Equipment and Projects

Equipment

• PhyCORE MPC656
  Embedded system that runs autopilot software installed on the ECat UAV.
• ECat "Blue"
  Sig Kadet r/c hobby airframe equipped with MPC565.
• "Red"
  Sig Kadet r/c hobby airframe used for testing. Piccolo autopilot installed.
• KB1
  Designed/constructed at K-State.
• Piccolo Autopilot Cloud Cap Technologies
  Commercially available autopilot system.

Projects

Ecological research

Goal: develop low-cost UAV to aid researchers studying long-term ecological research (LTER) sites.
Funded by the NSF. UAV will collect multi-spectral images and radiospectrographic data from agricultural fields and grasslands near Manhattan, Kansas (including the Konza Prairie Biological Station, an NSF LTER site). Includes researchers in the Agronomy and Geography departments at KSU.

Autopilot development

Goal: develop and test autopilot avionics systems.
Funded by NASA in partnership with Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kansas as part of the NASA EPsCOR program. During the autopilot development process, we performed initial validation of tuning procedures for the autopilot control loops, and demonstrated the possibility of tuning a good-quality autopilot for many aircraft which avoids time consuming model-based design. Project has lead to partnership with Cloud Cap Technologies, and autopilot manufacturer, where the AVS Lab is working at the source code level with the Piccolo Autopilot.