After six years of toil, students in Carleton’s mechanical and aerospace engineering program have finally completed a prototype unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to be used for geographical surveys.
The project began in 2004 intending to give students in the program an opportunity to work as a team and get a hands-on experience with building an aircraft.
More than 150 students have worked on the prototype since its inception.
Carleton professor Jeremy Laliberté has been involved with the prototype for several years and served as the project manager this year.
“It’s a tough project and it’s very demanding, but we try to simulate industry,” he said. “The students come out of it with a real appreciation for attention to detail, design and project management.”
Fourth-year Carleton student Sean Donnelly said the continuous nature of the project created some challenges in learning about the work that had been done before they started the class.
“At the beginning of the year, it can be difficult in picking up all the things that have been done over the last six years,” Donnelly said.
Laliberté said he believed the nature of the work really appealed to the students.
“It’s a huge difference when you have something you can touch that is ultimately going to fly,” he said.
Donnelly said he enjoyed having a practical application for the theory they learn in class.
“We do a lot of theoretical work in aerospace [engineering] in the first three years, so it’s nice to be able to pull it all together in fourth year in a technical way, and build a practical thing,” he said.
Students were subdivided into several different groups all working on different elements of the craft, including structure, aerodynamics, mechanical and electrical systems.
The prototype has a metre ** (16 feet) wingspan and weighs about kilogram ** (200 lbs). It will fly close to the ground, mapping out terrain and conducting geomagnetic surveys.
The next step for the group involves test flying the prototype and seeing where improvements can be made.
“We’ve learned a lot while building the prototype before even flying it, so we’re going to work right away to improve the aircraft,” Laliberté said.
The program has future plans to develop more UAVs that can be used for other civil projects including wildlife tracking and forest fire spotting.
Donnelly said he believed the project felt worthwhile knowing it would serve a purpose in society.
“That’s what engineering comes down to: applying science and technology to solving a real world problem,” Donnelly said. “It’s a really exciting thing to see all these ideas come to fruition in this aircraft.”