High Endurance Autonomous Hybrid Drone

Project Title

High Endurance Autonomous Hybrid Drone

Project Area of Specialization Electrical/Electronic EngineeringProject Summary

In this era of advance technology, every industry is seeing remarkable development in existing technologies, revolutions and inventions which are changing the course of life forever. Similar is the case with the drones and unmanned aerial vehicles industry. The equipment used in transportation and surveillance have seen tremendous change as compared to the last century, helicopters and small aircrafts are replaced by drones in both civil and military uses. To keep up with the rapid pace of evolution in industry it is important for every nation to invest and make their own indigenous equipment.
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) have been widely in used by many Air-forces of the world for years but recently its use has also become wider in commercial applications such as agriculture, search and rescue, transportation of goods etc. Today’s drones have limited fight endurance of 15-30 minutes with a maximum payload capacity of 10 kilogram before they need to recharge or swap the battery. There is an inverse relation between payload and flight endurance, increasing any one results in decrease of the other. The development of a hybrid drone gives solution to this major problem as the flight endurance will increase to 1.5-2 hours with the payload capacity of up to 10 kilogram. 
 

Project Objectives

In Pakistan there are many missions and requirements which have to be done by UAVs. As we can oberve, that in every case we have to swap the battery after every 30 minutesas it gets discharged. But there are many missions and tasks which cannot be done in 30 minutes, so for the high endurance requirements we are working on the hybrid drone that can be very beneficial for such conditions and can run upto 2 hours .

Secondly we are experiencing that many companies are selling such drones on very high costs and these costs are unaffordable for many consumers and companies who wanted to have such drones. So we are making this drone under the limit of 200 thousand rupees that would be affordable for them and it is the cheapest solution for many problems.

Project Implementation Method

We have splitted our project in three phases:-

To begin the first phase we will import all the necessary parts and the hardware which is required to build hexacopter. Then we wil start assembling the parts i.e. frame, motors, ESCs, etc. At the end of this phase , a hexacopter with manual control will be ready to fly.

 Second phase of project is based on the successful automation of the drone using microcontroller pixhawk and its relative software mision planner. With the help of software we will calibrate and configure our drone according to our needs . We will also set waypoints on software so that drone can autonomously complete the given mission using GPS. and in the second phase we will integrate the hybrid power plant in to that hexa copter .

Finally in the third phase we will work indigenously on the electro mechanical generator. For this we will buy a 20-30cc gas engine and a 3-phase AC motor .After coupling them together we will produce the required power followed by the rectifier circuit and auto transfer switch (ATS) . We will also introduce the aurdino controlled throttle for better performance.

Benefits of the Project

In pakistan 70% occupation based on agriculture which tells us that Pakistan is a agriculture country . For the efficient  inspection of such large fields of crops and for the spray of insecticides we have to go for the air to ground technique . By the help of high endeurance of hybrid drone we can do these missions on the fields more effectively .

In the past , we have experienced many accidents at the places where we weren't able to reach or react immediately due to the geographical locations of land i.e. forests and mountains . To provide the immediate first aid in such cases can only be possible by the help of drones . We are designing our drone in such a way that it will lift the payload of upto 5 kgs . We can supply medicines , bandages and other first aid materials there by drone . As we are using hybrid technology , so it will help us in the long missions. 

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

First phase:-

First two months are for the better understanding of project . We have done satisfying reasearch on the project . Then from the third month we will start working on assembling of hexacopter which hopefully takes 2 months .

Second Phase:-

We will divide the automation in two months , in the first month we will focus on the testing. Then in the second month we will get the successful required results on different conditions.

Third Phase:-

We will start working on the generator and hybrid drone mechanism.

We ends the working on getting results of the project.

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry OthersOther IndustriesCore Technology OthersOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	80000
Hexacopter Frame	Equipment	1	20000	20000
Motors	Equipment	6	3000	18000
ESCs	Equipment	6	2000	12000
Pixhawk kit	Equipment	1	20000	20000
Hardware	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000