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Design, Fabrication and Testing of a Novel UAV as a Multi-Year Capstone Project

Abstract This paper describes one recent multi-year Capstone project in the Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MMET) Department at Arizona State University Polytechnic. Specifically, the project involves the design, development, construction, and testing of a prototype Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). After either an air or ground launch, this UAV will fly as a fixed wing aircraft, but it is also capable of transforming to autogyro mode in flight for slower flight or for near vertical landing. Students from the department’s Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing programs are participating in the project, conducted over three years. The project is funded by an entrepreneurial engineer with the intent of attracting funding and support from industry or the military. The project has required students to perform a broad range of engineering activities, and to document their work well enough for succeeding classes to continue the work, and it has served as the core of a faculty sponsored grant proposal to the Air Force.

Introduction

A multi-year effort to develop a prototype unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), through the efforts of undergraduate Capstone engineering technology students, is described in this paper. The UAV is a prototype that can switch from fixed wing to auto-gyro flight modes, while in flight. The project is sponsored by a professional UAV design engineer and entrepreneur. The context of the project is described in the introduction, followed by a discussion of the specifics of the vehicle and the class project.

Hands-on engineering education is what sets Engineering Technology programs apart from traditional engineering programs. The students get introduced to the engineering concepts first in carefully designed courses that have a good mix of theoretical development and problem solving techniques. Then they apply the concepts to solve practical problems and test the concepts in well designed experiments carried out in appropriate facilities. This paper is related to this hands-on learning aspect of the engineering technology program delivered in the Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering Technology (MMET) Department at Arizona State University Polytechnic. Specifically, the paper describes a design project done by the students of the department as part of their capstone classes MET460 and MET461. The main focus of this project is the design, development, analysis, fabrication and testing of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The UAV will be capable of taking off from short fields under its own power or could be launched from an airborne platform such as a helicopter. It flies as a powered fixed wing aircraft for most of its mission and can land as an autogyro by transforming its wing into a rotor. Students from the department’s Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing programs participate in the project. The funding for this project is obtained from external sources with the expectation that the prototype will attract funding and support for formal development from industry or the military. The design and fabrication process requires the coupling of key disciplines in

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Rajadas, J., & Post, A., & Rogers, B. (2007, June), Design, Fabrication And Testing Of A Novel Uav: Capstone Project Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--2335