无人机整机
无人机配件
无人机服务
设备与工具
The above image... zoomed in with as-flown flight path overlaid. .
An example shot from approx. 200 m Above Ground Level (AGL) produces approximately 10 cm/pixel ground resolution - this is routine.
Oblique photos taken during LOITER around this site.
For these images, the UAV was pointed into the prevailing 20 mph head wind and allowed to 'station' itself over a fixed point on the ground. It can do this with or without the motor operating.
A quick inspection of the chase vehicle... and pilots on the ground.
The following is a description of the North American Robotics UAV/UAS equipment you can receive.
The Smart-Pod Mission Pod. This is the core component upon which we build the UAV and the UAS. This rugged pod houses the autopilot, avionics, sensors, and camera. We have intentionally test-crashed this from over 100 ft altitudes crashing at 30 mph and destroyed aircraft, but protected all internal instruments.
The Prairie Hawk and Prairie Hawk Pro UAVs. These start as commercial R/C powered gliders, but become work-horse UAVs after some ruggedizing and the attachment of the Smart-Pod with the avionics. The Smart-Pod stabilizes the aircraft making it extremely easy to launch, fly, and recover - often with no more pilot control than speed and steering.
The Ground Control Station can be any of a variety of notebook PCs, brought to the field in a ruggedized Pelican case. The GCS communicates with the UAV through the [XBee or non-XBee brand] 900 MHz transceivers. All flight data is thus recorded on the GCS using the Mission Planner. The Mission Planner is software running on the GCS. Inside the Mission Planner the UAV pilot can see a satellite map or drawing of the area they plan to fly. They plan a mission by placing Way Points on the map and assigning step by step actions to execute (such as 'loiter' around in a fixed diameter circle at a fixed height for a fixed period of time) typically ending with Return to Launch place.
The Transmitter we prefer is the Spektrum DX7s or DX8. This is the over-riding control between the UAV Pilot and the GCS/UAV. The switches on the Transmitter will be pre-programmed, and allow the UAV Pilot to switch between Flight Modes. With the flipping of a switch the UAV Pilot can make the UAV loiter or simply fly in a circle above his or her head (taking pictures). With the flipping of another switch, the UAV will come home from wherever it is, and with the switching of another switch the UAV will execute a pre-planned mission, much like turning on a cruise control on a car. When the pre-planned mission is complete, the UAV returns home, where the UAV Pilot can bring it in for landing.
The Smart-Pod makes the UAV much much easier to land than a normal R/C plane. Most of our landings are "hands-off" with the autopilot stabilizing the UAV, all the propeller power offin a full glide, and the pilot only responsible to steer left and right. The Smart-Pod provides a firm strong surface on which to land and protects the UAV from all but the most poorly executed landings. We configure our UAVs to land themselves if a failsafe is triggered.
We have done the work in configuring and tuning the aircraft, but each UAV Pilot must still accept responsibility for all of their aircraft's actions. The FAA also recommends flying UAVs in pairs with a Pilot and Co-Pilot both in control of the UAV.
Links to many more videos and images will be available very shortly on the updated North American Robotics website.
A few final images -
The 3" Jacket Patches for the UAV Air Corps will look something like these, and the 1" cast metal Pilots' "wings" will look something like this.
but be prepared - the wings will not be for sale, those, you have to earn. Step up! - you can do this, and count on us to help.
The vintage style recruiting posters will look something like these ---
or
--------------------------------------------- NAR ----------------------------------------------
We at North American Robotics are impressed by KICKSTARTER, but like the best projects, we haven’t expected to rely solely upon them. Before any KICKSTARTER funding was sought, we gathered together an excellent team of engineers, completed all the initial investigations and prototyping, and overcame the technical challenges. This substantially reduced the associated risks of a new project. We now face only anticipated larger scale production challenges. Support from KICKSTARTER would do two important things we would appreciate –
• it would speed up our launch of a fleet of affordable UAVs, and
• it would recruit the first generation of our customers - pilots, mission planners, and ground crew – the North American UAV Air Corps™.
Early supporters are typically the breed who wants to be involved with the development of a new product or service. They see the potential, and understand the benefits of being part of the leading team. We want this. Our business model includes them and has a plan for building an infrastructure around them, resulting in a continent-wide network of UAV training and support “bases” from which to offer UAV-based services to the public.
What we have to offer KICKSTARTER supporters is our UAVs at our lower cost-recovery pricing. This covers the costs of materials, putting the components together, and configuring it so that the customer gets a fully-configured, tested UAV. We include some operating costs to cover important legal aspects such as liability insurance, marketing, and after sale support.
TECHNICAL CHALLENGES – no significant ones left
We have already constructed a half dozen prototypes and flown over one hundred sorties (now 130) in the wide variety of weather conditions that only the upper Midwest can provide. We have flown in heat (>100F), in cold (<0F), in wind (>25 mph), and in [light] fog and drizzling rain. Our mission pod-based UAV system and component design has proven tolerant of all of these.
NAR is a participant and strong supporter of community-based “open-source” hardware and software development. But, adoption and promotion of open-source products requires acceptance of their familiar shortcomings: sparse or out-of-date documentation and limited product testing. As part of all our initial investigations, NAR has drafted new detailed documentation for each UAV/UAS component, and tailored step-by-step instructions for setting up, operating, and maintaining its models of UAVs. At this current stage, a very capable and predictable UAS system and configuration has been defined and has been demonstrated reliable enough to deploy for many applications.
PRODUCTION CHALLENGES – tooling up for mass production and final integration of components on large scale.
This is where KICKSTARTER supporters can participate with pledges.
*We’ve made sure we have secured more than one vendor for each of the major components in the UAS - except for the specialized EVA mission pod itself.
All our Smart-Pod prototypes have been semi-hand-fabricated using jigs and templates with standard small machine shop tools. Their dimensions are accurate, but the finish is typical of a prototype and fabrication rate is low as well. The costs per unit are disproportionately high because of the lack of assembly-line mass production and reliance on human activity.
*Our preferred fabrication technique for this application is CNC machining with key hardened parts made by complementary 3D printing. CNC machining provides design flexibility so that we can introduce modifications to the Smart-Pods reflecting changes in the host aircraft. It allows us to offer custom tailored Smart-Pods for the customer’s choice of cameras and other instruments, and customer-selected alternative aircraft. All tooling can be completed here in the USA/Midwest area in a matter of about 12 weeks including additional 3-D CAD design work, experimental machining (flexible EVA foam has some quirks as far as machining is concerned), design and fabrication of jigs to secure the parts during manufacturing.
*Along with the tooling up, the remainder of production will be accumulating the commercial parts in needed numbers and ruggedizing them, followed by the final construction and verification testing of each deliverable Smart-Pods, UAVs, and UASs.
SPECIFICATIONS for NAR™ QF-150 Prairie Hawk™ and Prairie Hawk Pro™ Fixed-Wing miniature UAV
Length - 44.7 in (1137 mm)
Wing Span - 78.7 in (2000 mm)
Weight (XL typical mission load) – 1500 g (nominal)
Construction Material (mission pod) – EVA foam
Speed (cruise) – 20 mph
Mission Duration - 20-90 minutes (1300 - 2600 mAh x 11.1VDC 3S Li-Po)
Typical Range - all prototype flights completed within approx 1 km, but range of Tx/Rx is substantially greater
R/C Transmitter/Receiver (Tx/Rx) - Spektrum™ DX7s/AR600
Optics - GoPro™ Hero 2/3 with RageCams™ 2.2 mm or 8 mm lens.
Autopilot - ArduPilot Mega 1.4 or 2.5 with modifications from Purple Crayon Labs™
Mission Control Station - Ardu Mission Planner 1.2 with modifications – Purple Crayon Labs™ (PCL is the software engineering group of NAR)
Mission Control Computer – common MS Windows 7/PC supplied by customer, or supplied and fully configured by NAR™ at additional cost
First Person View (FPV) camera and display – near-future option
Introducing the NORTH AMERICAN ROBOTICS DEVELOPMENT TEAM
The launch of North American Robotics (NAR) is a culmination of years of development in several key related support fields of robotics, sensors, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and software and systems engineering. Our signature is to blend being clever with just being plain old practical. We place the business operations and sales in the hands of someone who has launch over a dozen successful businesses in the past 25 years, and who provides specialized market analysis and sales planning to match the experience of the technical development.
DR. MICHAEL VOGT, systems research engineer for the US DOE and DoD
Dr. Michael C. Vogt, is a Senior Scientist and veteran principal investigator (PI) formerly of the U.S. Department Of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). In over 25 years of research for the DOE/DoD, he has made advances in artificial intelligence, computer modeling of complex systems, and intelligent emergency response systems and industrial supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) utilizing robots and remotely sensed imagery. Vogt is the principal inventor on 6 U.S. patents and has won the international R&D Magazine R&D100 Award for technological innovation and research excellence with the Smart Sensor Developers Kit. He has served as PI on many successful SBIR Phase I and Phase II projects.
Educational Background
Ph.D. Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, IL
M.S. Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, IL
B.S. Engineering Physics, Bemidji State University, MN
Member of the following professional organizations:
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI)
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
• International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
MR. MARK VOGT, mechanical/aeronautical engineer and commercial software developer
Mark Vogt is also an alumna of DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) in Chicago, IL where he served as a mechanical and systems engineer for the Advanced Photon Source (APS) – the world’s most intense x-ray source. Mark has been involved in IT consulting for over 25 years, and served as project manager, solution architect, data architect and lead developer on more than 60 local, regional and world-wide enterprise portal deployments. He is a recognized expert regarding knowledge management best practices. Mark spent over 3 years as a College Physics Professor in the U.S. Peace Corps.
Educational Background
M.S. Computer Science (AI & Vision Systems) - Illinois Institute of Technology
M.S. Mechanical Engineering (Robotic Vision Systems) University of Minnesota Institute of Technology [ABT]
B.S. Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics – University of Minnesota Institute of Technology
Member of the following professional organizations:
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
• International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
• Microsoft MSDN Certified Developer
• Microsoft SharePoint Specialist
• Member, Project Management Institute (PMI)
MS. PORTIA BUNKER
With a 25 year career in small business and corporate finance, Portia Bunker has launched and served as CEO for several successful companies building assets and revenues to nearly $15M. Her specialty is facilitating growth by improving operations and introducing effective marketing. She has broad complementary executive management, accounting, sales, business development and corporate financial and banking experience.
Educational Background
B.A. Communications and Business, Augsburg College, MN
Member of the following professional organizations:
• Designated as a Registered Tax Return Preparer (RTRP) by the IRS
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