account balance conditions such as operating points and equilibrium points that allow drones to maintain stable flight.

Moving forward, the goal is to progressively organize drone model construction based on real-world specifications, rotor characteristic calculations, PID tuning, failure scenario injection methods, and evaluation methods for control logic in response to failure cases from July 2026 onward, leading into verification activities from September 2026.

Hakoniwa Lab, LLC will continue to contribute to improving safety and verification efficiency in drone development and operation through its distributed simulation platform 'Hakoniwa', which connects physics simulation, control systems, and embedded software, under the concept of 'Creating a world where failure is possible before reality'.

Roles of Each Party

Shonan Institute of Technology
Research insights and academic background on motor failure issues in flying drones

Hakoniwa Lab, LLC
Construction and verification support for the virtual experiment environment using the distributed simulation platform 'Hakoniwa' and 'Hakoniwa Drone PRO'

Comments from Stakeholders

Professor Hideaki Okazaki, Shonan Institute of Technology

The flight behavior and controllability of multirotor drones during motor failure are critical research topics for drone safety. However, intentionally reproducing abnormal conditions such as complete motor failure on actual drones and safely verifying them over sufficient iterations is extremely difficult.

We believe the ongoing initiative to verify motor failure behavior in a virtual environment using Hakoniwa Lab's distributed simulation platform 'Hakoniwa' and 'Hakoniwa Drone PRO' is significant in bridging research insights with practical applications.

We expect this initiative to connect theoretical frameworks on operating and equilibrium points with safe pre-deployment verification environments, contributing to advancements in drone safety evaluation and control technologies.

References

・Shonan Institute of Technology: 'Professor Okazaki's paper published in ESS-NLS Society Journal'
・Hideaki Okazaki, Kaiho Isogai: 'Motor Failure Issues in Flying Drones'
・Hakoniwa Lab, LLC: 'Hakoniwa Drone PRO'

Inquiries

Company: Hakoniwa Lab, LLC

Contact: Takashi Mori

Email: tmori@hakoniwa-lab.net