UAV Forge - Ground Station

Team Mentor: Professor Haithem Taha, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Project Description: http://www.ucimaeprojects.com/projects/2016-2017-uav-forge/

Background

Around 2012, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held a competition for organizations to build an Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAV) that can perform fully autonomous missions for five hours. No one could fulfill the requirements at the time of the competition. That’s when UAV Forge began at UCI and since then, the project has build three different UAVs. 

Goal and Objectives

The main project goal for this year is to compete at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Student Unmanned Aerial Systems(AUVSI SUAS) competition this year. The Ground Station team is dedicated to writing control software for assigning mission tasks to the UAV and viewing flight data. We also intend on working with the UAV Forge Avionics team to implement object detection and improve networking capabilities.

The Bigger Picture

UAV Forge contributes to the growing interest in the unmanned vehicle market. From ordinary citizens, the government, and corporations, people are looking for ways to use UAVs to fulfill many different purposes. We want to develop an UAV that appeals to a wide audience and challenges our members to innovate and bring unique ideas to life. One scientific endeavor the project strives to accomplish is the miniaturizing of advance UAV technology into a portable package. Overall, this project allows UCI engineering students to build real world skills such as leadership, teamwork, and professional communication skills. Students can apply their knowledge in CAD design, control systems, propulsion, manufacturing, and avionics to UAV Forge. The educational experience gained from participating in this project helps our students grown to become better, more creative engineers.

Team Members:

Prad Tantiwuttipong (Ground Station - Team Lead)

Richard Li (Ground Station - Member)

Alvin Huang (Ground Station - Member)