Disaster Management UAV

An autonomous drone that finds people when GPS gives up · All India Rank 7, Aerothon 2024

BMSCE · SAE Aerothon 2024 · Team Dronuts · All India Rank 7 of 100

Disasters take the cell towers and the GPS with them. The useful drone is the one that still flies after that. We built a UAV for the case where the sky is not helping: cover the zone, find people, do not trust a lock you just lost. Team name: Dronuts. (yes.)

I did onboard YOLOv8 detection and the path-planning work. A pretty route that assumed a GPS fix is a route to the ground. The mission on paper is climb, cruise, a maze, a hover, and home. Hover looks easy until the airframe is the thing you have to get back.

Mission plan with climb, cruise, hover, descend
Climb, cruise, maze, hover, home.
UAV engineering drawing and specifications
1.8 kg, 14 minutes, Pi 4.
Finite element stress plot of the UAV frame
Stress on the frame. The simulation was optimistic.

All India Rank 7 of 100 at Aerothon. In an ML class a wrong prediction costs a metric. On a UAV it costs the UAV. You learn to test. Roughly one hard landing in.