Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) designed by MIT students

The project of design and fabrication of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) in the name Y4 Copter was carried out by the 8th semester Mechanical Engineering students Mohan Keerthi, ST Savanth, K Ashwini and PB Pramod of Maharaja Institute of Technology, Mysore.

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone and referred to as a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. Its flight is controlled either autonomously by on board computers or by the remote control of a pilot on the ground or in another vehicle.

“They are usually deployed for military and special operation applications, but also used in a small but growing number of civil applications, such as policing and firefighting, and nonmilitary security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. UAVs are often preferred for missions that are too "dull, dirty or dangerous” for manned aircraft. As a tool for search and rescue, UAVs can help find humans lost in the wilderness, trapped in collapsed buildings, or adrift at sea,” said the students.

The name Y4 Copter is named after the shape of the aircraft resembling the alphabet ‘Y’ and ‘4’ is due to number of propellers used are four. The complete design and all the stages of fabrication process and assembly were solely carried out by the students at the college premises.

Automation is implemented to maintain the desired roll, pitch and yaw. There are two propellers and motors at the front on two separate arms and two co-axial propellers and motors at the rear end. The relative motions of roll and pitch are achieved by tilting mechanism by servos. There are two servos, one for the roll movement and the other for the pitch movement. The total system is powered by the battery. The flight and movement of the Y4 Copter is controlled by the wireless system called radio controller. A custom remote is built to communicate with the Y4 Copter which offers long range and security, added the students, who have done the project under the guidance of Dr Mohamed Khaisar, Professor and HoD-Mechanical Engineering.

The management and staff of the college witnessed the testing and first flight of the Y4 Copter and appreciated it.