The Federal Aviation Administration awarded Rutgers University a contract to develop UAS, currently used by the military, for civilian use. The research will be ongoing over the next several years, he said. The FAA plans to take the results from the first phase of the project and present them to Congress in order to create more concrete parameters for the system designs.
The Rutgers chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics said the research into improving UAS technology would be beneficial to both the University and society.
The main goal for the project is to create reliable machines that can easily be integrated into civilian airspace, said Elsayed A. Elsayed, a distinguished professor and interim chairman of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. Their communication capabilities and airworthiness would be important factors in answering those questions.
The important part of this project will be combining the individual features of UAS into a single working aircraft that can perform a wide array of tasks, such as atmospheric monitoring, GPS tracking and wireless communication, the members of the Rutgers AIAA said.
The UAS would have to fly at specific altitudes to precise coordinates, Elsayed said. To do this, the researchers would need to ensure that on-board computers could handle any potential in-flight issues.
He said fail-safes would be built in to deal with these issues, such as propellers failing in flight and the unit losing contact with the pilot. Ensuring that the pilot-less aircraft could operate autonomously is a chief concern, he said.
Increasing demand for civilian UAS will reveal their limitations, Elsayed said, which will bring more research opportunities for the University.
New algorithms would be designed to control the units, he said. These algorithms would analyze the data gathered by the UAS and provide information for the University, the FAA and eventually, the users.
Different departments within the School of Engineering plan to contribute to UAS research, he said. Students studying mechanical engineering may be able to design and build UAS as part of their senior design projects.
Matthew Makmur, a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student, said programming students would benefit from projects similar to the algorithms the UAS would use.
Members of the Rutgers AIAA said University students already had experience with various aspects of unmanned flight.
“[Students] within the School of Engineering and senior design groups work every day with image recognition systems, data analysis, flight control [and] system integration,” they said.
Source: The Daily Targum