UAV in Engineering Applications

By Dr. E. Balasubramanian | National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chennai.

Learners enrolled: 735

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones are becoming widely used in multifaceted environments, agricultural, societal, defence, military, marine and many real world applications. They have been deployed with various payloads, sensors and even transportation of medical kits are feasible using UAVs. With an advent of drone technology, UAVs are integrated with machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms with on-board processing capabilities which are capable of precisely mapping natural features, performing reconnaissance and border surveillance as well. This course provides insight on basic design aspects of UAV including flapping and rotary wing UAVs, performance characteristics and diverse engineering applications of UAVs with case studies are enlightened. Experiences gained during the real deployment of UAVs for inspection of bridges, heritage structures, remote water bodies, environmental monitoring, 3D mapping with SWARM of UAVs and other novel application of UAVs are being shared. The DGCA rules and regulations, novel pay loads and future engineering applications of UAVs are being dealt in this course.

Summary

Course Status :	Completed
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	8 weeks
Category :	Teacher Education
Credit Points :	3
Level :	Continuing Education
Start Date :	29 Jan 2024
End Date :	30 Apr 2024
Enrollment Ends :	29 Feb 2024
Exam Date :	19 May 2024 IST
Exam Shift :	Shift-1

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Contact NC Support

Email id | swayam@nitttrc.edu.in, swayam@nitttrc.ac.in

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: Introduction, Classifications, Applications and Payloads of UAV

Motivation - Types of UAV – Characteristics – Fixed Wing – Rotary Wing – Flapping Wing – Basic Parts of UAV – Specifications – Applications – Pay loads of UAV

Week 2: Aerodynamics and Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis of UAV

Basics of Aerodynamics - Lift and Drag – Bernoulli Theories and Equations – Angle of Attack - Peculiarities of Multicopters – Wing Tip Vortices and Wake Turbulence - Stability – Turning Flight – Stall - Introduction to CFD – Fluid Governing Equations - Turbulence Models - External and Internal Flow -Modeling and Aerodynamic Analysis - Computational and Numerical Tools.

Week 3: Design, Assembly, Integration and Testing of Quadcopter

Design of Quadcopter – Selection of Sub Systems - Airframe Assembly – Integration of Electronic Systems – Firmware Loading and Parameter Set up - Calibration of Sensors – Tuning - Introduction to Ground Control Station – Flight Simulation – Autonomous Flight Path Planning – Testing of Quadcopter – Demonstration Videos.

Week 4: Industrial and Engineering Applications of UAVs

Need of UAVs for Industrial Applications - Development of UAVs for Powerline Inspection - Telecom Structure Inspection and Radiation Measurement – Bridge and Heritage Structure Inspection – Collection of Sea Weeds using UAV.

Week 5: Case study 1 : Development of Amphibious UAV for water quality monitoring

Conceptual Designs of Amphibious UAV - Design Parameters – CFD and FEA Analysis – Subsystems of Amphibious UAV - Selection of Components – Fabrication - Testing of Sub Systems – Integration of Sub Systems – Real Time Testing of Developed Amphibious UAV – Water Quality Sensors – Collection of Water Quality Data using IoT Platform.

Week 6: Case study 2: SWARM of UAVs for 3D Mapping using Stereo vision system

Stereo Vision Camera – Working Principle – Capturing of Point Cloud Data: Indoor and Outdoor Environment – Image Stitching – 3D Mapping. Path Planning Algorithms – Simulation Studies – Implementation of Developed Algorithm in UAV – Testing – Obstacle Avoidance. SWARM of UAVs : Simulation Studies – Line and Triangle Formation of UAVs : Demonstration Videos with UAV – Theoretical an Experimental Comparison – Discussion.

Week 7: Case study 3: Development of Flapping Wing Vehicle (FWV) and Image Based Control of Flocking of Birds

Flapping Wing Vehicle – Introduction – Lift and Drag Forces – Birds Motion – Angle of Attack – Measurement of Lift and Thrust Forces – Mechanism Design of FWV – Manufacturing of Micro Mechanism Components: Injection Moulding, Wire Cut EDM, 3D Printing – Selection and Assembly of FWV Components – Testing – Image Based Control of Group of FWVs – Demonstration Videos with FWV.

Week 8: DGCA Rules, Regulation and Future Engineering Application of UAVs

Drone Categories Based on All-up weight – Type Certification of UAVs - DGCA Rules for UAV Registration, Certification and Pilot Licensing - Remote Pilot Training Organization (RPTO) – Flying Zones – Future Engineering Applications of UAVs.

Books and references

1. Austin, R. (2011). Unmanned aircraft systems: UAVS design, development and deployment. John Wiley & Sons.

2. Fahlstrom P, Gleason T (2012) Introduction to UAV systems, 4th edn. Wiley, UK

3. Norris D (2014) Build your own quadcopter. McGraw-Hill Education, New York

4. Büchi R (2014) Radio control with 2.4 GHz. BoD–Books on Demand

5. Valavanis K. P.; Vachtsevanos, G. J., eds (2015): Handbook of unmanned aerial vehicles, Springer reference

6. Yang, L. J., & Esakki, B. (2021). Flapping Wing Vehicles: Numerical and Experimental Approach. CRC Press.

7. Sebbane, Y. B. (2022). A first course in aerial robots and drones. CRC Press.

Instructor bio

Dr. E. Balasubramanian

National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chennai.

Dr Balasubramanian Esakki received PhD in the field of Robotics and Control at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He is presently working as Associate Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR), Chennai. He published three books, more than 100 Journal and International conference publications and 5 patents have been granted under his credit. He received grants from various Government of India funding programmes supported through Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and other funding agencies. He has collaborated with Taiwan scientists under Indo-Taiwan schema for the development of micro aerial flapping wing vehicles and formation control through image processing techniques. During the Indo – Canada collaboration, his team deployed UAVs to inspect bridges and heritage structures across India and Canada. In addition, he did a collaborative work with south Korean Institute and Industry under the Indo – Kore funded project to collect water samples and performed in-situ water quality monitoring in the remote water bodies using a novel amphibious UAV. His team developed UAVs for diverse applications including power line inspection, telecom tower inspection and radiation measurement, bridge inspection, environmental monitoring, mining, infrastructure assessment, crop monitoring, pesticide spraying, surveillance and traffic monitoring etc. His team won the first prize in the National level competition organized by Power Grid Corporation Limited and prestigious telecom sector Aegis Graham bell award in the category of best innovative business model. He also carried out consultancy projects for diverse national agencies Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), ISRO and automobile sector. His research interests are UAVs, robotics, 3D Printing, Non linear control systems and sensors with online data acquisition systems.

Course certificate

Interested Learners can enroll and learn the course for free.

If You wish to Get certified on this course you must register and write the proctored exam conducted by SWAYAM in person at any of the designated exam centers.

The Registration fee for the proctored exam is Rs.1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).
Date and Time of Exam: 2^nd Saturday & Sunday of May (tentative);
Announcements will be made when the exam registration form is open for registrations along with the url
The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.
Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE:

Internal assignment score = 30%, The average of best 3 assignments out of the total assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 70% of the proctored exam score out of 100
Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score
You will be eligible for a certificate only if average assignment score >=10/30 and exam score >= 30/70
Certificate will have your name, photograph, roll number and the percentage of score in the final exam. It will have the logos of MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development), SWAYAM and NITTTR.
Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

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