Thursday 28 April 2011

Things are starting to get moving

This week we've made some real progress, we received confirmation from Chris at DIY Drones that he would support our team by sending us out an ArduPilot Mega to use in our UAV, we have our first sketch of an airframe and we have decided on a drawing numbering system for the project.

The first concept sketch has been done for testing the electronics and possibly bottle drops, it’s loosely based on my 1500mm wingspan SFM Islander, but up-scaled to a 2500mm wingspan and modified to have a V-tail (a decision that we are currently reviewing). The Islander was chosen as a test bed due to the stability and performance of my SFM Islander, and up-scaled so that we can get more gear into the airframe.



An example of our drawing numbering system for the UAV project is:
01 – EAP – 102 – 01 R01
(UAV number 1, Electrical schematic of the Auto pilot, dwg 1, rev 1)
  
Drawing Software we'll be using:
  • Mechanical - Solid Works 2011
  • Electrical - Draft sight

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Kick Off Meeting

On the 1st April 2011, we had our kickoff meeting for the 2012 Outback Challange.

We are still waiting for the official rules for 2012 to be released, however we still managed to make some decisions on the basics.

We agreed that the ArduPilot Mega would be the most suitable auto pilot for our needs. The thing that impressed us most was the ability to run simulations through X-Plane.

We will determine the weight of our proposed systems and then based on this, determine the size of plane. At the moment we are leaning towards some sort of twin engine V-tail aircraft.

More to follow...
Antony.