Paper ID #28664

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Design Education; Techniques and Challenges

Prof. Mohammad H. Sadraey, Southern New Hampshire University

Dr. Mohammad H. Sadraey is an Associate Professor in the College of Engineering, Technology, andAeronautics at the Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, New Hampshire, and the nationalvice president of Sigma Gamma Tau honor society in USA. Dr. Sadraey’s main research interests arein aircraft design techniques, aircraft performance, flight dynamics, autopilot, and design and automaticcontrol of unmanned air vehicles. He received his MSc. in Aerospace Engineering in 1995 from RMIT,Melbourne, Australia, and his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Kansas, Kansas,USA in 2006. Dr. Sadraey is a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics(AIAA), and a member of American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and is in Who’s Who inAmerica for many years. He has over 24 years of professional experience in academia and industry. Dr.Sadraey is the author of six other books including ”Aircraft Design: A Systems Engineering Approach”,”Design of Unmanned Aerial Systems”, published by Wiley Publications in 2012, and 2019, and AircraftPerformance Analysis by CRC in 2016.

c©American Society for Engineering Education, 2020

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Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Design Education; Techniques and Challenges

Abstract

Most undergraduate aeronautical/aerospace engineering programs do not contain a significant amount of

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) analysis and design education experience. Southern New Hampshire

University (SNHU) has incorporated UAV education into its aeronautical engineering program in terms of

a concentration. Three courses have been developed, designed and offered. In the past few years, several

valuable lessons have been learned and a few changes/adjustments have been made. The UAV along with

a ground control station and the launch and recovery systems makes up an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS).

These two subsystems are also covered along with UAV in all three courses. Furthermore, this paper

presents SNHU lessons learned and experiences in this area and makes recommendations to other

universities that might be interested in establishing UAV education in their undergraduate

aeronautical/aerospace engineering programs. The lab configuration, workspace, camera optical system,

communications system, control software package, and features of quadcopters are presented. Moreover,

highlights of the effectiveness of this experiential learning are presented.

Keywords

Unmanned aerial vehicles, Unmanned aerial systems, experiential learning, flight tests, laboratory

experiments

1. Introduction

During the past few decades [1] a concerted effort has been made to close the gap between aeronautical

engineering education and practice. Major aerospace engineering companies (e.g., Boeing) published lists

of desired attributes, and leaders of industry urged a new look at the way students were being educated. The

traditional engineering education is structured to emphasize mathematics, physical, sciences, and

engineering sciences. This paper presents the systems engineering approach in UAV design education. The

approach opens a new horizon to aerospace engineering students and excites them to embrace the new

challenges [2]. Throughout this approach, various techniques for generating creative design alternatives are

introduced. The nature of UAV design project; complexity, multidisciplinary, and various constraints;

suggest that the systems engineering approach to be the best candidate.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are remotely piloted or self-piloted air vehicles that can carry payloads

such as cameras, sensors, and communications equipment. In media reports [3], the term “drone” is utilized.

The UAV mission is to perform critical flight operations without risk to personnel and more cost effectively

than comparable manned system. By January 2019, at least 62 countries [4] are using or developing over

1,300 various UAVs. Research in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has grown in interest over the past

couple decades.

Modern UAVs are complex integrated systems with propulsion, avionics, aerodynamics, and structure

blended together to carry a payload, achieve optimum performance, stability, and control and systems

operation.

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The integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system [5,6] involves a number of

new challenges and operational restrictions. It seems that the entire UAV analysis/design educators are

juggling the same challenges; this is an indicator of the importance of the educational component of the

UAVs. This paper is to share ideas and lessons we learned in UAV education.

The flight testing of an UAV is an endeavor involving a number of engineering disciplines in addition to

the study of the man-machine interface that is referred to as human factors. The human ground crew (e.g.,

pilots and payload/sensors operators), which has tremendous capabilities and known limitations, must

interact with the aircraft and its systems. In addition, the management of a flight test program for a modern

aircraft requires management skills that are not often included in most engineering curricula.

There are a number of reasons for UAV education. One has been the desire of man to push the frontiers of

knowledge, i.e., research. Another purpose of flight test is for product development and determining the

characteristics of the new product. A third and most important reason is to ascertain if the new air vehicle

will accomplish its intended mission. In UAV education, flight testing is employed to comply with

established requirements and regulations for safety of flight by organizations such as the Federal Aviation

Administration [7].

The commercial application of any UAV must be registered under a specific part of FAR. Table 1 presents

UAV registration coverage by FAA under three parts: Part 48, Part 47, and Part 107. The FAA has approved

[8] the use of a new UAV weighing over 55 pounds for commercial crop-spraying operations.

No UAV Weight (Mass) FAR

1 > or = 0.55 lbs (250 g) Part 48

2 > or = 55 lbs (25 kg) Part 47

3 < 55 lbs (25 kg) Part 107

Table 1. UAV registration coverage

This rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section 2 introduces design principles for UAVs. In section

3, fundamentals of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles analysis/design education will be discussed. There are a lot

of valuable lessons learned from industry on the design mis-calculations and mistakes made on the legacy

vehicles flying today. In section 4, a number of important lessons learned - in teaching UAVs

analysis/design - are presented. In section 5, three new UAS related courses which were developed by the

author are briefly introduced. Section 6 is dedicated to the UAV laboratory and lab experiments to teach

the implementation of the UAV related theories. The new lab equipment, hardware, and software are

recently purchased from Quanser; and the UAV lab was opened past January.

2. Analysis/Design Principles for UAVs

The analysis/design principles for UAVs are very similar to the principles developed over the years and

used successfully for the analysis/design of manned aircraft. A UAV designer need to know how to integrate

complex, multi-disciplinary systems, and to understand the environment, the requirements and the design

challenges. A UAS is much more than a reusable air vehicle or vehicles. The UAS includes five basic

elements: 1. The Environment in which the UAV(s) or the Systems Element operates (e.g., the airspace,

the data links, communications system). 2. The air vehicle(s) or the Air Vehicle Element. 3. The ground

control station or the Mission Control Element. 4. The payload(s) or the Payload Element. 5. The launch

and recovery systems which includes the maintenance and support system.

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The analysis/design of manned aircraft and the analysis/design of UAVs have some similarities; and some

differences such as: flight dynamics and aerodynamics principles, propulsion system, design process;

constraints (e.g., g-load, pressurization); and UAV main components (Autopilot, ground station,

communication system, sensors, payload). A UAV designer must be aware of 1. Latest UAV developments;

2. Current technologies [9]; 3. Know lessons learned from past success/failures. Designer should appreciate

breadth of UAV design options.

UAV design is essentially a branch of engineering design. Design is primarily an analytical process which

is usually accompanied by drawing/drafting. Design contains its own body of knowledge that is independent

of the science-based analysis tools that is usually coupled with it. Design is a more advanced version of a

problem-solving technique that many people use routinely. The project of UAV design involves many

challenges and uncertainties.

The design process is divided into three major phases: 1. Conceptual design phase, 2. Preliminary design

phase, and 3. Detail design phase. These are artificial categories that, along with test and evaluation, make

up the four basic phases of system design. After each round of design, a test and evaluation should be

conducted to compare the characteristics of the designed system with the design requirements.

The analysis and design principles for UAVs can be taught to undergraduate aeronautical engineering

students via a few dedicated courses which involve a number of lab experiments, one or more projects, and

UAV flight experiences.

3. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Analysis/Design Education

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles analysis/design education can be offered in three to four semesters (i.e.,

courses). If the participants are aeronautical/aerospace engineering students – which already had control

systems analysis, aircraft design – the topic can be offered within two to three courses. In this case, the

courses are mainly geared toward autopilot design, launch and recovery design, and communication system,

and programming.

The course basically has a fairly standard format; it mainly consists of three one-hour weekly lectures. The

topics and the lectures are organized such that they follow the systems engineering approach. In practice;

after one week of introduction; one week is spent on conceptual design; one week on preliminary design;

and about 13 weeks on details design.

In the details design section; major topics include, aerodynamic design (i.e., wing, tail -horizontal and

vertical; and fuselage), related systems and equipment (e.g., propulsion system; and landing gear, power

transmission, and electric system), and autopilot, payload, ground control station, launch/recovery systems,

and communications system are covered.

During the course of a semester, various design requirements are introduced. There are specific design

requirements that are required by the customer and must be addressed by the design team. However, there

are other design requirements which customer is not necessarily aware of and may not verbally desire them.

In this section a list of design-related requirements are briefly reviewed as follows: Performance; Stability;

Handling qualities; Operational requirements; Low weight, Affordability; Reliability; Maintainability;

Producibility; Evaluatability; Usability; Safety (airworthiness for aircraft and operator); Supportability and

serviceability; Sustainability; Disposability; Marketability; Environmental requirements; Detectability (i.e.,

stealth); Standards requirements; and Legal requirements.

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The implementation of systems engineering requires a flawless interface between team members working

toward a common system thinking to correctly execute the design process. The focus of this paper would

be very much on techniques and challenges on curricular structures, course design, implementation;

assessment and evaluation.

Adding a UAV engineering experience into an undergraduate aeronautical/aerospace engineering program

enriches the quality of the education. The students will be more confident when they discover that UAV

flight will confirm what the equations of motion are predicting. This will directly impact their in-class

education by helping them to better comprehend the theory. When students experience a real aircraft and

feel its complexity and capability, they will learn the relevant questions to ask in class.

Afterward, they have a very real feeling about various aircraft components such as flaps, elevator, stick,

pitot-static system, and center of gravity. They comprehend why safety planning is a crucial part of any

flight and appreciate why instructors are critical about planning and briefing. Also, the graduates should

have a greater range of job opportunities.

4. UAV-Related Courses

In the SNHU aeronautical engineering major, four concentrations have been developed, one of which is the

UAV. For this concentration, three UAV courses have been developed: 1. EG 360 Fundamentals of

Unmanned Aerial Systems, 2. EG 430 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Analysis/Design, and 3. EG450

Conceptual Design of Unmanned Aerial Systems. All three UAV courses are three-credits that each meet

three hours per week. In these courses, weekly lectures, weekly homework assignments, lab experiments,

a research/analysis/design project, midterm exams, and a comprehensive exam are incorporated. In the

following, a brief description of courses and course outcomes are presented.

4.1. EG 360 Fundamentals of Unmanned Aerial Systems

This course provides engineering students an opportunity to be exposed to unmanned aerial systems. It

covers the UAV classifications [10], definitions, standards and UAV-related aviation regulations. The

course gives a basic understanding of working relationship between various subsystems employed in the

unmanned aerial systems and industries. Topics includes a review of UAV, ground control station, launch

and recovery systems, UAV operation, UAV applications, autopilot, electric system, mechanical system,

transportation system, propulsion system, communication system, programming, software, sensors,

measurement devices, safety issues, current/future challenges and future trends.

Furthermore, the course emphasizes on the features of an autopilot. Two/Three lab experiments will help

students to experience the UAV flight operations and reinforces their aeronautical knowledge. The course

prepares students to be effective engineer in the highly dynamic and constantly evolving UAV industries.

The UAS contemporary issues and features of current and modern UAS products are discussed. As the

course outcomes, at the end of this course, students should have a working knowledge of, and be able to:

- Describe the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) major elements

- Discuss features of current and modern Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs)

- Demonstrate familiarity with contemporary issues and challenges related to UAVs

- Describe the UAV design process, design requirements, and mission planning procedure

- Demonstrate familiarity with UAV payloads and sensors

- Explain preliminary design of an UAV and initial sizing

- Understand the overall design of unmanned aerial vehicle

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- Discuss typical features of launch and recovery systems

- Describe the features and functions of ground control station

- Describe functions of an autopilot unit including automatic flight control system and

microcontroller.

In this junior-level course, students will become familiar with fundamentals of Unmanned Aerial Systems.

Moreover, students gain the skills in UAV flight control experiences via the ground control station. In this

course, both fixed-wing UAVs and quadcopters are covered.

4.2. EG450 Conceptual Design of Unmanned Aerial Systems

In this course, students learn how to employ systems engineering techniques and apply engineering

fundamentals/concepts to the mission-driven conceptual design of an unmanned aerial system (UAS). It

brings together most of the engineering subjects studied so far and requires the students to demonstrate

creativity in the application of these concepts using trade-off studies. The relationship between three major

phases of design; conceptual design, preliminary design, and detail design with regards to UAS will be

presented. This course provides engineering students an opportunity to evolve UAS design requirements,

conduct safety assessment, and practice subsystem integration to develop an optimal configuration.

Due to engineering characteristics of the aerial vehicle; a review of the aerodynamics, flight performance,

flight stability and control, and aircraft structures is also provided. The course includes an UAS design

project, with UAV mission sets and lectures devoted to various aspects of the conceptual design and

analysis of subsystems (mainly aerial vehicle, ground station, and launch and recovery subsystem). During

this project, students form teams for various subsystems, and walk through design procedures, processes.

As the course outcomes, upon the completion of this course, the student will be able to:

- Describe UAV classifications and types.

- Describe the UAV design process.

- Accomplish a mission-driven conceptual design of a UAV using trade-off studies.

- Select payloads and measurement devices

- Conduct the preliminary design of a UAV

- Select the aerodynamic features of the unmanned aerial vehicle.

- Conceptually design the launch and recovery systems.

- Conceptually design the ground control station.

- Conceptually design the autopilot unit including the automatic flight control system.

- Select the microcontroller and work with open source autopilot.

In this senior-level course, both fixed-wing UAVs and quadcopters are covered. Two/three UAV-related

lab experiments have been incorporated in this course. Moreover, a design project is considered in this

course for conceptually designing a UAV in a team of two/three members. No UAV building/fabrication is

required, the design will be on paper.

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4.3. EG 430 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Analysis/Design

In this course, students learn UAV design techniques and apply aeronautical science concepts to UAV

design. It brings together most of the aeronautical subjects studied so far and requires the students to

demonstrate creativity in the application of these concepts. Topics include: definitions, UAV classifications,

design groups, design requirements, mission planning, conceptual design, design procedures, ground

system, power system, payloads, propulsion system, ground tests, structural design, automatic flight control

systems, guidance systems, navigation systems, launch and recovery systems, manufacturing

considerations, design challenges, flight tests, flight software, microcontroller, and design examples. The

course includes an UAV design project, with problem sets and lectures devoted to various aspects of the

design and analysis of a complete unmanned air vehicle. A major emphasis is on the automatic flight

control system; and the autopilot. As the course outcomes, upon completion of this class, the student will

be able to:

- Introduce UAV classifications and provide definitions.

- Discuss features of current and modern UAVs.

- Describe the UAV design process, develop design requirements, and mission planning procedure.

- Accomplish a mission-driven conceptual design of an UAV using trade-off studies.

- Select payloads and measurement systems

- Execute a preliminary design of an UAV and apply the systems engineering approach to initial

sizing.

- Perform the overall design of three primary elements of 1. vehicle, 2. launch and recovery system,

and 3. ground control station.

- Design an autopilot unit including automatic flight control system and microcontroller

- Work with the flight software, compile the software, and upload to the microcontroller

- Demonstrate familiarity with contemporary issues and challenges related to UAVs.

In this course, preliminary design, and detail design of an UAV based on systems engineering approach are

introduced. In each stage, application of this approach is described by presenting the design flow chart and

practical steps of design. To make the course more productive, a project is added to the course to convert a

given Remotely Controlled (RC) plane to a fully autonomous UAV. Moreover, in this course, students’

skills in UAV flight control experiences via the ground control station are reinforced.

In this senior-level course, both fixed-wing UAVs and rotary-wing quadcopters are covered. Two UAV-

related lab experiments have been incorporated in this course. Moreover, a design/build/fly project is

considered in this course for designing, building and flying a UAV in a team of five/ten members. Due to

the short time of the semester (i.e., about four months), the preference is to require the students to convert

an existing RC plane to a UAV that has a level of autonomy.

Three courses of “EG 360 Fundamentals of unmanned aerial systems”, “EG450 Conceptual design of

unmanned aerial systems”, and “EG 430 Unmanned aerial vehicle analysis/design” are within a minor in

UAV for aeronautical engineering students. These courses provide students with working knowledge of

UAVs and UASs, and skills to work in UAV and UAS design/analysis projects. Each course includes two

lab experiments on UAV related topics employing Drone lab.

5. UAV Laboratory and Lab Experiments

To implement the UAV related theories such as flight dynamics, a UAV lab has been established using a

number of UAVs and the ground station equipment purchased from Quanser. The SNHU has a very large

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lab area (Figure 1a) which is equipped with nets (seen on the right side of the figure) to protect the UAV

and students, and eight cameras for navigation. There are currently eight QDrones in the lab. Figure 1b

demonstrates a swarming flight of four quadcopters (in a circular trajectory) in this lab. The lab

configuration includes the Optitrack Flex 13 camera solution. The cameras are mounted in locations deemed

suitable for the application; the cameras are connected directly to the USB ports on the OptiHub.

Due to the setup of cameras, the supporting structure of the cameras is susceptible to vibrations and

temperature changes from the environment. Currently the a few cameras which are very sensitive to

vibrations and external motion are the two mounted on tripods. The UAV flight lab can be safely done with

a minimum of 6 cameras when all 8 cameras have been employed and connected.

Figure 1. SNHU Drone lab and flying quadcopters

The lab floor is covered with 2 ft x 2 ft interlocking rubber mats. It is intended to protect the drones from

drop impacts to the floor and to reduce reflections off of the floor. The lab is equipped with 17 ft (length)

x 20 ft (height) of netting that is required to protect the users from autonomous vehicles operating in the

workspace. This netting can be attached to the ceiling, or the net can be secured at the base - using table

legs, and wall hooks - to ensure that the net is taut.

Figure 2. A sample of the mission server control window for a testing setup

a. Drone Lab b. Four quadcopters in a swarming flight

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The ground station QDrone mission server employs a matlab/Simulink-based software package. In each

flight, the matlab Simulink software is employed to send the commands to quadcopters and to receive flight

data from quadcopters and cameras. However, the matlab code and Simulink model are compiled and

uploaded (remotely) to all flying quadcopters before flight. A Simulink model sample of the mission server

control window for a testing setup is illustrated in Figure 2.

The wireless communications between the ground control station, cameras, router and UAVs are provided.

The ground control station computer is connected to the router via an ethernet cable (i.e., wired connection).

The QDrone connects to the router over the 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

The area within the installed netting space is referred to as the workspace. The ground control station

components (e.g., operator chair, computer, monitors, router, and joystick) are placed outside the workspace

and away from operating vehicles. The dedicated space for the ground control station (computer and

monitors) is located such that the operator can visually inspect the workspace at all times. The user is able

to see the workspace and monitors at the same time. The localization system is placed within the workspace,

so as to avoid the netting blocking the cameras’ viewpoint.

There are a number of interesting areas in the UAV courses from which to choose lab experiments. A

number of lab experiments are incorporated in the course to help students to gain more hands-on experience.

For instance, 1. Demonstration of gyroscope to study the gyroscopic effect, 2. Using an Arduino [11, 12,

13] board to control a servomotor, and 3. Using two Arduino boards and two Arduino communication

modules to send/receive a communication signal for deflecting an UAV elevator. 4. UAV flight using

ground station.

Although the UAV flight test is costly compared to flight simulation, the flight test data are very valuable

and extremely reliable. On the other hand, flight test is labor intensive and requires a large number of man-

hours to conduct. Thus, extreme care must be taken into account in flight planning to have necessary and

accurate results.

Figure 3. Quanser QDrone quadcopter

Cameras

Intel Aero Compute Board

Carbon fiber structure

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The Quanser QDrone (Figure 3) autonomous air vehicle is a mid-size quadrotor equipped with a powerful

on-board Intel® Aero Compute board, multiple high-resolution cameras and built-in WiFi. It is equipped

with the following sensors and measurement devices: 1. 3-axis Accelerometer, 2. 3-axis Magnetometer, 3.

3-axis Gyroscope, and 4. Barometer. The UAV flight parameters are measured and transmitted to the

ground station in real time.

This open-architecture research-grade drone is tuned to accelerate the research and is ideal for innovative

research in multi-agent, swarm and vision-based applications. The custom impact-resistant carbon fiber

frame makes the QDrone highly maneuverable and capable of withstanding high-impact applications with

little down time required for repairs. The powerful on-board processor and three high-speed, high-resolution

cameras enables high-quality on-board video processing, as well as streaming for real-time monitoring.

Table 2 presents the QDrone quadcopter specifications.

No Features Values/Specifications

1 Dimensions 40 cm × 40 cm × 15 cm

2 Mass (with

batteries)

850 grams

3 Max payload mass 300 grams

4 Battery/Power One 3S 11.1 V Li-Po (3,300 mAh)

5 Flight time 12 minutes (for hover per battery charge)

6 Structure Made of composite materials (carbon fiber)

7 Onboard computer - Intel® Aero Compute Board (quad-core Intel Atom® processor)

- Quad-core 64-bit 2.56 GHz processor

- 4 GB LPDDR3-1600 RAM 8 Cameras

- Intel® Aero Vision

- Intel® RealSense™ (Vision)

- Omnivision OV8858 (RGB)

- Omnivision OV7251 (VGA) Table 2. QDrone quadcopter specifications

Figure 4. Circuit and wiring of a lab experiment

To laptop,

or battery

Potentiometer

Servo

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The laboratory portion of the SNHU flight dynamics courses is in no way a complete course in flight test

engineering. They are, however, a flight test experience that illuminates the theory taught in the classroom

and allows the student to design an airborne experiment that follows a typical flight test process (plan,

execute, report). The flight test exercises are designed to be simple enough to allow the students to follow

the flight test process with some faculty guidance and they gradually increase in complexity and technical

difficulty throughout the two-course sequence. Safety is incorporated into the all three courses, both in

theoretical education, and in-flight test practices. In every UAV flight test operation, students are asked to

be cautious and maintain safe distance with the air vehicle and stay behind the net.

As an example, in one lab experiment (Figure 4), an experiment for using Arduino in controlling the

position of a servomotor with an Arduino board is demonstrated. A general application of this experiment

is the control of UAV attitude (i.e., pitch angle) by a remote operator; when he/she deflects the control stick

(here, the potentiometer) on the remote-control box.

This lab makes use of the Arduino servo library; Knob. For the implementation, four hardware items are

necessary: 1. Arduino board; 2. Servomotor, 3. A potentiometer; 4. hook-up wires. The Lab Procedure as

well as the Arduino code is provided to students. They will assemble the circuit, compile, and upload the

Arduino code. Then, observe the output, when the input is applied. The drone laboratory and lab

experiments are employed to strongly reinforce what is learned in the UAV courses.

6. Lessons Leaned

There are a lot of valuable lessons learned from the UAV education, students’ evaluation forms, and

mistakes made on the legacy vehicles flying today. Some of the important ones are shared in this section.

The failure-success experiences of UAVs and UASs are very valuable, and they are paying an important

role in teaching young designers. An important feature of the design process is the lessons learned in the

past. The lesson will be utilized in improving the next generation designers. The lessons are related to topics

such as team-based learning, project-based education, lab experiments, UAV flight, flight safety, flight

tests, UAV laboratory, and hands-on experience.

Safety is always first. Flight safety requirements and regulations are reviewed in the first flight test, the

students’ dealing for the first time with issues such as flight planning, briefing and debriefing, test flight

airspace considerations, test proposal, and flight test reporting.

The root cause for the lack of convergence between UAV education and practical application is the absence

of experiential learning. The UAV experience requires students to develop skills such as flight planning

and flight test execution, and it reinforces skills in data reduction, analysis, communication, and teamwork.

The courses cover a variety of topics, so students can identify, formulate, and solve various engineering

problems at different levels of difficulty.

Although each course addressed one major topic, the integration of lessons learned in preceding courses

was required. In particular, the UAV lectures and experiences provided motivation for absorbing and

integrating the harder topics, such as turn performance and lateral-directional dynamic stability. Students

gained a deeper understanding of the flight dynamics context in which aeronautical engineering is practiced.

The UAV test pilot must be a qualified instructor pilot assigned by the college who is very familiar with

the flight test techniques to employ in obtaining the airborne data. A “primary” flight test instructor pilot

has been identified as a formal policy. Engineering students now have a “go to” person for flying questions

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if the professor who manages the flight test laboratory is not available. The “primary” can also coordinate

and discuss flight test techniques with the other instructors. It should be noted that flight testing needs good

clear weather with calm winds. Two key reasons account for the lack of convergence between engineering

education and engineering practice: an absence of rationale and an absence of necessary experiences.

The courses assessments are performed through: 1. Students’ evaluation forms, and 2. an empirical

qualitative study. At the end of each semester, students are asked to evaluate the course materials, instructor,

and their experiences with these courses. These evaluation forms appear to demonstrate the value of UAV

education in helping students grasp fundamentals and develop experimental skills. Student interest and

motivation in the UAV education and practices also apparent. Student response indicated that the lab

experiments are of immense value in enhancing student comprehension of the complex aeronautical

concepts in UAVs.

In feedbacks and student evaluation forms, many terms like the following appeared: “relay good course”,

“very interesting materials”, “materials explained in a way that was reasonable to students to understand”,

and “lab experiment are very helpful”. However, there were some complains about “lack of good textbook”,

and “project man-hour requirements”.

There are always ways to improve the quality of education. Due to students’ feedbacks, and after compiling

experiences in working with students, there will be changes and improvement in the courses. In general,

the content will be richer, more details will be provided in lab experiment procedures, flow of materials are

checked to make sure, the courses have continuity. Furthermore, more aerial vehicle flights (both fixed-

wing and quadcopters) will be included in all three courses. Particularly, in the EG 430, there will be more

emphasis on autopilots, and automatic flight control systems. It will be made sure that, the courses will

have meaningful contributions in the future jobs of the graduates.

The required students’ creativity and independence facilitated their involvement in the learning process.

Ref. [14] discusses the undergraduate laboratory experiment facilitating active learning of concepts in

transport phenomena and indicates similar outcomes.

Figure 5. QDrone accelerometer readings

UAV education requires some resources – such as a UAV flight lab - that are unique to a normal collegiate

academic environment. Moreover, specialized personnel (e.g., qualified faculty, qualified ground pilots,

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and qualified sensor and payload operators), equipment (UAV, launcher, recovery system, ground station,

and instrumentation), hardware and software are needed to enable students to execute a flight test

experience. Furthermore, a flight test data acquisition system, and appropriate software for data reduction

are necessary.

One of our faculty – who has a long and strong background in the UAV flight tests and the related hardware

– has designed, built, and tested a flight test data recording system. This data acquisition system was

completely designed by our faculty, and used commercial components such as Arduino boards, and

microprocessors and sensors. The UAV flight data is recorded throughout the flight and is downloaded after

the UAV is landed/recovered. For instance, Figure 5 illustrates a sample flight data; accelerometer readings

for a 35 seconds flight.

For example, one of our recent graduates has been hired as a member of a flight test team for one of the

advanced aircraft development programs in the Sikorsky (Parent organization: Lockheed Martin). Two

years ago, he presented a talk about his experiences with Sikorsky and shared some lessons learned in his

past career. Moreover, another aeronautical engineering graduate was hired by Scaled Composites three

years ago. He also had a technical talk in our institution and presented the latest projects in the company he

works for.

One of common points for both presentations was the significance of what they learned here in SNHU that

were employed in their aircraft research/design projects. Both graduates had a few recommendations about

how to better teach aeronautical sciences and skill to students to be more effective in their future industry

professions. It outlined the importance of emphasizing in aeronautical concepts while allowing students to

have hands-on experience in laboratories including the UAV lab.

In all three courses, a UAS research/design/build/fly project in embedded to allow students to implement

their knowledge and skills. Project-based learning [15] in education through a lab exercise can create

students’ impressions of being educators and can greatly enhance the course outcomes. The concept of

team-based learning is an effective paradigm to facilitate collaborative interactions between various

students during a UAV design/development project.

Conclusions

The SNHU has incorporated UAV education into its aeronautical engineering program to address the

aerospace industry needs in UAV engineers. Three courses are designed and offered to Aeronautical

Engineering undergraduate students to cover various UAV-related subjects. In the past three years, several

valuable lessons have been learned and some adjustments have been made. This paper presents our

experiences plus several recommendations to other institutions that might be considering doing the same.

Highlights of the effectiveness of this experiential learning are presented.

The SNHU UAV education has given our students a deeper understanding of aeronautical engineering and

flight dynamics. Feedback from our graduates has indicated that they found the UAV education and

experience to be important in their transition into the aeronautical engineering profession. The drone lab

has added a strong education impact to the students learning outcomes. Future plans include working with

industry partners to continue the development of undergraduate UAV education and experiences.

Moreover, to improve the efficiency of the UAV education, more lab experiments (including UAV flight

operations) will be designed and added.

13

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