Investigating the use of unmanned plant machinery on construction sites

The UK Construction Sector has been estimated to contribute 8% of the UK’s GDP [1]. The worldwide recession has forced construction companies to introduce and adopt cost saving measures to increase productivity. Several robotic building systems are in development for the Construction Sector such as the PERI’s Automatic Climbing System [2] and Brokk’s remote-controlled demolition machines [3], but there has been little implementation on live sites. Construction sites by their very nature are dynamically changing environments, so if human input was removed entirely, a robot would need a high level of awareness of the current state of the building project in order to navigate and carry out its task

Development of a low-cost SLAM radar for applications in robotics.

The current state of SLAM radar is quite advanced, featuring various methods of data retrieval. One of the methods used is that of video telemetry to locate “common spots” in the surrounding environment which provide positional information during motion. Another method is that of using high-speed high-resolution laser measurement tools which provide a 360° horizontal field of view and a 90° vertical field of view. These systems create vast amounts of point cloud data and are expensive, ranging from £1,000 upwards. These systems are often unsuitable for small competition robots due to these reasons. The developments discussed in this paper describes various alternative measurement technologies, such as ultrasonic and infra-red and how these can be adapted with the addition of a mechanical drive to provide an almost real-time 360° horizontal field of view and an adjustable vertical field of view

Development of a test-rig for exploring optimal conditions of small unmanned aerial vehicle co-axial rotor systems

Due to the recent increase in development and use of co-axial rotor system at the scale of small UAVs a greater understanding of the performance variables that affect the co-axial propulsion system at low Reynolds number operation has become increasingly apparent when optimizing such systems. This paper focuses on and details the development and fabrication of a small UAV co-axial rotor system test-rig, and investigations into the optimal inter-rotor spacing range between contra-rotating rotors. An integrated test-rig has been specifically designed for the testing and analysis of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) propellers and out-runner motors which are predominantly used in SUAV propulsion systems. The test-rig incorporates linear motion, yaw, force and other performance measurements, to help validate the identified core co-axial rotor system performance attributes. The co-axial test-rig was used to investigate co-axial rotor systems inter-rotor spacing which identified an optimum H/D ratio region of (0.41 – 0.65)

An Empirical Study of Overlapping Rotor Interference for a Small Unmanned Aircraft Propulsion System

The majority of research into full-sized helicopter overlapping propulsion systems involves co-axial setups (fully overlapped). Partially overlapping rotor setups (tandem, multirotor) have received less attention, and empirical data produced over the years is limited. The increase in demand for compact small unmanned aircraft has exposed the need for empirical investigations of overlapping propulsion systems at a small scale (Reynolds Number < 250,000). Rotor-to-rotor interference at the static state in various overlapping propulsion system configurations was empirically measured using off the shelf T-Motor 16 inch × 5.4 inch rotors. A purpose-built test rig was manufactured allowing various overlapping rotor configurations to be tested. First, single rotor data was gathered, then performance measurements were taken at different thrust and tip speeds on a range of overlap configurations. The studies were conducted in a system torque balance mode. Overlapping rotor performance was compared to an isolated dual rotor propulsion system revealing interference factors which were compared to the momentum theory. Tests revealed that in the co-axial torque-balanced propulsion system the upper rotor outperforms the lower rotor at axial separation ratios between 0.05 and 0.85. Additionally, in the same region, thrust sharing between the two rotors changed by 21%; the upper rotor produced more thrust than the lower rotor at all times. Peak performance was recorded as a 22% efficiency loss when the axial separation ratio was greater than 0.25. The performance of a co-axial torque-balanced system reached a 27% efficiency loss when the axial separation ratio was equal to 0.05. The co-axial system swirl recovery effect was recorded to have a 4% efficiency gain in the axial separation ratio region between 0.05 and 0.85. The smallest efficiency loss (3%) was recorded when the rotor separation ratio was between 0.95 and 1 (axial separation ratio was kept at 0.05). Tests conducted at a rotor separation ratio of 0.85 showed that the efficiency loss decreased when the axial separation ratio was greater than 0.25. The lower rotor outperformed the upper rotor in the rotor separation ratio region from 0.95 to 1 (axial separation ratio was kept at 0.05) at an overall system thrust of 8 N, and matched the upper rotor performance at the tested overall thrust of 15 N

Antenna Live: FlyBot

How do you make a robot that can fly itself? Are there benefits to allowing semi-autonomous robots in our skies? Who will be at the controls of these craft? The HALO Unmanned Aerial System was the top scorer at the DARPA UAVForge Challenge in 2012. Meet the team from the University of Southampton who built HALO from scratch<br/

Selecting a small unmanned air vehicle system using the DARPA crowdsourcing model

The UAVForge challenge, announced in July 2011, was designed to bring together a diverse group of UAV enthusiasts to develop the next generation of low cost, small unmanned aerial systems for perch and stare operations in a SSRR context. The challenge combined a collaborative website with a live competitive fly-off event held at Fort Stewart, Georgia in May 2012. UAVForge was a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, Atlantic (SSC Atlantic) initiative to leverage the exchange of ideas among an international community united through common interests and inspired by creative thought. More than 140 teams and 3,500 registered citizen scientists from 153 countries participated in this year-long event. From several selection rounds, a core of nine teams competed in the fly-off event and in June 2012 Team HALO from the UK was declared the winner scoring 47.7 points out of a maximum possible 60 points, with their co-axial tri-rotor, Y6 design of mass 2.5 kg (30 min endurance