ROT8: A Matlab App for Low Reynolds number Airfoil and Rotor Aerodynamic Design

The proposed software aims to solve the increase in demand for rotor design modules generated by the exponential growth of applications involving Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs). We offer a variety of aerodynamic solvers for rotor flows with different fidelities, including a Blade Element Momentum (BEM) method, a Free Vortex Wake (FVW) method, a Vortex Particle Method (VPM), and a data-driven approach based on experimental data. $ROT8$ allows the calculation of airfoil polars necessary for the aforementioned Reduced Order Models (ROMs) using XFOIL. This general framework can be applied to rotors, propellers, and horizontal-axis wind turbines. The code is a Matlab App that allows using different optimization algorithms for design purposes. The code is intended to be versatile, with straightforward default settings for academic use but allowing the definition of user-defined functions to increase the level of interaction with the code for advanced research purposes.