UROP UAV Development Project

The UROP students working in the lab over the both the 2006/07 and 2007/08 academic year have focused on a hands-on airframe development program designed to teach students practical skills while allowing the lab to grow its flight testing infrastructure. The 2007/08 program has seen considerable expansion on both the educational offerings and the project tasks available to undergraduates in the A2Sys lab. The students have focused primarily on the development (structural modification) of FQM-117B target drones. A series of structural reinforcements, modifications, and system updates/upgrades allows the former target drone aircraft to flown repeatable and reliably. The FQMs (typically referred to as MiGs, as they are designed to look like scale MiG fighters) have a very high payload capacity, and thanks to their foam construction are very adaptable. Students are also involved in flight testing, instrumentation, data processing, software development, and a variety of experimental testing and development.