Unmanned aerial vehicles design education; techniques and challenges

Abstract

Most undergraduate aeronautical/aerospace engineering programs do not contain a significant amount of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) analysis and design education experience. Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) has incorporated UAV education into its aeronautical engineering program in terms of a concentration. Three courses have been developed, designed and offered. In the past few years, several valuable lessons have been learned and a few changes/adjustments have been made. The UAV along with a ground control station and the launch and recovery systems makes up an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). These two subsystems are also covered along with UAV in all three courses. Furthermore, this paper presents SNHU lessons learned and experiences in this area and makes recommendations to other universities that might be interested in establishing UAV education in their undergraduate aeronautical/aerospace engineering programs. The lab configuration, workspace, camera optical system, communications system, control software package, and features of quadcopters are presented. Moreover, highlights of the effectiveness of this experiential learning are presented.