From Hackaday:
For his Hackaday Prize project, [tlankford01] is using RC planes and UAVs as an anti-poaching system for rhinos and elephants. It’s a laudable goal for sure, but the conditions of this use case make for some very interesting engineering challenges.
The design goals [tlandford] has set are relatively simple for a bush plane, but building a plane that can fly 200km with a 6kg payload and return to base is a challenge that isn’t usually taken up by RC enthusiasts. For this project, [tlandford] is using an entirely 3D printed airframe, with living hinges printed right into the control surfaces. That in itself is pushing the limits of amateur airframes, but [tlandford] isn’t stopping there.
This UAV system will be completely automated, with a single ground control system taking care of controlling a swarm of planes, pointing a tracking antenna, and connecting to the Internet for observation or control from anywhere in the world.
The project that has seen a lot of improvement since it was entered in last year’s Hackaday Prize. The addition of a completely 3D printed airframe is a big one, and replacing the RVJet with something that looks a bit more like a glider should increase the loiter times over the target. There’s a video of the Icarus flying available below. If you also have a UAV project entered in The Hackaday Prize, there is now one obvious choice of what music you should use.
Here's the original post:
Project Icarus is a solar UAV that is challenging endurance records for airframes under 5kg. The airframe is a proven long range plane that is capable of multiple mission payload and power setups. Icarus 3.0 in its full form is a solar uav and is capable of other hybrid power systems such as hydrogen. For the 2015 Hackaday Prize, we will complete the third version of the project and will place the plane in service in wildlife refuges around the world.
There is a lot of catching up to get this listed so others can replicate what we are doing. We will be trying to add to and update this daily. Thank you for looking out for the project and if you would like to help in any way please feel free to give me a shout.
Overview:
Icarus 3.0
A. Long Range >200 km
B. Long Endurance >180 minutes
C. Payload >6 kg
D. Custom Image Recognition Software
E. Fire and Forget autonomous mission from launch to recovery
F. TCP/IP Cloud Control for observation or control from anywhere in the world
G. Simultaneous Mission Capable
F. Fully 3D printed airframe
Ground Control Station
A. Single or Multiple Users
B. Cloud Capable
C. Permanent Station and Man Portable Solutions
D. Automatic Antenna Tracking
E. Satellite Communications
F. RTK GPS Centimeter Accurate Solution
G. Onboard HIL Simulation Training Support
H. Swarm Control
COMPONENTS
- 2×Odroid U3Unbuntu Linux based embedded processor
- 1×Range Video RVJET Flying WingAir Frame
- 2×Piksi RTK GPScentimeter accurate RTK GPS
- 1×Cyclops C UAVAir Frame
- 2×Pixhawk APAutopilot
- 2×DroneDeploy Cloud CommunicationsMobile Network communications
- 2×Iridium 9252Satellite Modem Communications
- 2×Machine Vision USB CameraMultispectral MacIhine Vision for ID Software
- 2×Thermal Imaging CameraMachine Vision for Night Ops
- 2×RFIDto be determined
Comments
I se a lot of dones that seem to be a solution looking for a problem. Everyone is so excited and afraid of them with the only two uses I have really seen are fun and cool youtube videos. No killer business app yet. Most but not all of what I se is a novelty at best. I suspect they will replace the small market of filming from helicopters and a few specitely markets here and their in the near term. But battery tech has to get a lot better and that is a very slow moving industry.
The trouble with trying to solve poaching is the poachers have more money. As Graham and Guy have eluded the final mile is the hard bit, who is going to take action on the data and who is going to pay for it. Why can't the West impose heavy sanctions on the end user countries?
Glad you chipped in Graham, you are bang on right. You always see folks operating over grass plains, not the sort of terrain we have in Northern KZN.
My take on some of what is required is underlined in this article, we make (and to sound trendy) wearables for wildlife and use RPAS for hearing them sometimes.
Finding a transmitter that wants to be found can be difficult enough let alone people.
The sentiment behind these endeavors from overseas is always good, just need a little finessing
I thought you liked a challenge!!
Beautifully described and presented. Thank you Our wild bears and skunks are not that bad.
Designing and flying the drone in a safe, controlled, tame environment is the easy part. Operating (a correctly designed) one in the African bush is another story all together.
Day time temperatures exceeding 40°C (104°F) are common in summer, night time temps in winter can be 0°C (32°F) or lower, bugs swarm in their hundreds around any light you turn on, malaria is a risk, baboons raid your camp when you're trying to sleep after being out the whole night, the next day the mongooses do the same thing, then the monkeys next..., huge summer thunderstorms threaten daily, windspeeds at 300ft AGL often exceed 45kmh, turbulence can be huge so cameras need high tech stabilization, brick-lifter thermals carry your plane too high. Downdrafts can threaten the planes integrity.
Launch and landing are a huge challenge, the landing area, mostly at night, is often a tiny grass patch surrounded by "wait-a-bit" thorn trees (a very innocuous name), or a "haak-en-steek" (hook-and-prick) bush-lined gravel two-track, the grass is full of ticks, snakes like black mambas and puff adders and scorpions wait in the grass, lions prevent you from even exiting the vehicle on occasion or roar all night unseen 100m away, hyenas come investigate you, leopards walk past the door, elephants block your route, rhino graze the landing zone, rocks and termitariums hide in the grass.
There is very little cell phone coverage, little data access and then only GPRS, no DSL, electricity can be sporadic, water can be suspect, fuel can be a long way away, rivers flood, mud sucks your 4x4 vehicle down, sand slows you to a crawl. Planes get damaged in transit over rough roads and in landings and launches and there's no balsa, liteply, foam, 3d printer, cyano or epoxy for 200km (120mi). (Or LiPo's for 500km)
Then you have to try find groups of 3 people/poachers in 18485km² (7,523 mi²) of bush, filled with 176000 impala antelope, 35000 zebras, 37000 buffalo, 23000 elephants and 5000 nocturnal hyenas, amongst a myriad of other small creatures giving off heat signatures. If you actually do find a poacher you have to transmit their position to a ranger who doesn't know what a GPS is, has no phone and can't speak English, in the dark, 20km away.
So, as I said... designing (no, scratch that) and flying the drone is VERY easy :)
(much of the above from my experience in the last year)
Very cool. I assume the solar can generate more power than it costs to lift by the panel but I always wondered how much. I assume you test the plane without solar panels then with them but turned off and finely with them but on. I would love to know the average amp draw for those three tests. Do you get 5% over their cost or 50%.