Over the winter break, Team Awesome’s Stephen Rayleigh and Michael du Breuil from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University were contacted to fly to the Philippines with their UAS Lynx to help with post-disaster mapping of affected areas after Typhoon Yolanda. The Lynx UAS was designed to be able to take off and land without the need for an airstrip. Its unique design allows for it to be thrown by hand and stalls to land acting like a leaf on the wind. The design is very durable allowing it to make those rough landings. Shock absorbing material is affixed to the bottom of the main body and the rest of the shock is taken by the wings, which are detachable. The entire thing is able to disassemble for transport and for impacts. With the pieces easily detachable the plane can bump into things like a branch or rock and save the part from being dented or broken allowing for the system to be reassembled without too many repairs.
The wings are a polyhedral shape allowing it to get the most out of banking movements with the rudder. At the back of the plane the stabilator is a combination of a stabilizer it is use mostly because the system does not land in a conventional way. Under the wings is the compartment for the camera with stabilizing elements for a clear picture. They used a Canon EOS camera, which takes hundreds of pictures at regular intervals during a flight plan that are later taken and stitched together to make a complete picture of the entire area.
Their main goal in the Philippines was to demonstrate proof of a concept that UAS technology could be effective in these type of situations to find missing persons and identify the extent of damage in areas difficult to get to. Satellite imagery is typically used to do this type of mapping but it often takes valuable time and resources to retask the satellite to the area. If it is cloudy, you would get a low quality, or even no picture. With the UAS, they were able to be deployed immediately and by operating under the clouds were able to work regardless of cloud cover.
They specialized in an area of about one square kilometer but could expand to cover an area of about the size of downtown Prescott. They were deployed to various sites around the island to survey and gather data for the government to see where the most damaged buildings were in the smaller towns and villages. This data gave relief teams “the courage to go out to smaller areas” that would otherwise be left alone for a much longer time. The system operated within line-of-sight range and allowed for about three square kilometers of coverage depending on the area. This approach allowed for the operator to see if the system is going to hit something and if so allow them to take over manual control to manoeuvre it out of harm’s way.
By the end of their time there, Rayleigh and du Breuil covered approximately 22 square kilometers. As they did more and more flight plans they took time to experiment with altitude and picture exposure to get wider shots and clearer pictures in low light.
All the people they came in contact with were interested in what they were trying to do and it allowed Team Awesome to broaden what their UAS can do. Airport authorities were skeptical of all the batteries and strange equipment they were carrying, but with a little explanation they were thanking Rayleigh and du Breuil for their help with the relief effort in the Philippines.
Now that the entire team is reassembled and they have new data and experience with their UAS, they are working to figure out how to utilize their system in wildfire research. They recently received a grant for a thermal camera that they hope to utilize with a payload system. A tetra-cam is something they would like to look into for this facet of their research to see the health of plant growth after a fire. They would be able to switch out cameras depending on what they are looking for, while only having to attach one wire when installing a new camera. The UAS would be able to provide live coverage of a fire zone and help to prevent a tragedy like the Yarnell Fire last summer.
Team Awesome has a great system that is at the forefront of what UAS technology is capable of doing. They will keep working to improve their design and help find ways to integrate the UAS into the airspace of tomorrow.
Source: Horizons