Robohub.org
 

Winners of hurricane-tracking UAS design challenge announced | NASA News

by
09 July 2014



share this:

From a NASA press release:

Virginia Tech's UAS design
A team of students from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg captured first place in NASA’s University Aeronautics Design Challenge with its proposal for the “Gobble Hawk” high-altitude, long-endurance uncrewed aerial system for tracking and collecting data on hurricanes.Image Credit: Virginia Tech

NASA has selected three winning designs solicited to address the technological limitations of the uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) currently used to track and collect data on hurricanes.

Engineering teams at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville were named first- through third-place winners, respectively, of the agency’s 2013-2014 University Aeronautics Engineering Design Challenge.

This year’s challenge called on university students, with faculty advisors, to design a new UAS that can exceed the flight limitations of systems currently used to track and gather data on hurricanes throughout the Atlantic Ocean storm season, which runs June 1 to Nov. 30.

“The data gathered by UAS’s is crucial to refining computer models so we can better predict not just the path of these storms, but also the process of hurricane formation and growth,” explained Craig Nickol, a NASA aerospace engineer and technical lead for the contest at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. “This is where current systems fall short.”

Purdue University's UAS design
Taking second place, the team at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, designed the OQ451-5 Trident, a hydrogen-powered UAS capable of seven days of uninterrupted flight. Image Credit: Purdue University

Accurate predictions of storm formation and growth require several days of uninterrupted observations and measurements. However, systems now in use to gather storm data, similar to the Global Hawk UAS, have a limited flight endurance of 24 hours per takeoff. Among other stringent criteria, papers submitted for the challenge had to successfully demonstrate how the team’s system design would provide persistent five-month aerial coverage over an area of the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa where tropical depressions can form into hurricanes. Through this five-month period, systems must be capable of flying non-stop a minimum of seven days.

“The decision process and supporting detail, including cost optimization, were strengths of the top papers,” said aerospace engineer Jason Welstead, a contest reviewer for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate in Washington.

University of Virginia's UAS design
The team at the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville secured third place with its submission, an aircraft dubbed The Big WAHOO, which has a flight endurance of 7.5 days.Image Credit: University of Virginia

Virginia Tech’s team of nine university seniors won first place with its Gobble Hawk, an aerial system consisting of two aircraft, each with a flight endurance of 7.8 days and using liquid hydrogen as a fuel source. The team estimated the total cost of the system at $199.5 million for production plus 10 years of operation and maintenance.

Taking second place, Purdue’s OQ451-5 Trident is a hydrogen-powered UAS capable of seven days of uninterrupted flight over the monitoring area. Its approximate costs include $310 million for design, $78 million for production and operating costs of about $17,000 per flight hour.

UVA captured third place with its submission, an aircraft dubbed The Big WAHOO – a hat-tip to the school’s unofficial nickname and also an acronym for Worldwide Autonomous Hurricane and Oceanic Observer – has a flight endurance of 7.5 days. The team estimated the operating life of the aircraft to be 15 years, with a total lifecycle cost of about $493.7 million.

For more than a decade, NASA’s unique University Aeronautics Engineering Design Challenge has inspired senior-level engineering students to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions to real problems faced by the global aeronautics community. Eight university teams submitted final entries for the 2014 challenge. The three winning teams will receive a cash award through an education grant and cooperative agreement with Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.

For more information on NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate design challenges and competitions, go to:

http://www.aeronautics.nasa.gov/design_comp.htm



tags: , , , , , ,


Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large
Hallie Siegel robotics editor-at-large





Related posts :



Robot Talk Episode 52 – Sara Bernardini

In this week's episode of the Robot Talk podcast, host Claire Asher chatted to Sara Bernardini from Royal Holloway University of London all about decision-making, reconfigurable robots, and oceanography.
09 June 2023, by

Sponge makes robotic device a soft touch

A simple sponge has improved how robots grasp, scientists from the University of Bristol have found.
07 June 2023, by

#ICRA2023 awards finalists and winners

In this post we bring you all the paper awards finalists and winners presented during the 2023 edition of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).
05 June 2023, by

Ranking the best humanoid robots of 2023

Is Rosie the Robot Maid from the Jetsons here yet? As more and more companies announce their work towards the affordable humanoid robot, I wanted to create a reference chart.
03 June 2023, by

Robot Talk Episode 51 – James Kell

In this week's episode of the Robot Talk podcast, host Claire Asher chatted to James Kell from Jacobs Engineering UK all about civil infrastructure, nuclear robotics and jet engine inspection.
02 June 2023, by

Automate 2023 recap and the receding horizon problem

“Thirty million developers” are the answer to driving billion-dollar robot startups, exclaimed Eliot Horowitz of Viam last week at Automate.
01 June 2023, by





©2021 - ROBOTS Association


 












©2021 - ROBOTS Association