Paparazzi

Project Description:

The Paparazzi tilt-rotor unmanned aerial system (UAS) is an undergraduate aerospace engineering senior design project developed at Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology at Saint Louis University. The UAS design merges the popular technology of backpack UAVs and tricopters in order to produce a highly-versatile UAS capable of climbing and cruising efficiently like a UAV as well as taking off and landing vertically, hovering, and maneuvering like a tricopter. With a wingspan of 40 inches and a total weight of 5.5 pounds, the Paparazzi UAS possesses the ability to cruise in a forward-thrust configuration at 40 knots for 4 nautical miles while maintaining the required power for over 15 minutes of hovering and maneuvering surveillance in a vertical-thrust configuration. Additionally, the UAS is designed to fit within a portable military-grade Pelican case and can be fully assembled and operational in less than 10 minutes. With a low cost and highly versatile design, this platform may be used for military reconnaissance, search and rescue missions, and numerous commercial applications where a multi-use platform is desired. With a focus on meeting mission requirements and optimizing the system’s capability, the design process has advanced from the conceptual, preliminary, and detailed design stages through varying degrees of system performance analysis. Additionally, a pragmatic and iterative design methodology is demonstrated as the UAS configuration matures during construction in order to ease the product’s manufacturability without significantly compromising capabilities. The conclusion of the project will include flight testing of the prototype aircraft to verify theoretical calculations and demonstrate that the Paparazzi UAS fulfills all mission requirements.