Industrial Applications for UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)

Industrial Applications for UAV’s (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)

Date: 5.17.15

Introduction:

The following is summary of applications and some considerations for UAV’s. Our focus was on industrial applications because our industry partner was Dairyland Power. You will find the list below favoring industrial areas, however, there are many other applications for UAV’s

Industrial Applications:

• Land Surveying-50 times faster than land based surveying. One square kilometer per day can be surveyed. Orthophotos (can be georeferenced to a known coordinate system (such as OS National Grid) and overlaid on existing data, used in Google Earth or independently), Digital Elevation Models (3D representation of terrain) and Panoramic Photos.
• Pipeline and Chimney Inspection
• Electrical Utility- live powerline inspection of transmission and distribution towers.
• Thermal Inspections- chimney ducting, flares, chimneys and other process equipment.
• Structural Inspections- surveys of industrial structures including storage tanks, elevated pipe racks, buildings, roofs, ducting, gantries and walkways.
• Ag industry- imagery can be used for crop management.
• Emergency Inspections- provide the information you need to make swift and accurate operational decisions.

Advantages:

• Reduced costs – by minimizing downtime
• No system outage – stay online and operational during inspection
• Minimum Health & Safety issues– unmanned, battery operated UAVs reduce the need for people to be placed in potentially dangerous locations such as remove the need for people to work at height.
• Improve decision making – more detailed and up-to-date than off-the-shelf data

Disadvantages:

• I listed only one here, but it is a big one which covers a wide area of great importance. We have to find a way to strike a careful balance between protecting public safety, personal privacy and allowing commercial UAV’s to develop. That balance has not been attained yet.

Considerations/thoughts:

How do we protect the general public from unwanted aerial photography?

Even smaller (under 10-15 lbs) UAV’s can cause serious injury if the pilot uses control.

Battery life needs to be improved.

Inexperience as a pilot is a major cause of accidents. 

Work Night 5.13.15

Work Night 5.13.15
Time: 3 hours
Students: Joel and Jacob

A lot of things happening with the Logan Ranger UAV!

Our replacement part for the prop adapter came in on Tuesday so we knew we could do a flight test on Wed. Additionally, our telemetry radios came in on Monday so we hoped we could begin experimenting with them also.

Our goals for the work night tonight was to get the UAV in the air. The props were put on and secured. We first had to drill them out as they were not cut to the correct diameter of the motor shaft. They also had to be mounted so in a "push/pull" alignment. We recalibrated the ESC's earlier so we felt we were ready for the test.

In the video you will see us arming the UAV and then testing several modes. We successfully tested loiter and RTL (return to landing) mode using the radio controller. That met our goals for the night. We anticipated having some problems that did not occur so so we had additional time to work. We configured the telemetry radio's to work with an Android based phone. This was one of the requests Dairyland Power asked us to look into. We were able to get the system up and running where take off and landing were controlled by a phone. We also tested the follow me mode. In the video you will see Joel walking with his phone and the UAV following him.

Overall, a very good night the team reached a lot of milestones tonight.

Next workday will focus on adding the Live View system and Go Pro to the UAV and testing it out. We are close to getting this set for a field test.

The video below is one of our first flight tests with the UAV.

The video below is of the "Follow Me Mode" where the UAV follows the pilot who is controlling the UAV through his/her phone. The landing in this video was done using the autopilot feature in RTL Mode.

Drilling out the props.

Props are attached and mounted in correct push/pull alignment.

UAV up in the air on first test flight. It is hovering in loiter mode a few
feet off the ground. Notice shadow to the right of the picture

Work Day on UAV 5.7.15

Work Day on UAV 5.7.15
Time: 1 hours
Students: Joel, Ben and Max

We wanted to get the props on the UAV as we wanted to see it get in the air. Prop adapters had to be placed on the brushless motors to mount the props on. We assembled three of them with locktite on the screws, but the 4th motor had the wrong prop adapter. We determined it must have been a packaging issue as the other three motors were all the same and complete. A call to 3D Robotics customer support agreed that it was an error in packaging the product and a new prop adapter and motor would be sent out with priority.

So we are grounded right now.  In the mean time, we put the stickers on the UAV that were designed in our Graphic Arts Dept. by Mr. Pitz's students. We also printed out another GoPro case to mount on the UAV on our 3d Printer. The other ones we tried were to loose. We also will use this time to work on our thermal camera and tweek the flight configuration settings so they are ready to go.

Pictured below are students assembling the props on the UAV.

The two pictures below indicate the incorrect prop adapter. We will have to wait until another one is shipped before we do a test flight.

 Picture below of our 3d printed camera case for the GoPro.

 Putting the stickers on the UAV pictured below.

Work Night 5/6/2015

Work Night Logan High School

Date: May 6th

Focus: Callibrating UAV, Getting live view screen and transmitter set up, connecting radio controller, Problems arming UAV first time.

Problems: Failed when trying to arm the UAV, suspected lack of no GPS lock, checked all of the physical connections, everything seemed okay. Tried to enable system by circumventing GPS, still no success. We checked some online forums for fixes and tried various work-a-rounds including re-binding the receiver. Tried different receiver control positions. SUCCESS! We got it to arm! The control positions for starting we incorrect on the tutorial. Through experimentation we were able to find the correct sequence. Once motors were turning we calibrated the ESC's because we had uneven motor takeoff.

Goals for next work night is to calibrate the flight modes, get the props on and take it for a flight test.

People: Pari, Max, Ian, Joel, Alex

Time: 3 Hours

Work Night 4/30/15

Work Night Logan High School

Date: April 30

Focus: Live View kit, Partial calibration, problem with voltage level on Live View, and Calibrating the control systems.

We also spent some time working on our thermal camera which we hope to have completed by the end of the year. We are having some programming issues that we need to resolve, but the components are soldered and ready for assembly.We hope to prove that this device can be used to sense "hot spots" on transmission wires.

People: Max, Joel and Grant

Time: 3 Hours

In this video you will see our first arming test. The arming test is important to determine if you have connectivity between the transmitter and the UAV. We also have to make sure the motors are spinning in the correct direction. No props are placed on the motors during this test for safety.

Pictured below is our thermal camera and laser pointer which we mounted on a swivel bracket. This is controlled by an Arduino.

Work Night 4/22/15

Work Night Logan High School

Date: April 22, 2015

Focus: Assembling the rest of the body and legs, mounted the electronics and guidance systems.

People: Grant, Joel

Time: 2 Hours

Work Night 4/16/15

Work night Logan High School

Date: April 16

Focus: Putting together the main body and arms, wiring the motors up and the main electronics.

This was our first night working on the UAV. You can see below all the part that are ready to be assembled. We do not anticipate any problems with the acutal build.We believe the greater challenge will be in the acutal flying and configuring and programming the system to do what we want it to do.

People: Joel, Ian

Time: 3 hours

This is how it all started. All the parts for our UAV came in.

Installing the motors on the arms.

Connecting and labeling our ESC's (electronic speed control)