ESUMS RWDC

5. Conclusion

 

This notebook provides extensive documentation regarding the team’s progression through the challenge, including team formation, systems design, mission planning, component selections, and development of the business case.  The UAV detailed here is a quadcopter with a lattice airframe and modular design to improve product lifespan and minimize waste.  It is powered by a Tattu LiPO battery and features four powerful and highly efficient 85 kV Tigermotors, Tiger Tri-Blade rotors, and a DJI Zenmuse XT thermal imaging camera and DJI Zenmuse X5 visual camera secured to the bottom of the airframe.  The UAS can perform a wide variety of tasks, including three missions required by the challenge and three additional missions defined by the team: delivering tools, detecting moisture content, taking weather and atmospheric readings, monitoring livestock, obtaining high-resolution footage for 3D imaging, and transporting field samples for analysis.

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The calculations in the business case section have produced the following objective function values:

 

Objective function = 0.6513

 

f1 = 0.9110

f2 = 0.6000

f3 = 0.8644

f4 = 0.7388

f5 = 0.1423

      

These values were obtained from a quantitative analysis of many proposed designs and missions but were determined to be the best representation of the merits of this product.  The team chose to develop three available missions in order to balance the optimization of the business case while still maintaining a reasonable product cost and system complexity.  The final value of the objective function is maximized based on the criteria and constraints specified in the RWDC Detailed Background document, as well as the additional constraints imposed by the team, such as sustainable use of materials and a long product life cycle.  While factors like environmental impact and consumer value are not included in the objective function, these are extremely important to the success of the proposed business model and the future of agricultural UAVs (Esty 2009).

 

This design best addresses the challenge as it meets all of the requirements and creates a compelling business case for an effective and technologically viable product.  The development of the UAV and component selections are structured within the FAA guidelines, RWDC constraints, and physical limitations of the technology.  The proposed cost of this system undercuts similar competitors by a significant margin, and the product provides far more versatility of function than other drones currently on the market.  This system is highly marketable, efficient, sustainable, durable, and addresses one of the most pressing problems currently facing the world.