AIAA Design, Build, Fly: Pablo - An Urban Air Mobility/Emergency Medical Drone
Faculty Mentor Name
Johann Dorfling, Joseph Smith
Format Preference
Poster
Abstract
Design, Build, Fly (DBF) is an international, intercollegiate competition where teams develop an aircraft - from the ground up - to compete in flight missions and satisfy engineering constraints defined by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This year, the competition revolves around urban air mobility. The aircraft must lift wooden passenger figurines in a commercial transportation configuration and as patients on model gurneys. Scoring is dependent on the amount of passengers transported, the weight of a medical supply cabinet payload, and the aircraft’s cruise speed. The DBF club on campus, team Coppertails, built PABLO (Public Airborne Biomedical Lifting Operator), an aircraft designed to complete three flight missions and one ground mission in accordance with the requirements stated by AIAA. To optimize all mission scores, Coppertails designed PABLO with a maximized medical payload weight of 4.5 lb, a 48-passenger count, and adequate accessibility to minimize aircraft assembly time. Team Coppertails adhered to an iterative design process to advance the aircraft when feasible improvements were identified. PABLO is a single-motor, high wing UAV with a conventional tail and swivel wing. A single tractor motor configuration was chosen because it provides sufficient thrust for all flight missions, increases propulsive efficiency, and reduces weight. To enhance payload capacity, a flat-bottomed fuselage was adopted, and a boom tail was employed to give the stabilizers sufficient authority given the large inertia of the aircraft. A high wing was implemented to allow easy access to the payload and avionics. The wing swivel was incorporated to meet a minimum width requirement during parking as specified in the rules.
AIAA Design, Build, Fly: Pablo - An Urban Air Mobility/Emergency Medical Drone
Design, Build, Fly (DBF) is an international, intercollegiate competition where teams develop an aircraft - from the ground up - to compete in flight missions and satisfy engineering constraints defined by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). This year, the competition revolves around urban air mobility. The aircraft must lift wooden passenger figurines in a commercial transportation configuration and as patients on model gurneys. Scoring is dependent on the amount of passengers transported, the weight of a medical supply cabinet payload, and the aircraft’s cruise speed. The DBF club on campus, team Coppertails, built PABLO (Public Airborne Biomedical Lifting Operator), an aircraft designed to complete three flight missions and one ground mission in accordance with the requirements stated by AIAA. To optimize all mission scores, Coppertails designed PABLO with a maximized medical payload weight of 4.5 lb, a 48-passenger count, and adequate accessibility to minimize aircraft assembly time. Team Coppertails adhered to an iterative design process to advance the aircraft when feasible improvements were identified. PABLO is a single-motor, high wing UAV with a conventional tail and swivel wing. A single tractor motor configuration was chosen because it provides sufficient thrust for all flight missions, increases propulsive efficiency, and reduces weight. To enhance payload capacity, a flat-bottomed fuselage was adopted, and a boom tail was employed to give the stabilizers sufficient authority given the large inertia of the aircraft. A high wing was implemented to allow easy access to the payload and avionics. The wing swivel was incorporated to meet a minimum width requirement during parking as specified in the rules.