New design opens up the skies for unmanned aircraft…
Australia is set to become the launching pad for futuristic flying vehicles, as the research successes of a young science and engineering graduate herald a breakthrough in cyber technology.
Speaking at Curtin University’s launch of the iNexus Australia Robotics Competition 2009, Cyber Technology Flight Control Systems Engineer and mechatronic engineering graduate Josh Portlock discussed his advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), which have seen his designs garner keen interest from defence specialists and utility providers.
Mr Portlock’s most recent project, the ’CyberQuad’ combines state-of-the-art vertical take-off and landing technologies with the mechanical simplicity and agility of a quadrotor, and the safety and efficiency of ducted fans.
Mr Portlock says after joining a commercial enterprise, he developed a keen sense for applying his academic research to real world applications.
"While I was in industry, I started specialising more in multi disciplinary design optimisation, which is the idea of optimising vehicles using multidisciplinary design to fit a specific requirement.
"My private research success demonstrated my UAV could, for example, carry a 10-mega pixel still camera, fly up in a very short response time and take high resolution photos of power lines, as an example of an application.
"It currently costs Western Power $1200 per pole to have a manned helicopter to take those photos. So if you imagine how much electricity my UAV uses compared to the fuel required to send a helicopter, it makes the UAV far more economically viable as well as being more environmentally safe and reduces the safety risk for pilots flying close to power lines."
Mr Portlock first began developing UAV’s in 2005, with an opened quad-rotor helicopter, motivated by a keen interest in electric propulsion and electric vehicles, which he says are less of a safety hazard for operators and the environment.
His initial post-graduate research was into other multi rotor helicopters, before being offered an industry position to commercialise his work.
"In my private research I developed ducted quad-rotors, moving from the open quad-rotors, realising the importance of the compact safety and efficiency that ducts can give. The more I looked in to it, I realised no one had actually combined those technologies," he says.
"The unique thing about this project was the altitude control system allowing it to self-level."
When Mr Portlock joined Cyber Technology in late 2008, the company had an impressive core portfolio of UAV’s, including the Cyber-Eye, a medium altitude long endurance fixed point aircraft, good for long term surveillance and the CyBIrd, a hi speed jet used for targeting applications. Cyber Technology also had the CyberShark for hovering missions or reconnaissance.
"They had the high speed, the long endurance and the big all rounder, but what they didn’t have was the compact, safe, efficient, more nimble more affordable UAV platform," he says.
Mr Portlock says recent advances in inertial sensor technology has given researchers the ability to control unstable dynamics which has resulted in a surge in open propeller quadrotor helicopters development over the last decade.
Source: Science WA
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