Hybrid Unmanned Aircraft System with Long Flight Autonomy and Capable of Lifting 20 lbs of Payload

Students: Seth Mathew Miller, Cody Thomas Langenfeld, Jim Keyser, Derek Ellinger and Robert Menarcheck Advisor: Dr. Vladimir Gurau

Engineering Technology Department Kent State University at Tuscarawas, 330 University Dr. N.E., New Philadelphia, OH 44663

Introduction Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) are systems comprising of an unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV), its payloads, the control station, its support subsystem and its communication subsystem [1]. UASs can be used for cargo / package delivery or as sensor platforms for data acquisition [2] such as aerial mapping, aerial surveying, precision agriculture (crop health or crop damage assessment), natural resource management (wildlife census, impact of human activities on wildlife), inspection of industrial and civil infrastructure, aerial filming and photography, news reporting or intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and emergency response. Objectives The current project represents Phase 3 of a four-phase endeavor at Kent State University at Tuscarawas. Its general objectives are to design, build and test an UAS consisting of an octocopter as UAV (Figure 1) for data acquisition and capable of operating under manual control, stabilized control and automated control (autopilot). The system has video acquisition and recording subsystem consisting of an SJ 4000 action camera mounted on a 3–axes gimbal for image stabilization (Figure 2) and first person view (FPV) subsystem consisting of an HD camera, 5.8 GHz video transmitter and receiver modules and on-screen display (OSD) for transmitting telemetry data (Figure 3).

Figure 1 The Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle (Octocopter) Built at KSU Tuscarawas To secure an increased flight autonomy, the power electrical system is hybrid and will consist of six lithium-polymer batteries recharged by a 0.5 kW High-Temperature Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (HT-PEMFC) stack designed and built at KSU Tuscarawas (Figure 4).