RECON2 Part 1

by MESA RC | February 5, 2015 | (10) Posted in Projects

 

To the FliteTest Community,

The ELITE program is very excited to introduce our lone senior Engineer and Design project, not a for sure name yet, maybe RECON2 (FPV AIR AND GROUND umanned vehicle).  Below is the problem identified for finding possible solutions;

Problem: Northern Colorado bomb squad needs eyes on the ground in a remote area for recon.  

Solution: Creating a robust RC quad (equipped with FPV gear) that can carry the weight of an RC vehicle (with FPV gear) behind the danger line of the unknown, drop off the vehicle, vehicle performs recon, hooking back up to quad, and flying safely back to its destination for reviewing.

Danny spent the first couple of months creating a few design concepts, this one below presented as the solution, however, still available for changes.

The frame materials was then purchased and is currently being assembled, part 2 will show the build and testing of the quad.  Tiger motors were purchased as the propulsion system, soon to follow is the ESCs. Not sure on the control board, looking at some more funds for a DJI system, too much at stake to run KK2 boards.  If you know of someone who has one that would be willing to donate to the project and program, please contact mesarcfoamfighters@gmail.com

The quad frame has to be wide enough to accomodate the vehicle for drop off and pick up.  The mechanisms will be designed once we have the truck under the quad. Before actually building the quad Danny had to acquire a vehicle that was robust enough to handle a wide range of activities and be stripped light enough for a quad to carry. Once completing the vehicle, he can now move onto the finishing touches of the quad.

In the design cycle you have to create and conduct testing scenarios for your solution, today's episode had Danny creating a test for distance he can drive the vehicle with the current FPV gear navigating through brick walls. It seemed to perform well enough for the concept to be shown to the Northern Colorado Bomb Squad in May, we hope that it will actually perform better outside and in a non-brick constructed facility.

Stay tuned in for more of Danny adventure through this crazy project, if you have any ideas or leads please leave a comment below.  Danny will take all feedback into consideration when completing his final design.

For more information about the program: http://www.mesarcfoamfighters.com/ 

Thank you for all your support,

Ther MESArcFF Team

COMMENTS

LEDspammer on February 5, 2015
You could always try to do a helical antenna or a patch set up on the receiver that might be a more economical way to increase penetration than buying 1.2 gear.
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MESA RC on February 5, 2015
Nice tip, I will let Danny know.
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shermanhartman on February 5, 2015
When i was a senior in high school (last year), I was in a pre-engineering program. For our finial project, we had to design and build something from concept to reality. My initial idea was pretty much exactly the same as this one. Later, it got changed to be more complex. But we never got to build it because we submitted a fund raiser and the superintendent never approved or denied the fund raiser. he just held it until we were out of time.

My main suggestion that you add to the project is a video repeater for the car. Mount the reciver on the quad, and have it hooked directly into another video transmitter. This way, the quad can loiter over/near the car while its on the ground, and greatly increase the video range since it will be line of sight signals instead of trying to pass through trees/buildings/ground ect. I have/had tons of ideas on the project, if you want to talk about it, let me know!
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MESA RC on February 5, 2015
Sorry to hear about the lack of funding and follow through with your admin. Well maybe we can make this happen in respects to your initial efforts last year. The repeater is a great idea and we are looking into it. I will let Danny know that you were planning to do the same thing, this will give him a resource to reach out too. Thank you for the input.
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shermanhartman on February 6, 2015
Alright. cool. Cant wait to see the final product.
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XFlyer on February 5, 2015
If you want the extra penetration to get through those walls with no issues, I suggest moving to either 900mhz or 1.2/3 for video and 433mhz on rc. With that setup, range shouldn't be an issue.
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MESA RC on February 5, 2015
We wanted to initially see what happened with the 250, we have a 1.3 from a couple years back we will attempt next.

Thanks for the tip.
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Corbin Marks on February 16, 2015
Man I wish they did this at my school. my schools nickname is CORN FIELD HIGH too.

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MESA RC on February 16, 2015
That's pretty funny, maybe you can pioneer the starting of one.

Thanks,
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RECON2 Part 1