News Article

Student-built vertical airplane ‘takes off’

 

Contacts:
Steve Holland, Aerospace Engineering, 515 520-7567
Travis Grager, Aerospace Engineering, 563 212-1759
Mary Jo Glanville, Engineering Communications and Marketing, 515 294-8787

Ames, Iowa—Imagine this for an assignment—design, build, and test an unmanned aerial system (UAS) that can lift off vertically, fly quietly for an hour while maneuvering around buildings and taking photos, and then glide to a safe landing. The potential mission of such a plane would be to conduct surveillance in urban or mountainous terrain such as Iraq or Afghanistan.

For engineering students in the College of Engineering’s multidisciplinary senior design class, this task seemed insurmountable when the assignment was given last fall. Test flights this spring, however, have shown that the students were up to the challenge.

The students say the project’s success is due to teamwork and the diverse expertise of the team members, which included majors in aerospace engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, materials engineering, and mechanical engineering.

“This is a very complex project that couldn’t have happened without all of the different disciplines involved,” says Travis Grager, a senior in aerospace engineering from Clinton, Iowa, and the project group leader.

The UAS starts with the aircraft. It has to be big enough to carry the avionics, which includes the autopilot to navigate the plane from launch to landing and camera system that can return live video to the ground station; strong enough to withstand the launch force required for a vertical liftoff; and have enough power and endurance to maintain airspeed for an hour.

The project was divided into three teams—aircraft, avionics, and launcher.

“Four of us were on the aircraft team that designed and built the plane,” says Grager. “It was a big challenge. Usually an aircraft burns fuel during flight so it gets lighter, reducing the amount of power you need. We’re using batteries, which keep their weight, so one of our concerns was that we have enough power to maintain airspeed. The batteries that power the motor and the avionics, which have their own batteries, all add to the weight. To get the airspeed we need, we had to make the body as small and light as possible and minimize the drag.”

While the aircraft team focused on the plane, the other teams tackled their problems. “This project has been like working in industry,” Grager explains, “where you have specialized teams making each component the best it can be so the whole system will be the best it can be.”

Communication between the teams was a vital part of the process. “Our thinking was what does it matter how big the camera is or the autopilot system,” says Adam Jacobs, an electrical engineering senior from Grand Mound, Iowa, and a member of the avionics team. “But when we talked to the aircraft team, we found out that weight and size are a really big deal. When choosing the right components, we had to not only meet our requirements but also requirements of the other teams.”

Constraints imposed by the launch team presented another challenge for the avionics group. “We usually design devices that sit on a desk,” adds Mike Plummer, a computer engineering senior from Urbandale, Iowa. “Here we’re building devices that have to withstand something like the 20 g-force at launch. Talking to the launch team helped us understand just how solid and secure our components needed to be.”

The launch team’s goal was to develop a launcher that would be transportable and quickly and easily set up to deploy the plane. A vertical liftoff enables the plane to be used in urban settings where buildings would prohibit a traditional takeoff.

The team developed a simple design using a pressure tank, electrically actuated valve, PVC tubing, piston, metal guide rail, and construction tripod. The design process involved everything from documentation to literature reviews to quotes from suppliers.

Going from total concept to prototype made this project particularly satisfying for Jen Byer, a materials engineering senior from Marshalltown, Iowa. “We went through several design iterations,” she says, “and we encountered problems getting materials and with parts breaking, but it just goes back to you have a problem, how do you solve it? That has been the trickiest thing, but it has also been the fun part—trying to solve a real-world problem.”

The multidisciplinary design program is a two-semester course offered for the first time last fall. Steve Holland, AerE assistant professor, and Mani Mina, ECpE senior lecturer, are the instructors. “The purpose is to provide hands-on design-build-test project experiences to seniors across the engineering college,” says Holland. “The Lockheed Martin Foundation gave the college a grant to help get the program started. The funds were used to create a lab in Coover and to support projects such as this one.”

The team is scheduled to demonstrate the UAS on Monday, April 27, at 1:30 p.m. at the Iowa State Beef Nutrition and Management Research Unit, 3405 North Dakota. Please note the launch is dependent on weather conditions. Contact Steve Holland at 515 520-7567 for status updates.

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