CUAir: 2023 Technical Design and Flight Readiness Review

CUAir
3 May 202320:01

Summary

TLDRCornell 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.

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Related Tags
Unmanned SystemsVTOL DroneAutonomous FlightEngineering ProjectStudent TeamAerial TechnologySearch and RescueCustom AirframePayload DeliveryAI VisionFlight Testing