Members: Alex Illuzzi, Paul Triantafyllou, Marshall Roshto*, Ethan Carey*
Primary Advisors: Dr. Orlando Hernandez and Dr. Lisa Grega
The goal of the TCNJ Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) senior project team is to design and create an autonomous quadrotor helicopter that will travel to a specified location and return to its departure point while navigating the environment and avoiding obstacles along the way. The main subsystems being developed for the aircraft are the flight controls, flight routing logic, and the communication system. The flight controls will use various sensors to determine the position and orientation of the aircraft, and send information to the motors to stabilize the helicopter. An algorithm is currently being developed for flight routing that will use sonar sensors to map the environment and route a path to the destination. The communication system will use an RF module to send data back and forth from the UAV to ground control. The ground control software suite will not only be able to read data from the UAV, but also modify its state such as its current destination point. Many MATLAB simulations have been run in order to assist with the development process, and tests have been performed on the motors and propellers to determine the aerodynamics of the helicopter. A working prototype is planned to be constructed by the start of the spring semester.
* Non E/CE majors