10-Feb-2013

Thesis Project
Not a whole lot of news here.  Working on my Lit Review mostly.  I did receive word that I will be able to get sponsorship from Advanced Circuits on PCB fabrication, which is great.  I was also able to start getting setup in the Robotics Lab at UIC.

I did start a project for my Robotics class, which I may be able to use onboard my UAV.  It's a ROS-APM-Kinect implementation, here's a project page on my wiki:  http://code.google.com/p/icarus-uav-system/wiki/ROS_APM_KINECT

Maybe I should come up with a better name.

I was originally going to do a XPlane HIL Simulator but I found after some research that this really wasn't a very good project, since XPlane isn't a very good simulation environment for anything beyond a normal airplane.

ROS, APM & Kinect Project
Here's some CAD of the design:

The biggest hurdle I'm having right now is implementing MAVLink communications between my ROS Laptop and the APM Flight Controller.  But I have made some progress.  I will keep updating the wiki page listed above as I make more progress, but I plan on posting all relevant code and operating instructions when they are available.

I will probably only do blog posts every 2 weeks for now on.

27-Jan-2013

Thesis
I didn't write a blog post last week, mainly due to not a whole lot of interesting things going on with it, except for reading.  Yes you heard me, I am working on my Literature Review.  It's a blast.  But seriously I am learning quite a bit.

• For instance there are several recent research projects on RC scale QuadTiltWing UAV's, some pretty cool stuff.  For instance, there's the SUAVI UAV, developed by Sabanci University in Turkey, the QUX-02A developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and the aptly named QTW-UAV by the Robotics and Systems Conrol Laboratory of Chiba University, Japan, to name a few.

SUAVI

QUX-02A

QTW-UAV

• Mike has been hard at work on designing one of the electrical boards I'll be using, to help expand the functionality of the ICARUS Flyer.  This board is designed to interface with the Parallax QuickStart, and may possibly be posting on KickStarter or something similar.

Parallax Quickstart and Daughterboard

• We got a project for my ECE 452 Robotics class, I'm hoping to get approval to build a HIL Simulator for my QTW UAV using XPlane.  If I do, I'll post more on here about it.

That's all for now.

13-Jan-2013

Thesis Project
This week I was able to finish all the design documentation for the last design iteration of my project.  I'm not going to post all the details here (this was about 25 pages) but I'll post the comments I made for what I need to change for the next design iteration.

Aero Design

-The target Aspect Ratio and Wing Loading need to be looked at closer, including representative values from relevant real-world Aircraft.
-The Front/Back Airfoils should be chosen more carefully, potentially using the AirfoilOptimizer program I developed in MatLab (and XFLR).

Actuator Design

-A complete solution for attaching the Carbon Fiber Spars with the Shaft Rods still requires some investigation in the next Iteration but may need some good prototyping/testing to fully accomplish.

Structure Design

-Need to have some way of mounting Spar Support to Fuselage for next Design Iteration.

-Need more work/research to strengthen fuselage platform from flexing for next Design Iteration.

-Look into having wheeled landing gear to perform V/STOL Operations.

Electrical Design

·         -Perform motor testing to determine actual current draw and lifting force.

·        -Build/test all major Electronics this Semester.

·        -Mike Welling is currently desiging/building a Daughterboard for the Parallax Quickstart Board.  This will be used to actuate the Servo’s and handle any/all optional sensors/lights/actuators.

S    Software Design

·        -Communication between Primary (APM) Board and Secondary (Quickstart) Board

·         -Flowchart and define software requirements better.

      Weight Budget

·        -Reduce the weight of the Fuselage by by 25% by reducing the length of the Fuselage and making the Bottom Lid out of a lighter material, such as a plastic wrap material in the next Iteration.

      Bill of Materials

·        -Still need to do more research on a good RC Transmitter/Receiver and Battery Charger.

     For Next Week

      Although I have my next semester of school starting next week, I would still like to do the following:

-     -Do some more analysis/selection on the electric rotor motors.

      -Work on some software flowcharting/requirements definitions.

5-Jan-2013

Thesis
This week I did a bunch of things for my project:

• (Almost) final touches on the latest mechanical design.  I put the motors in, retractable landing gear and a few other things.  Although the retracting mechanism probably isn't going to suffice, so I need to take a better look at that in the next design iteration.  I still need to do some more work with the moment coefficients by placing the front/rear wings in the correct location, along with locating the center of gravity in the optimal position.  Here are some pictures:

Cruise Mode

Cruise Mode

VTOL Mode

• I worked on the software aspect some too.  I plan on using the DIYDrones APM as the primary controller and the Parallax Quickstart as a slave board for extra I/O.  I started writing the necessary code on the Quickstart along with figuring out where in the huge codebase on the APM I will put my user code.  More documentation can be located here:  http://code.google.com/p/icarus-uav-system/wiki/FlyerSoftware
• I started receiving the electrical parts I ordered.  I mistakenly ordered 1 adapter cable that was wrong from Robot Marketplace but I think I can use it for something else.

Those are the main things I accomplished.  The next things I need to care of are:

• Software documentation/flowcharting
• Figure out a test board that I can make to mount all the electronics on for testing.
• Need to figure out where and how I'm going to mount the wings at.

FRC

As some of you know, FRC started off again today for another season.  This will be my first year in 7 years not working with a FRC team.  I enjoy the spare time and the time I get to focus on my schooling/personal life but I will always miss and cherish those days when I was a FRC mentor.  Good luck to all teams, especially 931, 1985 and 1208!  Here's the game animation for ULTIMATE ASCENT!

30-Dec-2012

Thesis Project
I was able to get a lot done this week on my project.

• I was able to get a large portion of the electrical schematics made for my project.  I had debated which software to use, eventually I decided to use DesignSpark as I was familiar with the interface and there were no constraints, and it was free.  Eventually I may use Autocad Electrical, as it can interface with Inventor (which I'm using for the mechanical design) but for now I'll stick with DesignSpark.  Here is the schematic:

• I was able to buy all the major electrical components that I need to further the design process.  The things I didn't buy were: Servo's, Motors, ESC's and a battery.  But since I have some of these already I can at least test the operation for prototyping processes.
• I started the next iteration of the design process.  Here are some preliminary pictures:

By using Balsa wood I'm project a weight at about 8 pounds, a lot lighter than the last time!  I still have a lot of work to do on this design, including adding the motors/propellers, some aero work and the rest of the analysis but this one is getting close.  I'm hoping that with this iteration I would be able to go ahead and actually build a fully functional QTW without any extra refinements, although I doubt that this design will go unaltered in the future.

That's all for now.  Happy New Years!

23-Dec-2012

Merry Christmas!
Of course this is Christmas.  Here are some cool Xmas Videos.

Thesis

This week I was able to finish documenting the design process for the last iteration of development for the ICARUS Flyer, version 4, Revision A, Iteration 1 (v4RevA.1).  It is located here.  I won't spoil the results but the big takeaway is that, surprise surprise it won't fly.  Of course after performing a modest literature review I knew that anyway.  But now I know exactly why it won't fly, and how close I was.  

I've also started figuring out good figures of merit for the next design iteration, such as good wing loading numbers, aspect ratio, etc.  The next design iteration is also going to include a detailed cad model of the rib/spar arrangement for each wing, motor mounting, component mounting, fuselage structure, etc. along with a better look at the aerodynamic design process, so I'm assuming this next iteration will take much more time.

I also received an awesome board, the Parallax QuickStart which I plan on using for any optional hardware such as ultrasonics or other components.

That's all for now.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. 

16-Dec-2012

Thesis
Although I had Finals last week I was still able to get some work done on my Thesis.

• I keep plugging away at my Literature Review.  I found some really good sources online that give a lot of information on the design process of an R/C Scale Airplane, which I am adapting to my project.
• I put a lot more information on the Wiki.  Check it out.
• I've been working on documenting the design process information I've accumulated so far.  I am following a spiral-like process of project management.  Currently I am in the first spiral of development, and am working on (what I refer to as) the ICARUS Flyer version 4, Revision A Iteration 1 (or v4RevA.1).  I will post this information to the Wiki when it's complete, should be in the next few days. With this documention process I've been really able to start quantatively analyzing the Aerodynamic aspects of the Flyer v4RevA.1 including finding out the Airfoil's, Wing Spans and Wing Areas are not acceptable at all.  I'm not surprised as I didn't really know much about that kind of thing when I first drew it up but I'm learning a lot more about it now.
• I started some more in-depth Component Selection, namely for the Flyer's Powerplant (Battery, ESC's, Motors, Servo's, etc)
• I've more or less given up on X-Plane, at least for now.  It's very cumbersome to design what I want and control how I want it without using the X-Plane SDK and I don't have the time to really devote to that now.

Since I have a lot of free time until school starts back up on Jan 14, here are some of the things I would like to accomplish:

• Finish the documentation process for the ICARUS Flyer v4RevA.1, including providing recommendations for the next iteration.
• Perform more Literature Review on critical Aircraft, relevant documents on Airplane design and structure design.
• Develop a list of software I would feasibly want to develop to automate the Iterative process (Wing size/location optimization, battery/ESC/Motor optimizer, etc).
• Provide some information on interesting add-ons to the Flyer, such as Ultrasonic Sensors, Voice Commands, etc.
• Keep updating the Wiki as much as possible.

I may add more to this list of things to do, but for now this is what I'm focused on.  Sorry not really any pictures this time.