Computational research at UTD by Dr. Malik's group has shown that the flexibility of micro air vehicles wings can be tailored in unique ways to produce significant benefits in aerodynamic performance (better lift vs. drag to reduce the power for flight). The overall goal of this Capstone Design project is to design, build, and test a membrane/frame type MAV wing, with distinct voltage applied to individual wing membrane "cells" that are made from dielectric elastomer in order to actively control the stiffness distribution of the wing. The project also includes computational fluid-structure interaction (FSI) modeling to predit aerodynamic performance (modeling tools provided by Malik) and wind tunnel testing in the new UTD wind tunnel. Project objectives include designing a device to uniformly pre-strain the dielectric elastomer membrane, calibration of the membrane strain vs. voltage behavior, implementation of a wireless voltage control system (with high-voltage source) to apply distinct voltage to each wing membrane cell to achieve specific wing flexibilty configurations, fabrication of some membrane/frame wings, comparison of FSI model aerodynamic predictions for the wings with wind tunnel experiments.
The Mavhawk software was built as a control system to carry out our research. It is a fully-packaged software application, which includes a web app for client-side UI, GPIO control logic for collecting data and controlling inputs.
This will download the Mavhawk application.
git clone https://github.com/michaeldannunzio/mavhawk.git
cd mavhawkThe following will download and set up the applications dependencies and environment.
setup_deps.py will install OpenCV 4.0 and configure it for Python. It will also install the application's other dependencies such as npm and flask.
When setting up your environment, the setup_env.py script will modify your operating systems networking abilities. It will turn your machine into a standalone network, which can be connected to via WiFi. The network's name is Mavhawk and the password is mavhawk. This is done in order to create an isolated environment to avoid network security issues and to keep intruders from affecting your research.
python scripts/setup_deps.py # NOTE: This will restart your Raspberry Pi
python scripts/setup_env.py # Navigate back to mavhawk directory firstThis application assumes you possess "" potentiometer and "" relay.
The number of potentiometers and relays you have can be configured in the source code. Assuming you have a single relay and three potentiometers, you can run the application as follows.
python main.pyTo shutdown the Mavhawk application, there is a run icon button located at the top righthand side of the dashboard. When it is clicked, the application will shutdown and your Raspberry Pi will shutdown with it.
NOTE: The application is not fully functional. There are components of the dashboard without implemented functionality.
Copyright 2019 Michael D'Annunzio
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