1. Kaleo Norman & Joshua Shigemitsu
Until recently, UAV’s have been used primarily in military applications.
However technology and the application of the UAV is quickly evolving into a
tool that can be used in civil, commercial, and other STEM disciplines. By
utilizing the aerial surveillance that the UAV offers, it provides a clean energy
alternative for civil applications such as: search and rescue, real time
weather updates, gathering research data and creating aerial maps. With
these examples in mind this project was undertaken to provide a real life
application for students by allowing them to design and built a UAV. By
creating this prototype, it can be shown that UAV technology can directly
benefit civil and commercial industries. For the application of this project, a
UAV was built with the purpose of surveying farmland by taking aerial images
and recording GPS coordinates.
Introduction
The Engineering Design Process
• Brainstorm- How to survey a large area of land with rough terrain?
• Research- Identifying types of aircraft that could be used,
understanding the parts of an airplane, the principles of flight, and
locating the plane’s center of gravity. Perform a Quality Function
Deployment (QFD) prioritizing quality demands (See Figure 2).
• Design- what features were going to be on the UAV? A QFD showed
that a flying wing was the best platform suited towards our needs. UAV
needed to be able to fly autonomously, show first-person view, and be
easy for the user to handle.
• Analyze- Perform a finite elements analysis to test the force on certain
parts and determine if parts were safe to use. (See Figure 1)
• Build- UAV is constructed out of Expanded Polypropylene Foam.
• Test- Aircraft went under several test flights. High definition video and
film was recorded for land monitoring purposes.
Engineering Specifications
Demanded Customer Quality
Weight / Importance
(Scale 1-5)
Relative
wt (%)
Autonomous 5 16.7 9 7 9 3 3 7 7 7 7 8 1 5
See things with the plane 5 16.7 3 7 2 2 9 6 8 7 2 5
Carry things 2 6.7 3 8 7 9 9 3
Fly fast 3 10.0 7 7 7 8 7 8 9 9 6 4 7
Fly for a long time 4 13.3 6 2 9 7 3 6 6 8 7
Easy to use 5 16.7 8 7 4 9 6 6 6 5 5 9
Durability 4 13.3 6 9 1 4 4 6 7 8 3 7 8
Cost 2 6.7 7 8 2 8 4 7 6 7 5 8 5 9
100.0
6 2yr 430MHZ 400 W 20c 1080p 20m/s 1m/s 2500m 2km 5kg $2,500
H H L L L H H H H H L L
## 188 117 133 118 199 200 124 189 128 140 200
9.4 12.2 7.6 8.6 7.7 12.9 13.0 8.1 12.3 8.3 9.1 13.0
5 4 10 6 9 2 1 8 3 7 6 1
Range
Cost
Sensors
ServiceLife
Frequency
PowerConsumption(Watts)
Discharge/Rechargerate
ImageQuality
Mass
Rank
Target
High or Low
Specification weight
Relative weight
Airspeed
ClimbRate
Altitude
QFD
Research
Fabrication
The airframe was made out of Expanded Polypropylene Foam and
compartments were made to house the electronic systems. The
electronics included the control systems, the autopilot (Ardupilot Mega),
and the batteries. Two lithium polymer rechargeable batteries were used
to power the plane. The frame was then laminated to increase durability.
The elevons, which are the control surfaces, were made out of balsa
wood and then laminated. The brushless motor has a folding propeller
and was mounted on the back of the UAV.
Results
The UAV underwent several test flights and then was successfully flown
at the farm. High definition video was then downloaded from the UAV
and used to provide a valuable bird’s eye view of the banana crop. In
the future, the UAV will be programmed to fly a set pattern so that the
crops can be surveyed systematically, and on a regular basis.
Mentors: Dr. Mehrdad Nejhad, Michael Menendez, David Hummer
University of Hawai`i at Mānoa College of Engineering
A computer aided design program called SolidWorks was used to design
the parts of the UAV and then assemble them all into one drawing. Another
part of the design was utilizing Finite Element Analysis, (FEA). This was
used to test the force on certain parts and determine if the parts are safe to
use. The minimum factor of safety greater than 1. The motor mount of the
UAV (See Figure 1) was analyzed and received a factor of safety of 14.
Design
Fig: 1 Stress Analysis
Fig: 2 Quality Function Deployment