CUAir: 2023 Technical Design and Flight Readiness Review

Summary

Cornell University's CU Air team presents Artemis V2, a custom-built VTOL UAV designed for search, delivery, and rescue missions. With a fully composite airframe, 2-axis camera gimbal, and airdrop system, Artemis V2 is the result of interdisciplinary collaboration and rigorous testing. The system, operated by a team of over 50 students, demonstrates autonomous flight, obstacle avoidance, and precision airdrop capabilities, showcasing CU Air's commitment to excellence in unmanned aerial systems.

Takeaways

• 🛫 Cornell University's CU Air team has developed a custom-built unmanned aerial system named Artemis, which is designed for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities.
• 👨‍🔬 Over 50 undergraduate students from various disciplines have contributed to the development of Artemis V2, showcasing an interdisciplinary approach to engineering and teamwork.
• 🚀 Artemis V2 was conceived during the COVID-19 pandemic and has undergone continuous improvement despite various hardships and setbacks.
• 🎯 The aircraft is designed to meet specific mission requirements, including a 25-minute flight time goal, autonomous flight capabilities, and a bank angle of at least 50 degrees for turns.
• 📸 Artemis features a custom 2-axis camera gimbal for precise camera orientation and a parachute drop system for payload delivery, enhancing its operational versatility.
• 🔋 The airframe is made of composite materials, optimizing the strength-to-weight ratio, and is powered by 6s 8000 milliamp hour LiPO batteries for efficient energy use.
• 🔍 The autonomous vision system uses machine learning algorithms to detect and classify targets with high accuracy, improving the system's ability to perform search and rescue operations.
• 🛰️ Artemis utilizes a Pixhawk Cube flight controller and a Raspberry Pi model 4B for flight control and camera/gimbal management, integrating advanced technology into its design.
• 🔗 The communication system of Artemis is robust, using both 900 MHz for telemetry and a 5.8 GHz Wi-Fi network for high-speed data transmission between the aircraft and ground systems.
• 💻 The ground control system (GCS) is a custom web-based interface that allows for simultaneous control of aircraft vitals, mission progress, and waypoint navigation.
• 🛬 Rigorous testing has been conducted on Artemis, including 32 flights totaling 1 hour and 59 minutes, demonstrating its readiness for competition and real-world applications.

Q & A

What is the CU Air project at Cornell University?

The CU Air project is an interdisciplinary student project team at Cornell University that designs, manufactures, programs, and flies a custom-built unmanned aerial system (UAS). It is also described as a family where students learn, laugh, and grow together.

What is the significance of the Artemis system in the CU Air project?

Artemis is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) system designed and implemented by CU Air. It represents a dream of the team since 2022 and has undergone various iterations and improvements to enhance its capabilities.

How many undergraduate students were involved in the development of Artemis V2?

Over 50 undergraduate students from various disciplines were involved in the development of Artemis V2.

What are the key features of the Artemis V2 aircraft?

Artemis V2 features a custom fully composite airframe, four vertical propellers for VTOL functionality, a custom 2-axis camera gimbal, and a parachute drop system for payload delivery.

What is the mission flight time goal set by the CU Air team for Artemis?

The mission flight time goal is 25 minutes, allowing for 10 minutes in vertical hover mode and 15 minutes of horizontal flight.

What is the required cruise speed for Artemis to achieve the SUAS competition objectives?

The required cruise speed for Artemis is at least 18 meters per second.

How does the Artemis system ensure autonomous flight and waypoint navigation?

Artemis uses a custom version of the RDU pilot flight controller firmware and a custom web browser-based ground station for autonomous flight and waypoint navigation.

What is the significance of the airdrop system in Artemis, and how does it work?

The airdrop system is crucial for payload delivery during search and rescue operations. It uses bay doors in the fuselage, a custom airdrop circuit board, and an electronically controlled parachute release mechanism to ensure accurate and consistent payload delivery.

How does the CU Air team ensure the safety of the Artemis system during flight?

Safety is ensured through the use of a safety pilot, GCS operator, and various redundancies in the system design. The team also implemented a button on the autopilot GCS for obstacle avoidance and conducted extensive testing to verify flight performance requirements.

What is the expected score for CU Air at the SUAS competition based on the full mission tests?

Based on full mission tests, CU Air expects to score approximately 58 percent of the total mission points at the competition.

How does the CU Air team plan to demonstrate Artemis's capabilities at the competition?

The team plans to demonstrate Artemis's capabilities through a proof of flight, showcasing manual takeoff, autonomous flight, transition to manual mode, and manual landing, as well as meeting all flight performance requirements.