- Follow our UAS Challenge Awards Ceremony – 19 June at 2.30pm – 3.30pm online.
They discuss their achievements to date, challenges encountered and the lessons they have learnt in their quest to design and build an aircraft that could operate in a humanitarian aid mission.
Q: Could you briefly tell us about your team – any interesting facts or background information?
NUST Airworks (NA): Team NUST Airworks wasn’t just an idea, it stemmed from wonder and the hope of being able to conjure and create, which then evolved into a mission; building efficient aerial machines from which mankind can benefit immensely.
Launched by four aviation hobbyists, the team has expanded to thirty members, all undergraduates majoring in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. It is completely self-taught, with members working part time round the year on different drone projects having developed their own self-financed workspace. Together, the students have contributed many things to the team; a passion for aviation, the willpower to excel, a need to create and the ability to merge friendship with teamwork.
Inspired by a yearning desire to prove what Pakistan’s youth can achieve the team went on to winning the title of “Grand Champions” in the Institution’s UAS Challenge 2019.
Team Foxtrot (TF): The most interesting fact has to be the regional and cultural diversity in the team, and how every one of us with different backgrounds joined together as a team and worked towards a common objective, that is to engineer a UAS to represent our university and country while also raising awareness among students about how the technology could be used for the greater good in civilian applications.
Q: Could you tell us about the design and innovation aspect of your aircraft?
NA: This year the team decided to go with a tiltrotor tri-copter-plane hybrid based on the principles of vectored yaw to exhibit flexibility during deployment and facilitate improved drop accuracy of payloads. The purpose of the model was to have a UAV that would offer both horizontal and vertical flight characteristics. Another sub goal of the team was to build a UAV that was not just efficient in terms of flight but also in terms of manufacturing. The new manufacturing techniques adopted by the team also made the final product more precise to its blueprints.
TF: Project Stingray was designed as a hybrid UAS with VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) capability, coupled with horizontal flight capability with transition using a twin tilt rotor mechanism. The entire aircraft housing was manufactured with composite material mainly, glass fibre reinforced plastic, with carbon fibre used for reinforcement where needed.
Throughout the project, the team was considering implementing a morphing wing design as an innovative aspect, starting with the tail, however, due to recent circumstances it remained unfinished.
Q: How could your UAV be used to help vulnerable people and fight against COVID-19?
NA: The philosophy of drones is to work remotely and with reduced human resources. That's why UAVs can prove to be a useful tool against COVID-19. With the country facing short-staffed hospitals and an underdeveloped road network, our drones with a little retrofitting could help in three major areas:
- To act as a surveillance device to keep track of people to ensure they are properly distancing themselves during curfew.
- To help and ease the burden of health care workers, where our UAV can transport and deliver test kits and necessary life support equipment.
- Furthermore, the UAS can be used for courier delivery services, so people can order basic necessities while at home, delivered via our very own UAS which has been designed for a payload capability of up to 2.5 kg and could easily land in small places.
Q: What are the key skills you learnt from this project and what were the challenges you faced?
NA: We have gained profound knowledge regarding aerodynamics, aircraft structures, material selections and how to make tasks cost effective which in itself is commendable for 1st and 2nd year students. Furthermore, we have also learnt how to make a project commercially viable and make sure it has a functional design, keeping operators in mind.
On the business side, we gained experience contacting companies and closing sponsorship deals which gave us an idea of how to market ourselves, negotiate and network.
Working together as a team with a dedicated goal in mind helped us visualise a professional working environment. It was crucial that we learnt how to pre-plan, efficiently coordinate the entire team and cultivate a team culture allowing each member to learn and contribute fully to the project.
TF: The most useful key skill we learned has to be teamwork, working together, learn from one another and working towards a common objective. Other than that, it gave us an insight into the key skills required in the modern practical world, such as designing, prototyping, coding, and troubleshooting autonomous aircrafts.
The greatest challenge we faced was getting a good sponsor to fund our project, however after great persistence and with time, we eventually gained enough sponsorship for our project. The second challenge came during the COVID-19 lockdown period and that was coping with the uncertainty of the project development. The team is doing well now and has found ways of making this free time useful at home.
To recognise the efforts of teams to date, the UAS Challenge Organising Committee has agreed to host a virtual ceremony, 2:30pm BST, 19 June 2020) and present teams with the following Awards for: