Everest - RU Autonomous Heavy Lift Drone

RU Autonomous is Rutgers University's autonomous UAV competition team, a student run nonprofit organization under the Rutgers chapter of the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics. We compete at CUAS-C, where we teach engineers important skills in CAD, manufacturing, and aerospace design. This year, we are designing a heavy lift drone to complete our tasks. The drone itself will be 35 lbs, and lift up to 50 lbs of additional payload. Not only will the drone be able to drop payloads, but it will also be able to autonomously retrieve them using a special mechanism underneath. All of this will be done using machine learning algorithms, with object detection from our camera and LiDAR sensor. The entire operation is done without any human input, with a safety pilot in case things do not work. Below is a rough CAD model for the current stage of design.

The drone consists of several electronic components: the motors, ESCs, Power Distribution Board, battery, flight controller, companion computer, PWM receivers, 2-way telemetry/RC radio, GPS module, camera and gimbal, LiDAR sensor, and airdrop servos. For construction, different propellers, plates, arms, leg mounts, legs, and connecting clamps are entirely designed by us, and created using CNC machining aluminum or carbon fiber either in house or with partner manufacturers. The airdrop will be modular and interchangeable for different tasks but will also be designed using the same principals. This design will allow it to fly for a 14-mile range on one charge, and a 77-minute maximum flight time.