Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) hands-on lab is an activity carried out within the Area of Aerospace Engineering at UC3M intented to explore and understand RPAS (also refereed to as UAVs and/or Drones) via hands-on work in the laboratory. The goals pursued are threefold:

  • To acquire an understanding of RPAS and incorporate it in the courses taught in both the Bachelor in Aerospace Engineering and the Master in Aeronautical Engineering. Yet to provide UC3M students with hardware/software tools to conduct experimental work and carry out Bachelor and Master thesis.
  • To establish a collaboration with the RPAS industry, understanding their know-how transfer needs and facilitating the students the access to RPAS related practicum (and follow up junior careers in the industry).
  • To find out challenging problems and deepen into the state of the art, with the short-term goal of starting up a research line in the field, offering thus PhD thesis opportunities.

People

  • Academic Staff
    • Gonzalo Sánchez Arriega (Assistant Prof.)
    • Manuel Sanjurjo Rivo (Assistant Prof.)
    • Manuel Soler Arnedo (Assitant Prof.)
    • Xin Chen (Post Doctoral Fellow)
    • David Morante González (PhD Student)
  • Laboratory Staff
    • Carlos Cobos (Laboratory Technician)
  • Students
    • Sergio Escudero (Doing his Master’s Thesis in Aerospace Eng.)
  • Former Students
    • Álvaro Melgosa (Did his Bachelor’s Thesis in Aerospace Eng.)
    • Rubén Vega (Did his Bachelor’s Thesis in Aerospace Eng.)
    • Maite Arteta (Did her Bachelor’s Thesis in Aerospace Eng.)
    • Diego Provenzo (Did his Bachelor’s Thesis in Aerospace Eng.)

Hardware/Software Tools

      We have: a quadcopter with MTOW lower than 2 kg equipped with and Arduino APM board; Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) to build Primary Flight Displays based on Arduino adn Processing; Quadcopter 3D models to be printed in our 3D printer.
AeroUC3M Lab Quadcopter

AeroUC3M Lab Quadcopter

AeroUC3M Lab Quadcopter

Arduino Based Primary Flight Display

Arduino Based Primary Flight Display

Arduino Based Primary Flight Display

Arduino Based Primary Flight Display

Arduino Based Primary Flight Display

 

Related to Graduate and Undergraduate Courses

  • Aerospace Autonomous Systems. Master in Aeronautical Engineering. UC3M.
    • We are preparing a compendium of lecture notes (expected Sept. 2016)
    • You Tube Channel with videos on how to ensamble a quadcopter!

Bachelor Thesis

  • UAV Planning, Autonomous tracking, and obstacle indentification and avoidance. Álvaro Melgosa. Final Bachelor Thesis in Aerospace Engineering. UC3M. Oct. 2016 (10). Supervisors: Xin Chen and Manuel Soler.
  • Preliminary design of an unmanned aerial vehicle with application to photovoltaic farm inspection. Román Esteban Hofer. Final Bachelor Thesis in Aerospace Engineering. UC3M. Feb. 2015 (7.6). Supervisor: Manuel Soler.
  • Assembly,  modeling, simulation, and control of a quadcopter for application to solar farm inspection. Maite Arteta. Final Bachelor Thesis in Aerospace Engineering. UC3M. Oct. 2015 (9.5). Supervisors: David Morante and Manuel Soler.
  • Search and rescue path planning for UAS applications. Diego Provenzo. Final Bachelor Thesis in Aerospace Engineering. UC3M. Oct. 2015 (10). Supervisor: Manuel Soler.

Relations with the Industry

Currently, AeroUC3M RPAS Hands-on Lab has established a link with Centum Solutions, offering praticums in their facilities.