1 Earth Signals and Systems Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2 Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan
Test: 4/3/21 @ 1630hrs - 1930hrs
1: Earth Signals and Systems Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2: Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan
Summary: Several flights with ApparenticsSTS rewired with PX4/RFD900 in nominal configuration. Hold...
When we started using hobby aircraft for adaptive atmospheric sampling in 2011, in contrast to static flight plans, we settled on the X8 after some involved study of a variety of hobby aircraft ("foamies"). We demonstrated its use in the first autonomous plume hopper that we know in existence to map plume energies. Following experiments, we presented results at AIAA (2013) and in several PI meetings/workshops before and after. The case we made was for a foamie that suited the small scale field experiments in adaptive atmospheric sampling (clouds, plumes, thermals etc.): ~10km range, ~2hr endurance (at best), ~2kg payload etc.
Other groups were interested in similar scales, notably a CU Boulder aeronautics group. As we pointed out the advantages of our approach at a...
Nick Roberts and Sai Ravela
Over the last year or so, we have been working up on various mods on the standard airframe including:
These mods are disclosed on this blog and freely available. Here we document the twin tail system with synchronized rudder control is developed using NACA-1414 airfoil and Hitec Servos. The tail surfaces are made from Spyder Surfboard foam. This foam was selected because...
The number of UAS uses in Conservation Biology is exploding. Often far away from "civilization", silent unmanned aircraft can quietly track wildlife, map the land and provide the data for new models of population, movement or migration. Our methodological projects involving adaptive mapping, tracking and and individual identification found a home in a collaboration with Princeton, UIC and the Mpala Research Center to develop targeted wildlife observing systems. Katelyn Wolfenberger, who is now working on Lightfield imaging by drone for her thesis, coined the term "Wings over Wildlife" for our wings over wildlife endeavors, including:
Here is Yet Another POPO trip (YAPOPO!):
Getting out and about
Returning Home
And the bird's eye
More pictures to follow here:
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We've had such fun so far in "the process" that we thought putting some photos and videos of the developmental work wouldn't be...
Admit it...every time you looked at a smokestack you've wondered what it does to the environment. You wished you could map the structure of the plume and follow the puffs. Small UAS' can be made to do that, and much more, using a dynamic data-driven mapping paradigm. There's much more sophisticated language for the intuitive concept of DDDAS, but the essence of the idea is to sample, then resample based on information that your sensors have gathered. This symbiosis is where the magic is. Examples follow of a Markov Chain Monte-Carlo adaptive sampling, but make sure you are in a glide (and if that's not possible, maintain trim!) on the sampling flight path... Here are some pix for you!
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