Knight’s Intelligent Reconnaissance Copter - KIRC

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The Knights Intelligence Reconnaissance Copter project, unofficially sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), started as an idea to show the potential usefulness of an emerging networking protocol called DTN. Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) is a virtual networking protocol that excels in areas where communications networks are prone to delays and disruptions.  DTN is of particular interest to NASA for the potential for deep space missions where there are long distances and intermittent links between spacecraft. The project also aims to advance earth science missions by using unmanned aerial vehicles to image an area from the sky.  The project has the potential to be used for imagery in upcoming NASA missions such as the Pavilion Lake Research Project in Canada in the summer of 2014.

One of the important details in the project is that the team decided to create the quadcopter from scratch.  The reason behind making a custom built quadcopter versus buying a commercial off the shelf (COTS) quadcopter is that the custom control system can make a smooth transition into autonomous guidance easier.  With COTS items, many vendors will not make the software open source to the public.  This complicates the design of the guidance control algorithm significantly, and also makes the software less predictable. It is to be understood that autonomous guidance of the quadcopter is a reach goal of this project, the main goal of the project is to successfully build a custom quadcopter with a custom stability control system, uses DTN to communicate with a ground station laptop, and can image an area that a user specifies.

 

 

The Engineers

Nathaniel Cain is an Electrical Engineering senior at UCF.  Currently, he works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center through the pathways internship program. After graduation, he hopes to continue working for NASA long term. His primary interests include hands on projects with avionics and electrical systems.

 

James Donegan, an Electrical Engineering major enjoys spending his free time playing indoor and beach volleyball. He interns at a startup engineering firm called Unikey Technologies Inc. and works as an assistant for an independent patent attorney. He aspires to go to law school and become a patent attorney.

 

James Gregory is an Electrical Engineering major from Jacksonville, Fl.  James currently interns at Lockheed Martin through the college work experience program and recently accepted a full time position as an electrical engineering associate.

 

Wade Henderson, a Computer Engineering major, has interests in computers and electrical circuits. During his free time he likes to build electronic devices. Wade started an internship with Unikey Technologies Inc. last May and will pursue a career in firmware development.