LARGE-SCALE UNMANNED AIRCRAFT DESIGN TESTBED

Abstract

This report aims to describe in detail the design, construction, and testing of a large-scale unmanned aircraft system (UAS). The design takes into consideration a series of requirements established by Mr. Lauderdale, the team’s mentor and customer. The principal goal of this project was to create a rugged testbed on which to mount and test a parachute recovery system for large-scale drones. This recovery system is to be used on widely-available market drones, leading many of the requirements to be focused on modeling the features that are common on the market. Initial design stages included trade studies of different UAS variations with which the optimal configuration was agreed upon. Structural analysis in the form of finite element analysis, experimental load testing, and motor testing were all accomplished in order to confirm that the requirements were indeed satisfied. The project concluded with successful flight tests that satisfied the main requirements established by the customer.