Taking-off and landing a quadcopter drone on a moving All-Terrain-Vehicle (ATV)
Problem statement
A farmer is inspecting farmland in steaming hot weather riding his All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV). The ATV might harm crops on a narrow road. The farmer gets off the ATV and walks into crops, sweating buckets. The farmer might buy a drone, but he doesn’t want to carry it every time when taking off, landing, operating, and charging. What if the whole process can be done automatically, while the farmer is only driving his ATV? Drone platforms installed on ATVs can solve such a hassle at once. Development of Drone and ATV correspondence is an idea that has already gained traction in many sectors. Lockheed Martin, an aerospace company, has already designed and filed for the patent of an ATV that can launch and recover a drone while it is still moving. However, their ATV is specifically designed for a type of drone that is poorly designed for commercial use, especially when it comes to agriculture purposes. If both the ATV and drone could be re-designed to have a quadcopter complete a similar process, it could pay dividends in helping farmers in many different ways. We intend to reduce farmers’ burden on their work with low-cost autonomous drones compatible with ATVs. The main difficulty for building such a system/model is the complex nature of landing a drone under disturbances without having expensive technology. These technologies include a high-tech camera that is used for accurate visual detection and a GPS receiver for the drone. As a result, we need to find a compromise between cost and functionality.
Team members
Mohamed Safwat – leader
Jack Lazarus – communicator
Seonghyeok Shim – accountant
Andrea Grimaldo Moreno – admin
Client
Michael Cheadle, Mechanical Engineering