University of Cincinnati student Wei Wei controls an unmanned aerial vehicle during a test burn.
Research at the University of Cincinnati could soon enable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) – similar to U.S. military drones patrolling the skies of Afghanistan – to track down missing persons on search-and-rescue missions, to penetrate curtains of smoke during wildfire suppression or possibly even to navigate urban landscapes on delivery runs for online retailers like Amazon.
Read: Don’t Fear the Dawn of the Drones
Credit: Photo provided by Kelly Cohen, University of Cincinnati
University of Cincinnati student Wei Wei makes adjustments to a UAV.
In his research, Wei used special engineering software to develop the dynamic model essential for autopilot design for a wide variety of unmanned aircraft having multiple rotors. He’s applied his method to quadrotors – UAVs with four propellers – and other types of drones, but it can work with nearly any aircraft.
Credit: Tom Robinette, University of Cincinnati
UC student Bryan Brown displays a quadrotor UAV.
Credit: Tom Robinette, University of Cincinnati
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense