Drexel Autonomous Systems Lab
(dzl)

MAV to Fly in Caves, Tunnels, and Forests

Backpackable, rapidly-deployable bird-sized aircraft, or Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) can quickly and easily provide soldiers and command and control personnel with an ''over-the-hill'' or ''around-the-corner'' perspective from a remote location. Furthermore, MAVs can be designed to fly in caves, tunnels, and other tight, enclosed labyrinths which are densely populated with obstacles. Previous research yielded a MAV that was capable of acquiring aerial surveillance in a 10 x 10 m2 area (about 1/3 the size of a professional basketball court). However, this much space is not always available in labyrinths. As such, the prototype required modification in order to enable flight in an area one-tenth the size. more...

USCG Demo: Persistent Maritime Surveillance

June 6, 2005: Dr. Oh's team put on a demonstration at the US Coast Guard facility showing a prototype for persistent maritime surveillance. Partnering with Drakontas we were able to showcase the aerial video capabilities of our balloon-kite camera rig with pan/tilt functionality along side the video distribution system streaming the video to various PDA's. more...

LEAP (Low Elevation Aerial Photography) of Ground Scenes

The Year 2000 Senior Design Team won the "Entrepreneurship in Technology" $1000 prize using a kite to acquire aerial photos. Virtual flythroughs of Center City and Walnut/36th St can be toured. Motivating their work was mitigating disasters - where crippled runways or halts in air traffic prevent traditional means to acquire much needed aerial images.more...

Kite Aerial Photography links:

• KAP info

Air Muscles

Air muscles are novel actuators that contract when inflated pneumatically. Kinematically they act similarly to human muscle. A previous mechatronic neck prototype was designed using two air muscles and emulates lateral (side-to-side) head motions.

This year's team would create a four air muscle prototype, in order to add nodding head motion. Alternatively, the senior design team could conceive of alterative devices that could benefit from such unique actuators.