Browsing by Subject "Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Developing a Low-Cost UAV Avionics Package
    (2012-04-18) Taylor, Daniel
    The term 'unmanned Aerial Vehicle' (UAV) refers to flying vehicles not populated with humans. They are frequently used by a variety of groups, including the military, scientific researchers, and search-and-rescue workers to do things and go places that are impossible, dangerous, or just inconvenient for humans. The cost of these UAVs, however, is prohibitive in many cases. The UAV Research Group at the University of Minnesota is working on a low-cost UAV platform to alleviate this problem. The off-the-shelf components used to keep costs down, however, come with limited capabilities. Addressed here is the limited sensor and actuator connectivity available on the board used by the group. By creating an add-on board to read and write to sensors and actuators, we expanded the number of parts that can be added to the UAV, making this low-cost solution more feasible for practical applications.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Flying Wing Optimization
    (2010-04-21) Mangio, Arion L.
    The flying wing with camber, constant chord, and high aspect ratio is a stable platform and possible to fly in a controllable fashion. The main concern is in turning flight. A vertical fin may need to be used or more sophisticated drag creating control surfaces at the wing tips could be created. Also stabilizing electronics would need to be used for the yaw axis. Large control surfaces must be used to effectively change the shape of the wing and to give ample control in yaw. The weight saved by not having a tail section may be lost by having large control surfaces and more electronics. A good compromise may be to have a vertical fin and large ailerons instead of having drag flaps at the wing tips.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    New method to convert heat directly into electricity
    (2011-11) Song, Yintao; Srivastava, Vijay; Bhatti, Kanwal; Leighton, Chris; James, Richard D.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Potential Flow in Flapping Wing Aerodynamics
    (2012-04-18) Alame, Karim
    Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) have gained a large popularity and have seen potential for military purposes such as information gathering and hostile environment sensing. Although inspired by the biological dynamics of flapping wings, the wing kinematics, geometry and structure are very sensitive to the flight conditions, hence an understanding of those gives a more efficient approach at capturing the subtle design space. As far a human flapping wing flight is concerned it is still an elusive goal. Advances have been made and a lot was done through experimentation and computer aided simulations. So far it appears that experimentation has dominated the theoretical approach in which there is not yet a complete mathematical model that describes this sort of complex kinematics implicitly, and that is one barrier that must be overcome. This is where potential flow offers a low-fidelity mathematical model that will aim to describe such motion and capture the forces generated.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Satellite Control Using the Earth’s Magnetic Field
    (2010-04-21) Kraus, Nicholas D.
    Control of satellite pointing direction is essential to all modern satellites. Whether the satellites purpose is research, surveillance, or for public use, on-board antenna’s must constantly be communicating with ground stations. I have designed and simulated a satellite control system that operates using strictly torque coils as the system of control. Torque coils consist of copper wiring wound many times and a current running through the wires to generate a magnetic field. The magnetic field generated by the copper wires will tend to align itself with the Earth’s magnetic field. Although torque coils can be very limiting and very slow this type of design will save money, and weight. Additionally, torque coils can be controlled by electricity so the satellite does not have to carry any fuel. My research explores the different stages of control required for an entire orbital mission.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Visualization of Pulsating Low-Speed Flows from a Basic Annular Jet
    (2009-10-07) Padron, Santiago
    Flow in the initial region of a pulsating low-speed annular water jet issuing into a quiescent water reservoir was visualized by means of a dye. The objective of this study was to characterize the different flow regimes as a function of pulse frequency. The blocking ratio was fixed at 0.7. The Reynolds number was varied from 59 to 155 and the Strouhalnumber from 0.133 to 1.90. For the experimental conditions considered, two different flow regimes were observed.