UAV Flight from Vieques to Puerto Rico!

Hello Everyone,

I am an aerospace engineering Ph.d student at a university in New York and also the teaching assistant for an undergraduate course in aircraft design which will be partly taught in Puerto Rico. One of the main objectives for the course is that the studens have to design, document, and build radio control airplanes following traditional design formulae. Having following this community for a while, I proposed to the course instructor and also my advisor to attempt to fly autonomously at least one of the student designed airplanes off the coast of Puerto Rico from the island of Vieques to mainland Puerto Rico which is close to 20 miles!! I have been given the approval and my plan is to use the Ardupilot with pre-programmed GPS way points to accomplish this at least semi-autonomously. The idea is to also establish visual contact during the entire flight using a chase boat. I would like to ask the community, whomever has successfully implemented and flown the Ardupilot system including wireless telemetry with the ardustation or otherwise, if you would be interested in being a consultant to the project. If so, leave me a comment with your contact information and I will get back to you with further details. We plan to fly the RC airplanes/ UAVs during the first week of June in Puerto Rico of course, just to give you a time frame. Thanks everyone, Victor.

Hi Victor,
First, let me commend on your effort with students and this project, so best of our Luck with you. Like Chris said , setting up a project page would be great idea to start with( here will be even better as we don't have to jump too much and students who need to understand/participate won't have to take too much effort to read and ask.
I am excited with your project due to mutual interest.Now coming back to project, since you said
1. Visual contact , so altitude is around 400' to 600'
2, Speed boat : So speed limit is < 30k.m/hr ( any thing faster , you might loose contact or where is the fun if it over very fast :) , so if this is one way trip( or is there a plan for round trip(after refueling), it should take 40mins to cross, 60 min endurance limit will be good goal for project plan,
If above is close than I suggest some good high wing trainner with fuel eng( i am sure electric will be fine but I like to loose the used fuel) which will fit the above bill. Irrespective of which autopilot you use , I am aware of only 2 challenges( any legal issues is yours to figure out) you might face,
1.Engine vibrations, cooling and related issues
2, If code has limit on the range( UDB can do little less than 20miles) then you have to look into it too early on,
Other things can be worked out pretty easily as there are many here who must have completed long endurance flights
I am working on some thing similar but without students, so like every one here , my help is always there for you and your team,
Buena suerte y mis mejores deseos

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Comments

Admin

Morli February 26, 2010 at 3:03pm

Jason , will adding more waypoints make it better approximation like say 1 every half k.m instead of say 1 every k.m?
Developer

Jason Short February 26, 2010 at 2:55pm

Ardupilot uses a very fast approximation of heading. It won't be completely accurate at 20 miles. It will be pretty good but you need to run it in the debugger to see how much it's off. Maybe only a few degrees, and as you get closer the approximation will get more accurate.

If you add in some waypoints you should be in good shape, but you have to hit those waypoints to move on. If you think this is an issue, we can come up with another scheme.
Morli_ February 26, 2010 at 11:53am

Hi Victor,
First, let me commend on your effort with students and this project, so best of our Luck with you. Like Chris said , setting up a project page would be great idea to start with( here will be even better as we don't have to jump too much and students who need to understand/participate won't have to take too much effort to read and ask.
I am excited with your project due to mutual interest.Now coming back to project, since you said
1. Visual contact , so altitude is around 400' to 600'
2, Speed boat : So speed limit is < 30k.m/hr ( any thing faster , you might loose contact or where is the fun if it over very fast :) , so if this is one way trip( or is there a plan for round trip(after refueling), it should take 40mins to cross, 60 min endurance limit will be good goal for project plan,
If above is close than I suggest some good high wing trainner with fuel eng( i am sure electric will be fine but I like to loose the used fuel) which will fit the above bill. Irrespective of which autopilot you use , I am aware of only 2 challenges( any legal issues is yours to figure out) you might face,
1.Engine vibrations, cooling and related issues
2, If code has limit on the range( UDB can do little less than 20miles) then you have to look into it too early on,
Other things can be worked out pretty easily as there are many here who must have completed long endurance flights
I am working on some thing similar but without students, so like every one here , my help is always there for you and your team,
Buena suerte y mis mejores deseos
Victor Maldonado February 26, 2010 at 11:52am

Thanks Chris, I will look into creating a mypage here on the website. As far as the design of the airframe and propulsion requirements, it's something that the students will have to design given the requirements of the mission, i.e. to fly for 15-20 miles. This could call for a glider type airplane configuration with a low wing loading to minimize battery weight. I deally we plan to use electric motors, again if we minimize current consumption perhaps by gearing the motor/s a reasonable Li-po battery of around 5 amp hours I imagine would be sufficient. Thanks for the interest guys, I myself am more concerned with the Ardupilot since I haven't actually put a system together, but will have to soon! Victor
Alexandre de Oliveira February 26, 2010 at 11:05am

The one thing I wish to know is about the engine. What are you gonna use, eletricity? I'd like to know how you're gonna fly 20Km :)
Developer

Jason Short February 26, 2010 at 10:56am

The Ardupilot part sounds relatively straight forward. It's the airframe / power selection that might need the most input. What are your thoughts so far?
Alexandre de Oliveira February 26, 2010 at 10:32am

Great project. Unfortunately, I can't help you, but I advise the creation of a website. That would be great.
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson February 26, 2010 at 10:19am

Victor,

You can use the text box on your MyPage here as the website, or use a stand-alone page with its own URL (called a Note here)
Victor Maldonado February 26, 2010 at 9:27am

Hey Brian, Thanks we will need the luck! I hadn't thought of setting up a website but that would be a great idea. At the least I can update the community with some posts.

Victor
T3

Brian Wolfe February 26, 2010 at 8:56am

Ooh. Exciting project! I’m not flying the Ardu so I can’t help you there, but wanted to wish you luck. Will you set up a website to document the project?

Brian

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