Jason B. Heyman
ASCI 530
Activity 7-4
27 September 2015
Natural disaster recovery and support by unmanned systems is a mission and role that will increase in the very near future. As a result many types of ground and aerial systems will be designed and utilized. A highly versatile system will be capable of being utilized in support of different types of natural disasters such as forest fires, hurricane, tornado and other homeland security missions such as low level support for law enforcement and explosives detection. This system design will incorporate a flight control system and sensor system capable of being hot swapped between airframes in order to support differing types of natural disasters. For example, a forest fire may require the system to be man packed to an assembly area where the fire is burning on all sides requiring a system to be capable of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL). A mission of tornado surveillance and recovery operations would, likely, require a system capable of longer duration flight in order to cover larger areas of destruction. This may require and be better suited to an unmanned fixed wing aircraft. This system is called the hybrid raptor and will take 3 years to develop.
1. Air Vehicle Element
1.1 –Air vehicle fixed wing shall possess an 11.5 horsepower 2-cyl gasoline powered engine capable of producing enough power to weight ratio to support altitudes needed for mission effectiveness.
1.2 – Air vehicle quad-copter shall possess 24v electric motors capable of heavy lift operations.
1.3 –Air vehicle fixed wing shall possess a muffler system capable of spark arresting as well as sound mitigation.
1.4 –Air vehicle fixed wing shall possess a large 1000cc gas tank to support required operations.
1.5 – Air vehicle quad-copter shall possess 2 x 5500mah 4s batteries to supply enough energy and power.
1.6- Air vehicle fixed wing shall be man packable and capable of being assembled and ready for flight in 15 minutes.
2. Command and Control.
2.1- The system shall incorporate a flight control system for manual and autonomous flight and swappable between fixed and rotary winged aircraft.
2.2- The command and control (C2) system shall be redundant flight control systems to prevent system failures of the flight control system which may lead to system loss.
2-3- The C2 system shall utilize a software graphical user interface (GUI) for depiction of operational and emergency mission sets as well as depict the exact location of the systems in flight through use of the GPS coordinates and telemetry in the downlink of the RF frequency communications.
2-4. The C2 system shall visually depict the video from the sensors onboard the aircraft.
2-5. The C2 pilot video shall be encoded and compressed for transport through the RF frequency downlink to the ground control station.
2-6. The C2 pilot video shall be reassembled through use of a decoder and then projected to the sensor operator’s workstation.
3. Payload
3-1. The Air vehicle shall incorporate a swappable between airframe system capable of providing medium wavelength infrared (MWIR), daytime camera and night time IR. (Trillium, 2015)
3-2. The daytime camera shall provide 80 degrees field of vision (FOV).
3-3. The sensor shall provide the ability to adjust both iris and FOV.
3.4. The sensor shall provide 4x magnification
3.5. The sensor shall provide laser range finding.
3-6. The sensor shall be environmentally sealed to protect cameras weather.
3.7. The sensor shall incorporate a heated camera lens.
3-8. The sensor shall be gimbled.
3-9. The sensor shall incorporate GPS/INS for geopointing and geolocation.
3-10. Sensor shall utilize on board aircraft power.
4. Datalink.
4-1- The visual line of sight (VLOS) datalink shall maintain 2 mile plus contact with base station.
4-2. The uplink/downlink shall be replicated by a total 2 x transmit (TX) and 2 x receive (RX) to provide redundancy.
4-3. The uplink/downlink shall be connected at all times to both TX and RX.
4-4. The system shall switch between TX1 and TX2 every 500ms.
4-5. The system shall switch between RX1 and RX2 every 500ms.
4-6. TX 1 and RX 1 shall be located on the underside of the aircraft.
4-7. TX 2 and RX 2shall be located on the top of the aircraft.
4-8. Uplink shall provide 1000 kilobits per second (kbps) data rate for communications.
4-9. Downlink shall provide telemetry information through one of the RX links per selection at a rate of 5mbps.
4-10. The sensor (sensor ball) shall provide interleaved and compressed video through the encoder to the GCS where it will be de-interleaved and de-compressed at the decoder and piped to the workstation for viewing.
Testing Requirements.
1.1 Air Vehicle.
1.1.1. Bench test gasoline engine to produce to specific parameters.
1.1.2. Bench test electric motors and batteries to specific parameters.
1.1.3. Test muffler and spark arrestor with gasoline engine.
1.1.4. Test 1000cc gas tank to ensure proper fit and function with engine.
1.1.5. Test batteries with electric engine and examine voltage and durability.
1.1.6. Test with pack and time for assembly.
1.2 Command and Control
1.2.1. Test the system in both configurations to ensure its ability to be moved rapidly between airframes.
1.2.2. Test the duplicate modules/system for redundancy and failover.
1.2.3. Test emergency mission and operational mission setup on the GUI.
1.2.4. Test projection of video on heads up display.
1.2.5. Test interleaving and compressibility between encoder and decoder for transport through RF links.
1.3. Payload.
1.3.1. Test functionality for swap of the MWIR ball between airframes.
1.3.2. The daytime TV rotates to provide 80 degrees FOV at resolution 1024.
1.3.3. Test functionality of Iris and FOV
1.3.4. Test zoom of sensor ball to 4 x magnification
1.3.5. Test laser in secure location with boresight table and range.
1.3.6. Test seals on ball to ensure safety from weather.
1.3.7. Test lens heat with iced over lens.
1.3.8. Test functionality of gimbal with strategically placed targets. Rotate and ensure ball is stable.
1.3.9. Test georeferencing and GPS systems with ball
1.3.10. Test aircraft power supplies with gimbled ball.
1.4. Data Link
1.4.1. TX/RX must maintain connectivity with ground base antenna for greater than 2 miles.
1.4.2. Test antennas for power, gain and attenuation.
1.4.3. Test uplink and downlink for the ability to pass traffic.
1.4.4. Test handoff between TX 1 and TX 2.
1.4.5. Test handoff between RX 1 and RX2.
1.4.6. Test communication between TX 1 and RX 1 on bottom of the aircraft in different configurations of flight.
1.4.7. Test communication between TX 2 and RX 2 on top of the aircraft in different configurations of flight.
1.4.8. Test uplink at 1000 kbps to failure with data push of preconfigured packets.
1.4.9. Test downlink at 5mbps to failure with data push of preconfigured packets.
1.4.10. Test compressibility and assembly of the data from sensor to the encoder on the aircraft, downlink then decoder.
Table 1: time frame development schedule
Phase Timeline
Initial Investigation 1 August, 2015- 1 January, 2016
Requirements Definition 1 January, 2016- 1 May, 2016
System Design 1 May, 2016- 1 April, 2017
Subsystem Development/Procurement 1 April, 2017-1 December, 2017
Subsystem Test 1 December 2017- 1 1 February, 2018
System Test 1 February, 2018- 1 April, 2018
Initial Operational Capability/ Implementation 15 April, 2018
Subsystem Redesign 18 April, 2018-1 June, 2018
Subsystem Test 1 June, 2018- 15 August, 2018
System Test 16 April, 2018- 1 August, 2018
Full Operational Capability 2 August, 2018
Maintenance 2 August, 2018- system life span
The development process chosen is one which many UAV manufacturers use; a requirements based process (Micropilot, 2013). Requirements based is also linked to quality control as a result of low-level bullet points spelling out the design. This process and methodology address the concerns UAV manufactures face when designing their products (Micropilot, 2013). These requirements based processes describe functionality of the designs while explaining the information to the non-technical design members such as those in marketing departments. (Micropilot, 2013). Because these systems are airborne and have the potential to create dangerous situations when they fail designers have a large incentive to not let things slip through the cracks. Therefore, having specific high level requirements allows for the creation of a list of items that describe what is needed at the technical level in order to complete the actual design of the system feature. (Micropilot, 2013). As stated previously, Quality control (QC) is a large piece of requirements based development and supports the team’s efforts in QC to verify their plans and implementations match what the system is meant to accomplish. (Micropilot, 2013).
Testing strategies used are component level, subsystem and integration of systems. Once these are complete and bench tested to standard the system will boxed and shipped to Grand Forks, ND test site. This site offers large flat expanse to test RF, VLOS, uplinks/downlinks, operational and emergency missions. The test preparation will take place in several phases with the first being the operational and emergency mission bench test followed by a software simulation test. Once passed it will be flight tested at less than ½ NM from the GCS to ensure VLOS functionality. Once complete to standard the VLOS test up to 2NM range will be conducted. Once verified the system maintains VLOS and communications the operational and emergency mission profiles will be tested. Once to standard the system will be placed lost link invoking the emergency mission profile and loiter. Upon successful entry into loiter both TX/RX will be placed in high power to be verified and then the GCS power will be turned back on to capture the aircraft and safely land.
A system that is capable of both fixed wing and rotary wing operations is one that will enable emergency management to readily and quickly adapt to a number of differing natural disasters. The ability to fly the rotary wing UAS in mountainous regions looking for a missing person is different than conducting the same mission in low-land flat areas that require a longer search pattern which may require longer flight time. By utilizing this flight control system the users of the systems will have the peace of mind they have the equipment on hand to meet the needs of the many situations giving them the tools to be successful no matter set of circumstances. Therefore, the design requirements listed attempt to cover the propulsion systems, power systems, command and control, payload and the corresponding testing items.
The cost of the flight control system is the major cost with each purchase consisting of the swappable flight control and autopilot, and the ground control element including data links. The cost of the system is $5,000 for just the control system. The quad-copter and fixed wing aircraft can be purchased separately but are not required.
References
Hobby King. (2015). Turnigy TR-111 111cc twin cylinder gas engine 11.5 hp. Retrieved from http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__42068__Turnigy_TR_111_111cc_Twin_Cylinder_Gas_Engine_11_5HP.html
Loewen, H. (2013). Requirements-based UAV design process explained. Retrieved from http://www.micropilot.com/pdf/requirements-based-uav.pdf
Trillium Engineering. (2015). Orion HD80. Retrieved from http://w3.trilliumeng.com/orion-hd80-documentation.html