From package delivery to disaster relief to aerial photography, quadcopter applications have significantly expanded in recent years. The Joint Engineering Mechatronics Program is interested in developing quadcopter controls research opportunities at UNCA. Quadcopter testing, however, can be expensive and dangerous. Flying any quadcopter carries risks of crashing and damaging the quadcopter and its surroundings. Therefore, there is a need for a safe testing environment (test bed) that will confine the quadcopter, while still letting it rotate freely in all directions. The testing must produce the same results once the quadcopter is removed from the test bed and flown outside. The Quadcopter Crash Prevention Restraint (Q-CPR) project involved designing and fabricating a test bed for variety of small quadcopters used for research purposes. The Q-CPR allows rotation around each of the principal axes, known as the roll, pitch, and yaw directions. It also allows vertical motion. This device will allow the new research program to safely test control algorithms and expand educational options for engineering students.
Two degree of freedom testbeds are an important tool for understanding and testing control algorithms for dynamic vehicles such as helicopters. The UNCA Joint Engineering Mechatronics Program is developing a low cost option for testing attitude control algorithms for a two degree of freedom helicopter system. This test bench tracks rotation in both pitch and yaw directions allowing for the testing of control algorithms in a safe, crash free environment. This device will allow students to rapidly test and develop control algorithms in future projects, and increase educational opportunities in the engineering program.
Mel Chin, a renowned artist and Black Mountain College Legacy Fellow at UNC Asheville, first introduced WAKE, specifically the Jenny Lind figurehead project, in August 2017. From this, an interdisciplinary group of UNC Asheville engineering students, art students, and faculty came together to produce Mel's vision. The challenge? To design and recreate the Jenny Lind figurehead featured on the clipper ship, "Nightingale". Jenny Lind will find her first home in Times Square after being designed and constructed at UNC Asheville's STEAM Studio. Standing 16 feet tall and 21 feet long, she leans at a 49 degree angle and watches the activity above her. The figurehead features lifelike head and breathing movements that capture the emotion of someone who is saddened or distressed. These movements are meant to instill uneasiness in the viewer, prompting them to question what she might be viewing. This talk will describe the design and construction challenges faced in bring Jenny to life.