Today I had the fortunate opportunity of spending time with student participants of the Real World Design Challenge. Focus for this competition was put on time and cost to determine efficiency, with the students required to identify a viable business case. Throughout the day I observed presentations and met with students and their mentors.
What I was most impressed with was the capability of teams to:
-apply real industry project titles/roles to team members and successfully implement the expectations of these roles
- use industry professionals for their input and guidance
- provide detail definitions of ground support equipment
-use the engineering design process, with defined staging and milestones in their efforts
-perform risk analysis and use the findings in selection and justification of designs
-identify transportation/ logistical considerations for proposed designs
-employ methodical approaches, featuring statistical analysis, during component selection for designs (e.g., application of component driven design, quantitative analysis, and qualitative down select)
-propose innovative flight patterns to perform scanning/detection of an environment of mixed terrain (no trees, small, med, large trees)
-perform visual line of sight (VLOS) calculations using Pythagorean geometry
-provide business case examples (e.g., compared costs to manned and other UAS options, uses, and operational costs)
-use of simulation to test/verify desired aerodynamic considerations for fixed-wing performance
In the future, it would be beneficial for teams to consider:
-logistical support equipment necessary for use of internal combustion propulsion (glow plug, electric start, fuel, maintenance considerations)
-mitigation of adverse effects (e.g., vibration, exhaust, reduce throttle response, additional support requirements)
-use of identical components/designs to support maintenance and commonality of design
-reference construction materials
No comments:
Post a Comment