UAV Specific Systems Justin Murtha, Matt Moritz 10/31/06 UAV – Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 4 Main Topics:  Unique configurations  Unusual landing styles  “Autopilot” to drive autonomous flight  Ground station communication

Unique Configurations Possible due to lack of constraints on pilot  Smaller  Cheaper  Increased landing/TO options AeroVironment’s PUMA Aerosonde’s Aerosonde

Landing Style Conventional Landing with Landing Skids Hard Landing with breakaway components Net Landing  Similar to AAI’s Shadow Landing Pad Pole landing  Similar to ScanEagle Parachute Landing Autorotation

Extreme Accelerations Landings often exceed human acceleration tolerances  Maximum Human G’s: ~7 (head to toe) ~17 front to back Requires special suits  Maximum G’s measured on landings: 1600G’s measured in tail for AV’s PUMA 3000G’s measured in nose of AV’s Raven ~44G’s in fuselage of ScanEagle during pole landing

Extreme Accelerations Lack of acceleration constraint opens the door to more aggressive flight maneuvers  UCAV – “Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle”  X-45, X-46, X-47 – smaller, lighter, cheaper

Control by Video Flight is controlled by onboard computer via video post processing

Autopilot Can be used for stability control while pilot on ground flies the mission Can be used for Autonomous Flight while being monitored by the ground station Can be used for Autonomous Flight completely independent on ground station  Uses programmed GPS waypoints to fly to mission critical locations  GPS waypoints can be changed while data link is connected

Small UAV Autopilots Piccolo Autopilot  Size: 4.8” x 2.4” x 1.5”  212g  Number of GPS Waypoints: 100 MicroPilot  Size: 3.94” x 1.57”  28 g  Number of GPS Waypoints: 1000 Kestrel 2.2  Size: 2” x 1.37” x 0.47”  16.65g  Number of GPS Waypoints: 100

Autopilots Inputs  GPS Position 3 Satellites needed for Lat/Long 4 Satellites needed for Altitude (not very accurate)  Pitot Static Pressure Used to calculate airspeed Sometimes used to calculate altitude based on standard atmosphere and ground reference pressure  Accelerometers & Rate Gyros Used to measure pitch, role, and yaw  Special Instrumentation for Research Angle of attack measurements Sonar based altitude

Ground Stations Large UAV  Global Hawk  Predator Small UAV

Integrated Communications System (ICS) for Global Hawk Manufacturer L-3 Comm. – CS West, Salt Lake City CAMA: Common Air- born Modem Assembly LOS: Line of Sight LNA: Low Noise Amplifier HPA: High Power Amplifer HVPS: High Voltage Power Supply SATCOM: Satellite Communications Total Weight: 375 lbs Power Reqs: 3822 W Temp: -54 to 60 C Altitude: SL to 70,000 ft.

Smaller UAV Data Links L-3 Comm. CS West, Salt Lake City Size: 3.05” x 4.95” x 0.7” Weight: <0.5 lbs Power: <10 Watts Frequency: 1755 to 1850 MHz Interfaces: Ethernet, USB, GPS, Video, ect.

Video Transmission Video Transmission is a tricky thing to get right This $200 system shows how video can cut out sporadically due to directional antenna needed for the data transfer rate required for a live video feed

References %20Ignition.jpg pdf 1%20Ignition.jpg Air to Air Video courtesy of Dr. Craig Woolsey, AOE Faculty, Virginia Tech