Project Details

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UAVcan Compatible Five-Hole Air Data Probe for Airspeed, Angle of Attack, and Sideslip Angle Sensing

Company: Bechamo LLC

Major(s):
Primary: ESC
Secondary: ME
Optional: EE

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

This project involves the design, build, and calibration of a five-hole air data probe capable of measuring airspeed, angle of attack (AOA), and angle of sideslip (AOS) for small UAV applications. The ability to sense AOA and AOS provides useful data for flight control, aircraft model validation/identification, and stall prevention. The probe will use differential pressure sensors to capture airflow characteristics, with a microcontroller computing air data and publishing it over UAVcan (an open-source communication protocol developed for aerospace and robotics) to enable integration with the company’s flight control software. Students will work on design and fabrication of the probe, sensor board development, software implementation, and gathering aerodynamic data for calibration. Company mentor will drive design requirements, as well as provide guidance and support on the software and integration aspects. The project is multidisciplinary, providing hands-on experience in mechanical design, embedded systems and sensor integration, and aerodynamic data acquisition. This real-world product development cycle will prepare engineers for steps involved in bringing a high-level set of requirements from beginning to end of a product cycle, with ready to manufacture artifacts, software, schematics and calibration processing software and procedures. The company can fly the solution on a non-critical small, unmanned aircraft once developed and tested. Milestones include: - Design of the data probe and a preliminary CAD model - Sensor board and electronics design - Software architecture - Fabrication and assembly - Data acquisition and calibration - Integration with company flight control software