Week 2

Plan for this week:

This week we finish building and begin testing to collect experimental data on a spredsheet.

We pass out a spreadsheet and introduce x = vt. We will collect x and t to calculate velocity.

We use v = x/t. Then use it to get the trajectory equations, x= vcos(theta)t

and y = vsin(theta)t - 1/2 g t^2. After we get those equations calculated with

the provided calculator we graph it by hand and then plot it in Matlab engineering software

to confirm what you graphed by hand. The graph and plots should match. Then you can place them on your

poster. 

SESSION 2

 (September 20th, 2014, 9AM – 12PM in room 193, at Grand Canyon University)

Project: Building a Blue and Red Flapping Wing Mechanical Bird Micro Air Vehicle (MAV)

Principle Investigator: Michael Thompson

Department: Mechanical Engineering

Phone: 602-373-9921

Email: mjthomp3@asu.edu  

Web: https://sites.google.com/a/asu.edu/michael-thompson/home

NASA Space Grant: I believe I can fly! STEAM Program (Fall 2014 - Spring 2015)

Overview of Project:

The main goal of this project is to build a mechanical flapping bird. This will help students to become familiar with issues associated with modeling, controlling, designing, and building a flapping wing mechanical bird micro air vehicle (MAV) drone. In short, it is expected that MAVs may revolutionize mobile sensing, intelligence gathering and warfare.

Problem Statement:

Studying flight can an arduous task for kids, but it is an essential for determining how far and how the vehicle performs during a mission. This motivates the topic for building and analyzing a flapping wing mechanical bird.

Technical Approach/Design:

The first step is for the each group to build and test 2 mechanical flapping birds and compare them. The platform that the mechanical bird uses is a premade balsa wood structure with red and blue wings. The body of the mechanical bird was easy to put together. The structure will be premade with precut holes for mounting parts and pieces that can be easily integrated together. Students will examine various flight regime paths. These paths show the capabilities that of the potential that micro air vehicles systems (MAVS) offer for search, reconnaissance, command, control, communications, and military/commercial applications. While the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has funded cutting-edge efforts in this area, the area remains fertile for decades of multidisciplinary research. The application/mission for air vehicle systems can support the following tasks/situations: 1. regular police operations; 2. traffic control; 3. crowd management; 4. ordinary city surveillance; 5. hazardous waste disposal; 6. exploration; and 7. search and rescue.

Budget:

The kits are approximately $10 dollars a kit. Around 100 kits will be purchased so the project needs around 1,000 dollars for resources. Our goal is to have each student take home their own mechanical bird so they can test at home at the end of the semester.

Major Developments, Accomplishments, and Conclusions

The students conducted experimental tests to determine the mechanical bird vehicle’s performance.

(1)   The students have gained mechanical engineering skills from building and designing their own mechanical birds learning from engineers.

(2)   Students worked together as a team to achieve their goal and build 2 mechancial flapping birds that fly.

Directions for Future Research

Future work will exploit development of load carrying capacity capabilities for MAVs. This will enable vehicles to assemble and be built faster, dispose of waste, surveillance neighborhoods quicker with attached cameras, and complete search and rescue faster. Future work will encompass adding a camera to the mechanical bird to utilize the application for surveillance and intelligence gathering. In addition to holding the class at Grand Canyon University we plan to take the students to visit the ASU Wind tunnel during the semester.