Student : Bilal Sharqi
Sponsor : D. Dan and Betty Kahn Foundation
Summary:
Investigate fundamental airframe/avionics topics to enable autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system for large-area crop monitoring.
Top level goals:
- Explore configurations capable of VTOL and efficient cruise for runway independent operation and long endurance/range
- Explore 3D printing for customized designs on-demand
- Aeroelastic focus: experimentally predict the flutter onset given variability in airframe design and aging
- Monitor, predict, and control the aerodynamic-structural response and stability (flutter)
- Conduct both numerical and experimental studies
The research focuses on using an existing platform that has key features similar to future precision agriculture UAVs and develop a full-scale, half-airplane model to be tested in a wind tunnel for the various studies.
The A3TB-WT model in the wind tunnel going through a flaperon sweep excitation.