RUAT Junior Glider Design Competition Version 1.5
Version Log Version Date Changes 1.4 Jan 14 1 st Public Version 1.5 Jan 16 Clarified Launch is from spring NOT winch Extended Intent to Compete Deadline to Jan 22 nd Scoring Fix Clarified Glider Dimensions
1. Introduction Each year over a hundred students compete internationally as part of Ryerson s Aerospace Design Teams. These teams design rockets, RC Aircrafts, UAVs and Picosatillites and are always looking for new members. The RUAT Aerospace Design Competition was proposed as a way to provide first and second year students with the hands-on experience they will need to excel on these teams. The competition is designed to reflect a real design competition that our student teams compete in, and furthermore reflect a typical small scale aerospace program. The mission will include a broad view of the design process from preliminary design review to post mission review. This year s competition will feature a glider design with an electronics payload. The glider will be launched from a height of ~1m on spring based system operated by one team member. The goal of the competition will be to see which glider flies the farthest. Before the flight, a pre-flight report must be submitted providing a theoretical value for flight distance. During the flight, the electronic payload will be used to determine an experimental distance. The true distance will be recorded by competition officials and used compared with each of these values recorded by the team. Points will be awarded for farthest flight as well as how close the determined values compare to the real value. The electronics payload must also collect and store altitude at a minimum frequency of 2 hz. This data must be provided as a graph in the PFR. As this is a learning experience, supplementary tutorials will be provided once per week taught by a previous year s captain of one of the Aerospace Design Teams. These tutorials will be focused of the practical aspects of glider and avionics design and will be used to guide teams through the design process. Each team will also be assigned an upper year or graduate mentor for individual assistance. 2. Reports and Presentations During the semester, the teams must preform three presentations and submit one brief report. The presentations will be a Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review, and Post-Flight Review. The report will be a pre-flight report to be submitted on competition day. Each presentation will be performed in front of a panel of judges. The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) is a technical review to ensure that the system under review can proceed into detailed design, and can meet the stated performance requirements within cost (program budget), schedule (program schedule), risk, and other system constraints. Essentially it will contain the broad stokes of what they wish to create. This will include ideas, concepts and some theoretical values. Materials for construction will not be given until after the PDR to ensure that the plans fit competition requirements, are feasible and are realistically achievable. This also ensure that teams are willing to put in the time and effort before money will be spent on materials for them. A PDR outline will be provided to each team which they are strongly encouraged to follow quite strictly. It will cover the following topics. An understanding of the mission requirements Allocation and derivation of system and subsystem requirements Definition of the concept of operations Overview of preliminary design that meets specified requirements Results of trade studies to support preliminary design
Preliminary budget The Critical Design Review shall contain the results of the testing and integration of each system. It s main purpose is to demonstrate the compliance of the design to the planed ideas from the PDR and ensure that the model is ready for testing. Changes are allowed ad encouraged in the design between the PDR and CDR as testing often reveals improvements that can be made. Initial Flight Distance Estimates should be presented at this time, but these will not be used for scoring purposes. Only the numbers presented in the pre-flight report will be taken as official estimates. As with the PDR, a presentation outline will be provided. The post flight review will be a brief presentation outlining the results of the flight. There will be a heavy focus on a failure analysis to show that team understand how they can improve their design in the future. An outline will be posted. 3. Scoring Detailed score sheets will be provided at a later time. Total Score PDR Presentation 10% CDR Presentation 15% Pre-Flight Report 5% PFR Presentation 10% Cost of Glider 5% Launch Ops 55% Launch Ops (Total of 55%) Distance (as percentage of farthest flight) 30% Experimental Distance Accuracy 5% Theoretical Distance Accuracy 5% Altitude Data Recording 10% Pre-flight Check 5% 4. Deliverable Dates Intent to Compete Jan. 22 nd 2018 PDR Presentation Feb. 19 th 2018 CDR Presentation March 26 th 2018 Pre-Flight Report March 31 st 2018 Launch Ops March 31 st 2018 PFR Presentation April 2 nd 2018
5. Mission Requirements All requirements must be fulfilled at competition day for the glider to be approved to fly. Req. Requirement # 1 The glider shall fit within a 75x75x75 cm dimentional box in launch configuration. 2 The glider shall not contain any methods of propulsion. 3 The glider shall record is altitude at a minimum frequency of 2 hz. 4 The glider shall be launched from a spring system created by competition officials. Teams will be provided with detailed schematics for interfacing purposes and to build their own if they wish to test launch. 5 The glider shall have a maximum mass of 1 kg. 6 The maximum cost of the glider including all electronics shall be $100. 7 Active control surfaces shall be permitted, but not particularly recommended. 8 Any leading-edge nose, front of wing, front of tail, etc) of the glider containing metal shall be shielded with at least 2 cm of foam for safety purposes. 9 The glider shall not contain any sharp edges. 10 All electronics shall be powered by a battery or capacitor (i.e. no really long power cables hanging from glider). 11 The glider shall store all flight data onboard using non-volatile storage. 12 The glider shall have an on/off switch with a visible power indicator. 13 All electronics shall be firmly mounted to the glider structure. 14 An theoretical estimate of the distance the glider will travel shall be submitted prior to launch. 15 The glider electronics shall determine the distance the glider actually travels. An X and Y distance is preferred but a single magnitude is acceptable. This may be done using a fully self-contained system in the glider, or with the help of ground stations, visual ground markers, beacons, etc. 16 All data shall be presented in SI units.
6. Concept of operations Launch will be from a height of 1m. Spring details and launch angle tbd. 7. Team Composition Teams shall be composed of a 2-4 members in first or second year. Students of any engineering discipline are encouraged to compete. Teams shall each be assigned an upper year (or graduate) mentor who is a member or almni of an aerospace design team. Teams will have the opportunity to meet with the mentor on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. The mentor is permitted to advise, give feedback and provide general suggestions, but should not design or validate more than a minimal portion of the glider. The expectation of the mentor is similar to that of a faculty or industry advisor for Design Teams. 8. Cost Based on our estimates, teams can likely create a simple glider that preforms acceptably and satisfies all requirements for ~$20. It is up to the teams find a design capable of doing so. If teams are absolutely stuck for designing a low-cost glider, they can talk to the competition coordinator for advice. In order to encourage everyone to participate, we do not want cost to be an issue, so please talk to us as early as possible about any issues. We do have limited funding to subsidize team a small amount of costs if absolutely need be.