Sorry about the lack of updates, we will be updating more frequently now. The first update being that we completed the new wing and completed the first flight with the new wing and it performed very well even in windy conditions. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the actual flight but here are some pictures of the new wing on the airplane. This new wing is significantly stronger allowing us to carry our large payload, it also has less drag allowing us to fly at greater speeds.Although you can’t see from the picture above the entire trailing edge consists of the control surfaces for the flaps and the ailerons, we plan on using the flaps during landing to allow us to land at slower speeds.We have also been working on the onboard computer for the airplane, below are some pictures of it and the new enclosure that we had rapid prototyped out of polycarbonate using the facilities on campus. The onboard computer is a single-board-computer (SBC) with a 1.8GHz Pentium M processor, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of flash running Ubuntu Linux. This computer will handle all of the image acquisition and some or all of the image processing.
Since we have the UAV in flying condition again we will be slowly integrating the all of the electronics into the actual airframe and there should be more frequent updates now that we will be back in the testing/development phase.For older posts or information about the project please visit www.aessuav.org
Yes, we are still using the Kestrel, that also has a new enclosure, I just haven't posted a picture of it yet. We plan on having the Kestrel do all of the navigation and control, while the onboard computer pictured above will capture images, process them, and send them back to the ground station.
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