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The Recon UAV is Ben's senior project at Iowa State. It is an airplane which will control itself while taking pictures of stuff on the ground. If there is any real use for the UAV it is in taking pictures of fields for crop scouting. If it doesn't turn out to be useful, then it just won't have a legitimate use. As long as it doesn't crash right away, there should be some fun to be had. It could be an autonomous ferretliner, dropping its weasel passengers off along the way on little parachutes. It could be a sort of scarecrow to chase the poachers and deer hunters away. It could have rockets mounted on it to shoot at flocks of birds that are bugging people. It could spray bug spray all over the place for no good reason. It could serve as a courier between local airports. Maybe the best idea is to turn it into a precision flour sack or egg bomber. That would be a real challenge, and it might result in Moe getting floured and egged. There is also a possibility that a certain grandmother could use some egging from above. If nothing else works, the UAV could be an overpriced target for shotgun practice.
In any case, the project won't be complete until the UAV is flown in formation with the ultralight. Using the ultralight as a chase plane will let us shoot the UAV down if it starts to go wacko. This shouldn't be needed, though, since the UAV has a manual override controlled from the ground. It might also have a self destruct sequence to prevent it from getting away. In this system, the wings could be destroyed so that the plane falls harmlessly to the ground.
Most of the onboard electronics are assembled. The main computer is wired in its final configuration and installed in a little box. The IMU/servo control computer is totally assembled and hidden inside another little box. The super-duper high-tech Tower hobbies receiver has been modified to output all 7 channels on one pin. It also got a fashionable new green antenna to replace the one the got torn away in a crash. The FMA infrared sensors have been taken apart to see how they work. The absolute pressure sensor board has been built and tested.
Right now the entire project is sitting in a huge pile of stuff on my desk at school. I wonder what the university policy is with respect to soldering and etching in the dorm rooms.
These pages will be updated as time allows. For now, most of the work is just logged in the project log page.
E-mail: bjshowman@weedplane.com
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