Institution news
When it comes to mechanical engineering, Team Automec are no strangers. Comprised of mechanical engineering students at the Universidade de Aveiro in Portugal, the team already competes with an autonomous vehicle competition at a well-established national event, while building a UAS is something relatively new for the team.
Pedro joined team Automec in 2020 and early on in his time with the team worked with fellow teammates to develop a prototype UAV from balsa wood and low cost components. However, he soon realised that it was important to keep the team motivated with a goal, and so entered the UAS Challenge as a way to push forward development.
“Originally we were not the biggest team with about seven team members,” he explained, “however after working on our prototype UAV we’ve attracted new members and grown to about 17 people, which includes some new students who will be taking over next year, and they cover different areas of development, such as avionics, manufacturing and so on.” Despite his final exams looming, Pedro is already thinking of how to pass on their work so new students can continue their UAS development into 2023 and beyond.
Unusually for their university, Pedro explained that he and his team don’t have any specific classes on Aerodynamics during their courses. As a result, a great deal of their background learning has been carried out by reading books and articles themselves to help give them a better understanding of how to develop their UAS. Add to this the challenge of finding time for the whole team to meet and work on their UAS outside of classes, coursework and personal commitments, Pedro admits it has been difficult but not unsurmountable and that they have learned a lot.
As for objectives this year, Pedro acknowledges their status as a fledgling team in the competition and have set realistic goals accordingly. Their primary aim is being able to participate with a reliable UAS capable of autonomous flight that fulfils all the main tasks, which will not only put the team on the map but will also give them invaluable feedback. “As a first year team there’s only so much we can prepare for the fly off and presentations,” he admitted, “so for 2022 it’s important that we can establish a benchmark for the team and improve from there. We decided some time ago that some of the extra parts like the image recognition event won’t be achievable this year, so we aren’t focusing on these yet.”
Looking further into the future, Team Automec have opted for an established fixed-wing design inspired by the success of entries like Team Peryton last year. “Taking feedback from the judges and also having the chance to see and speak with other teams at the fly off will be excellent for our next year,” adds Pedro, saying that they are likely to have eureka-moments when they see other UASs and take back new and better ways of designing and building parts.
So far progress has been going well so far, though they have plenty of obstacles to overcome. “The university have been supportive so far, however as a first-year team funding is one of the biggest concerns and we have been paying for some things ourselves,” he explained. Sponsorship arrangements with local factories and engineering firms have gone some way to get the materials and equipment they need, though they are somewhat dependent on these companies to retool and work on UAS parts during their quieter times between commercial projects. “There have been some unavoidable delays as a result,” said Pedro “but we’re confident that we will get all the parts we need in time.”
Material choice has also been an interesting journey for the team so far. “We are lucky to have access to carbon fibre for making parts, but for most of us it’s the first time we have worked with this material,” explained Pedro. “One of the companies we work with use fibreglass to make huge boat hulls and we ended up taking any offcuts they couldn’t use to build parts of our UAS. As a result, we’re going for a design that combines fibreglass and carbon fibre parts and reduces wastage at the same time!”
Despite so much having been done so far there is still much left to do, and Team Automec are keeping further details on their UAS entry close to their chest. While the road to get to the BFMA Buckminster in July is still long, from speaking with Pedro it is clear that they have a plan to complete their UAS build in time for the fly-off.
Pedro and Team Automec would be delighted to work with more organisations locally and internationally who can help fund their UAS Challenge campaign; if you would like to find out how to contribute please email Pedro directly.
In the meantime, be sure to catch up with Team Automec on their Instagram channel to see their latest developments and we wish all the team the best ahead of the fly off finals event in the summer.