"Click here" to build your UAV

“Click here” to design &build your UAV Dirk Gorissen - Imperial College Robotics Society – Megabyte Talks - 13 December 2011

Outline• About us• The DECODE vision• UAV (AUV/UGV) technology• The DECODE system• Rapid manufacturing• Future work

About me• Master in Computer Science – Antwerp University, Belgium• Master in Artificial Intelligence – Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium• PhD in Computational Engineering – Ghent University, Belgium – Topic: Surrogate Modeling & Surrogate based optimization – During this time also worked at • Distributed Computing Laboratory – Emory University, Atlanta, USA • Neuromodeling Lab – Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada• Research Fellow at the Computational Engineering and Design Group under Prof. Andy Keane – Southampton University, UK• Main interest: Computational Engineering & Software Development

Who are we?

What do we do?

DECODE Project team• Professors: • PhD Students: – Jim Scanlan – Jeroen van Schaik – Andy Keane – Mario Ferraro – Kenji Takeda – Marc Bolinches• Post doc: – Ben Schumann • Associated: – Erika Quaranta – Dirk Gorissen – Alex Forrester – Ivan Vouchkov

The DECODE Project• Looking at how complex aerospace systems are designed • £800k EPSRC project• In particular, the decision making process related to the design – How are decisions made? – Who makes them? – How final are the? – How arbitrary are they? – Are they recorded?

Design decisions• Important to rationalize decisions – Motivate them during design review meetings• However, – Design of something is never “finished” – Time pressure leads to arbitrary detail decisions – No immediate payoff for recording rationale

Making decisions • Which ones matter? • Heatmap?

Making decisions

Case Study: UAVs • UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAS) • Mostly for military use but civilian market growing fast – Mapping/surveying, atmospheric measurements, search and rescue, wildlife management, … • UAV market in 2010: $6.6 b. & rise to $55 b. by 2020

UAVs: Why?• Complex enough to be taken seriously• „Simple‟ enough to be tackled within a university research project• We can go through the full lifecycle – Design -> build -> fly -> crash! – Necessary to appreciate the impact and constraints of decisions

UAVs: Why?• Its cool • Great for students

Fixed Wing UAVs

Wing technology• Inflatable & morphing wings – adapt to flight conditions – no movable surfaces (better flow)

Wind tunnel

Rotary UAVs• Control hardware and software developed from scratch

Rotary UAVs

Rotary UAV - Specs• Angstrom / Open Embedded linux.• Gumstix Overo Fire, 720 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 OMAP 3530• 802.11 Wifi, Ethernet, serial TTY for IMU, I2C bus.• CH Robotics UM6 AHRS/IMU.• E-Flite Part 450 BLDC motors, 890KV.• Mikrokopter BL-CTRL electronic speed controllers, I2C setpoint• APC 12x6 Slow Fly Electric propellers.• Daventec SRF10 ground sonar.• ublox GS407 5Hz GPS• Bosh BMP085 absolute pressure altimeter.• Arduino Mini Pro 16MHz helper processors on I2C bus.• 3-cell LiPo.• Spektrum DX8.

Rotary UAV - Specs• Video downlink FPV kit:• vTx: IftronTech 5.8 GHz 25mW with 3dBi duck.• vRx: Yellow Jacket Diversity Pro 5.8GHz (-85dBm) with 3dBi duck and 11dBi patch.• Sony PAL/CCD camera• Fatshark FPV goggles• 9-inch LCD monitor• tripod

Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV)• Autonomous Systems Laboratory – Earth-based facility for the testing of advanced control systems sought to be applied in space

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV)• Autosub family – Autosub1: awarded Millennium Product status by the UK Design Council – more than 300 missions of increasing complexity over 2000 kilometres – Autosub Under Ice programme, four expeditions under sea ice and under an Antarctic floating glacier – Autosub Long Range: combining a 6000m depth capability with an endurance of 6000km

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV)• A concept study for air-launched underwater vehicles is also in progress.

Soton ASTRA• low cost platform for science missions such as pollution monitoring and weather prediction• Modular balloon launched glider

The „U‟ in UAV• Sky Circuits Autopilot (www.skycircuits.com)• Originally developed at the NOC• Closely affiliated with the DECODE project team

Sky Circuits Autopilot• Bridges the gap between very low cost / low performance systems, and high end / expensive military derived systems• 3-axis accelerometers, 3-axis gyroscopes, 3-axis magnetometers, dynamic and static pressure sensors• 80g• Adjustable flight automation level• Flight telemetry• In flight commands and mission scripts• Modular payload interface

Autopilot: Ground station• Ground station

Autopilot: Telemetry 0.15 0.1 0.05pb/2V 0 -0.05 -0.1 -0.15 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 Time (s)

Auto-takeoff

Auto Landing

Autopilot: Scripting# set initial parameterspressure.set_given_uav_at_zero_heightcontroller.architecture_add_links alt_by_throttle# launchcr 5base_control[pitch].command 2base_control[roll].command 0base_control[yaw].command 0..# hold current heading, set airspeed to 12 and reduce climb ratescript.store[0] hcr 2as 12..# wait till at a safe altitude (20m)script.wait_while_true "logic.less_than_float32 ht 20"nav.path 1 2 3

The DECODE Project• Looking at how complex aerospace systems are designed• Enhance the decision making process

DECODE System• A computer system to help understand the impact of a decision• “Is it worth it?”

Case study: Search and Rescue

Search and Resuce• The RLNI has to come look for you – Helicopter costs £21 million and £6000 per hour – Lifeboat costs £150,000 and £8000 per hour

Search and Rescue: UAVs• Design low cost UAVs for search and rescue – UAV costs < £10,000, and< £100 per hour• Deploy to RNLI stations• Reduce load on helicopters and lifeboats

Designing a S&R UAV• What does a Search and Resuce UAV look like? – How big, how heavy, how fast, …• Decisions guided by an operational simulation

System building blocks Manufacturing

Concept Design / Sizing

Concept Design / Sizing Aero Cruise

Pacelab Design Suite

Excel spreadsheet

Concept Design / Sizing

CAD - SolidWorks• Difficulty: Concept CAD -> Analysis CAD• Ultimate goal: fully parametric CAD – Difficult (Impossible)

Aerodynamics

Costing

Operational Simulation• Recreation of sample SAR region using AnyLogic ©• Agent-Based UAVs, lifeboats, helicopter• Realistic data & procedures• Weather• Situation-based searches and decisions by coastguard

Design rationale• Design rationale: – The explicit listing of decisions made during a design process, and the reasons why those decisions were made.• Primary goal: – Support designers by providing a means to record and communicate the argumentation and reasoning behind the design process.• Not just on the CAD level – Also for mission, software tools, etc.

Compendium: Design rationale

Compendium Maps

DECODE System• How many more lives can we save by reducing the wing span by 15% ?• “Is it worth it?”

System Architecture

Excel client

Matlab Client

Trades

Web Client

Web client

Decode Vision• Agile UAV design system – Probe design in real time – Rough answers now, accurate answers later – Live geometry – Design rationale

Decode Vision

Building UAVs• Focus on rapid manufacturing, 3D printing – cheap, fast – complexity comes for „free‟• But: important to know the limitations

SULSA• Worlds first 3D printed aircraft (that actually flew)• Fully parametric geometry

Project status• Halfway through design of DECODE II – Aim to fly by March• MSc course in Unmanned Systems – Supported by QinetiQ, DSTL, BAE systems, Cobham, Rolls-Royce, Roke Manor , Thales – Students will use & extend the system

DECODE II• ~ 25 kg • 5 hr endurance• 4.5 kg payload • 165 km/h cruise speed• 600 km range

Future• Interest from the BBC, Police, Met Office, Antarctic Survey, and US Navy• Potentially film Olympic Torch bearer• Rocket launched UAV from a balloon

Two-Seas Project• UAV monitoring system for the English channel – Pollution, smuggling, migration, ocean monitoring, … – If successful will drive DECODE III

Questions?• News and updates via Twitter: @elazungu

"Click here" to build your UAV

by dgorissen on Jan 12, 2012

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"Click here" to build your UAV — Presentation Transcript