To design and fabricate a drone that has the capability to survey the large area foe refuge movement monitoring, has high endurance, low acoustic signature, low radar cross section area, stealth surface material.These Drones have many uses. Drones are more officially known as unmanned airborne vehicles (UAV). A drone is an untitled airliner in technology. For all intents and purposes a drone is a flying Robot. The airliner may be remotely controlled or can fly separately through software-illicit escape plans in their fixed systems functioning in combination with GPS. UAVs have most often been related with the martial but they are also used for search and free, watch traffic monitoring, weather monitoring and firefighting, between other things.
Hardware/Software Characteristics for Refugees Monitoring Drones, UAV
- High endurance (5 Hours or Greater)
- Low Acoustic Signature
- Low Radar cross section area
- High Top Speed
- Auto – Pilot
Features Required
- Stealth Capability: The drone has the capability of being stealth, so that it can fly near to sea vessels undetected and provide valuable information regarding the position of pirates & hostages. This capability is especially very important since the pirates must not know that they are being spied upon, otherwise they’ll quickly work on countermeasures to avoid being caught.The law enforcement agencies aim at striking their target with total surprise so that they face minimal resistance.
- Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU): IMU is an electronic equipment that is now the most critical part for UAV control as well as land and sea navigation. IMUs in addition with GPS systems accurately guide the UAV to perform autonomous missions, where minimal or no operator intervention is required. For Example, the UAV can perform completely autonomous landing, takeoff, refueling and multiple other missions. This helps in taking off the excess load from the operator so that he/she can focus on mission’s strategic plan and execution rather than divert his/her attention in flying the vehicle. IMUs are composed of 4 sub components which are as follows.
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Barometer
- Magnetometer
All of above four modules feed their output to a central procession unit, which then precisely calculates the speed, position, altitude, direction, air pressure, pitch, roll and yaw of an airplane.
- Day-Night Capability for monitoring the refuges: The system will be having a HD camera and an infrared camera, so that it can effectively be used in both Day and Night missions.
Infrared Camera are particularly helpful for night operations, where a target is not identifiable from distance due to low or no light. Infrared cameras capture the heat sources (like human body) and make picture of it. The cameras are extremely heat sensitive and can easily distinguish a hand from a non-heat releasing source.
For example, following is the image taken in complete darkness with the help of IR camera.
- Construction with Composite Materials: The machine needs to be created with Carbon Fiber external body. Carbon fiber is a material that is stronger than steel yet lighter than aluminum and can withstand immense burning temperatures.
- High Resolution Radar for monitoring the refuges: High resolution part needs to be an integral part of UAV design, as it will identify the vessels from large distance aiding in decision making for the remote operator on whether to engage, spy or leave the vessel. It also helps to distinguish friendly vessels from pirate vessels.
- Laser Imagery Module for monitoring the refuges: This module is important for sea navigation. It is specially necessary when it comes to find the range to target and identifying the size of target.
- Altimeter Module for monitoring the refuges: Altimeter module (Range: 0 m height – 1,000 m height) is part of the machine. It tells the machine its precise drone height, which in turn also helps the machine the exact sag of Cable. The cable sag of electric cable also tells the drone the health of cable since higher sag means the cable is in poor health.
- Camera Module for monitoring the refuges: The camera module is the unique feature of the drone. The camera is controlled by remote ground station.
The ground station comprises of a helmet HUD (head up display). The camera control in drone is directly linked to head movement of the person using it. e.g when a person looks left, the camera on the drone looks left.
- Gyroscopic Stabilizers for monitoring the refuges: The Gyroscopic stabilizer is used by machine to keep itself stable in mid-air and also is the main requirement for the cameras. The cameras in this UAV platform need to have gyroscopic stabilization. This helps in stabilizing the camera platform when the movement of UAV is not smooth in air, mostly due to fast winds.
- Swarm Bots for monitoring the refuges: Swarm bots is a term used for multiple UAVs that operate in collaboration to achieve a common target. For example, to search and navigate a large area, multiple UAVs split the job, where each UAV is in communication with the other UAV and acting like an effective team. Software is used to integrate the data and communications into one central platform based at ground station where a small crew of remote pilots are able to fly multiple UAVs at once.
Drone Design & Construction forrefuges monitoring:
- Design & Construction
- Camera Mounting Details
- Drone Capability
- Design Challenges
Mechanical Design Construction & Features for UAV Drones:
UAV Type: Variable pitch Propeller, thin wing UAV
No. of BLDC motors 1
Servo Motor For Actuating surfaces
Motor Power Rating 600 W per BLDC Motor
Motor RPM 10000 RPM
Voltage Rating 22.2 V
Total Flying Power 600 W
Propeller Dimensions
Diameter X Pitch = 10” X 4”
Battery Details for UAV Drones
Battery Details LiPO
Battery Max Amperage 40 Amps Continuous
Battery Weight 1500 grams
Camera Mounting details For IR & Visible Light Cameras over UAV Drones
Camera DOF = 3 (0 – 180 Degrees)
No. Of Servos = 3
Mounting Weight = 100 grams
Drone Capability
Fuselage: 4.2 ft.
Wingspan: 5 ft.
Stall speed: 65 Km/hr.
Max Speed: 150 Km/hr
Max Altitude: 2000 meters above Sea Level
Max Takeoff Weight: 10 Kg
Payload capacity
- 3 Kg
DESIGN CHALLENGES for UAV Drones
04-30-16
- Light weight (for increased endurance )
- Low cost( for completion of project with limited resources )
- Simple design (for achieving the fabrication with basic tools only )
- Use minimum actuators( for optimized design )
- Time Limitation ( limited time of 1 year for design and implementation)
- Quickly repairable& Completely Detachable
- Minimum space consumption by installed mechanism
