The Magazine of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu October 2017 - 27

A Student-Built Fixed-Wing UAS for Simulated Search-and-Rescue Missions

Fig. 10. Air-delivery capsule with attached drogue chute

Fig. 9. Air-delivery box installed in the aircraft

VIII. Air delivery
Air delivery is responsible for ensuring that an airdrop
package, an 8-oz water bottle, can be deployed from the
aircraft and arrive within 46 m of its intended drop location.
The air-delivery subsystem is divided into three major
components: air-delivery box, air-delivery mechanism,
and air-delivery capsule. The air-delivery box houses the
air-delivery capsule and maintains the capsule at the
aircraft's CG so that upon deployment, as the capsule
leaves the aircraft, the CG of the aircraft is unchanged
and flight stability is maintained. The air-delivery
mechanism is composed of a servo motor-actuated
latch whose activation opens a 3.2-mm-thick plywood
bottom panel of the air-delivery box and deploys the
air-delivery capsule from the aircraft. Figure 9 depicts the
air-delivery box and its installment on the aircraft.
The air-delivery capsule is comprised of fiberglass-reinforced
cardboard tubing and polyethylene foam cushioning, and
is designed to fall with the foam cushioning contacting the
ground and compressing upon impact, thus absorbing a
substantial amount of energy. The energy that remains is
then uniformly distributed to the sides of the 8-oz water
bottle in the form of friction from tight-fitting fiberglassreinforced cardboard tubing, ensuring its survival.
For successful air delivery, the air-delivery capsule must
contact the ground with the foam cushioning first. The
orientation of the air-delivery capsule in free-fall is
stabilized with a 25-cm-diameter drogue chute containing
a 3.8-cm-diameter spill hole. Figure 10 depicts the airdelivery capsule with the attached drogue chute.

IX. Conclusion
UHDT has successfully designed and developed an
autonomous UAS that is capable of autonomous
THE BRIDGE // Issue 3 2017

waypoint navigation, aerial image capture, target
detection and identification, and communication
to a GCS. UHDT placed sixth out of 54 teams in the
2017 AUVSI SUAS competition. The UAS has proven
itself capable of executing a simulated 30-minute SAR
mission within a maximum tested range of 1 km. The
UAS is capable of autonomously navigating to a specific
area of interest, searching a 370,000-m2 area and
identifying alphanumeric target with 75% accuracy, and
delivering an 8-oz water bottle to a specific location (a
simulated person in distress). This student-built UAS was
developed with commercial-off-the-shelf components,
resulting in a low-cost solution that addresses the highcost issues faced by manned SAR operations.
A systems engineering approach was used in completing
this project. A mission statement was defined to address
the problem at a high level. Mission requirements were
developed based on the mission statement. The mission
requirements are further broken down into system
requirements to define more details of the system. By
creating a written set of requirements that follow the
given constraints of the problem, the completion of the
project can be confirmed once all requirements have
been met.
To ensure the successful completion of this project, three
main subsystems were created to fully address every
aspect of the UAS. The three subsystems are aircraft,
electronics and communications, and image processing.
Each subsystem had a subsystem lead who would
manage the members of their respective subsystem and
report to the chief engineer. The Chief Engineer reports
to the Program Manager, Team Captain, and Financial
Officer to address programmatic aspects such as work
hours, system performance and funding.
The VIP aspect of this project ensures that the knowledge
and experience gained stays within the project for
future use. This process creates stepping stones for
the students to work from and continue to advance the
project. Senior members of the project mentor newer
members and pass on their knowledge. As the newer
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Magazine of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu October 2017