SyFly

Trade Show

The aim of trade show was to present our conceptual design to the potential customers. This included lecturers, PhD students and industrial visitors. Each customers was to be briefed in 5 minutes. Hand-carry was displayed to demonstrate that the UAV was able to fit in the bag conveniently. 

Location : Visitor Centre (Drum Building) University Place

Group F got first prize at the show for being innovative and being the stand that most impressed the industry visitors. - Dr. William Crowther

F-UAV

After going through two failed attempts of getting our aircraft to fly higher than one meter, the team decided that they had to take some drastic decisions. When the whole situation was analyzed, a number of factors were short listed for having the responsibility of the failed attempts. These included certain degree of carelessness during the manufacturing of the tail, the enormous size and weight of the aircraft and the incorrect placement of the pusher motor.

The tail negative angle problem was solved fairly easily but the other two problems proved to be quite difficult to get around. This called for a major redesign of the aircraft, which would not only reduce the weight but also the whole size of the aircraft.

Initially, there were a number of ideas provided by each member of the group which all mounted to one thing, move the propeller from the rear to the front. This not only reduced the size/weight of the aircraft but also solved the problem of incorrect motor placement and thrust line issue. This was viable option but meant that the group would have to consider going for a simple design rather than the risky pusher motor option which would have obviously landed us a higher regard from the company.

A number of iterations were made to the previous fuselage by making it smaller and smaller using optimization methods. Each iteration resulted with a fuselage which was not only lighter than the previous one but also much more aerodynamic and with a lower drag coefficient. For the final design, the propeller was placed in the front with all the electronics placed at strategic locations so as to obtain optimal CG position. The aircraft met the size requirements and all the mechanism seem to be working perfectly.

Next step, the trade show.

The model F-UAV is a versatile UAV designed to measure the quality and characteristics of the air. It can be adapted rapidly to very different profiles, depending on what the customer is interested on.

Air quality measurement

Hereinafter are some of the sensors our company can provide you with in order to measure different gases of the atmosphere, either in open fields or in small areas where an UAV is able to fly; thanks to our developed and unique air chamber.

Gas Sensors Payload Options

1. 4 electrode ISB (NO2)

2. Nitrogen Dioxide B Sensor (NO2-B42F)

4. 4 electrode ISB (CO, H2S or SO2)

5.  Sulfur Dioxide B Sensor (SO2-B44E)

6.  Carbon Monoxide B Sensor (CO-B4)

7.  4 electrode ISB (O3)

8.  Ozone B Sensor (OX-B421)

9.  4 electrode ISB (NO)

10.  Nitric Oxide B Sensor (NO-B4-4-elect)

The Beast

Taking the knowledge gained from both, Felix and EPS Gliders, the team started towards a new target that was to demonstrate a powered aircraft at zero payload weight flying under radio control. This was the first time we used a fuselage manufactured with laser cutting that gave THE BEAST a much more professional look when compared to a block of foam used for the EPS glide test.

Using previously gained knowledge, a marvelous wing reinforcement technique was established. This involved the use of carbon fibre strips placed vertically at ¼ and ¾ of chord length. This surprisingly gave birth to a remarkable wing attachment mechanism which when paired with carbon fibre strips, evenly spread out the load on the wing and fuselage. This mechanism also helped us to disassemble the wings as many parts as possible to fulfill the size constraints.

A number of glide test were conducted to obtain an optimal CG location and electronics configuration. After a number of failed attempts, a model was obtained that seemed to achieve all the design criteria given to us. But, on the flight demonstration day, things took a turn for the worse and the model could only fly to a maximum height of one meter due to a number of factors.

Even though, the motor provided enough thrust in order to lift our aircraft off the ground relatively easily, there seemed to be some kind of a force pushing it downwards. This was later found out to be a negative moment produced by the tail and the weight/size of the aircraft were the other two reasons.

EPS glider

The team produced an EPS glider by utilizing extruded polystyrene foam with the help of hot wire cutting. The wings were connected to the fuselage by similar mechanism to that of Felix Glider which was by means of rubber bands. Weights were added to the front nose of the fuselage to maintain the CG positioning. The tail boom was reinforced by wooden strips. The glide test could have gone better if more concentration was paid on tail manufacturing and weight reduction.

This glide test paved the way for our reinforcement mechanisms.

Felix Glider

Given a basic foam glider and a radio control conversion kit, the team developed and tested a manually controlled UAV that performed a range of basic manoeuvre including straight and level flight at different speeds, and turns/loops. The exercise was carried out in a week.

As the result of the process, it was confirmed which role would be given to each team member.