DESIGN AND REALIZATION OF A SEMI-AUTOMATIC UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE SANITIZATION DEVICE

ABSTRACT

UAV is defined as an aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expandable or recoverable, and can carry a lethal or nonlethal payload. It is controlled either autonomously by on-board computers or by remote control of a pilot on the ground. Its usage is currently limited by difficulties such as satellite communication and cost. A Drone has been built that can be operated by radio frequency controller and send live audio-visual feedback. The developed Drone control system has been simulated in MATLAB/Simulink. The simulation shows a very stable operation and control of the developed Drone. Microcontroller based drone control system has also been developed where a RF transmitter and receiver operating in the frequency of 2.4 GHz are used for remote operation for the Drone. Earlier, Drones were deployed for military applications such as spying on both domestic and international threats. The developed drone in this work can be used for a number of applications, such as insecticide spraying and firefighting. In addition, using Android mobile device incorporation with GPS has been used for live position tracking of Drone and real time audio-visual feedback from Drone.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), more properly known as Drone is a flying robot that can be remotely controlled or fly autonomously using software-controlled flight plans in its embedded systems, that work in conjunction with onboard sensors and a global positioning system (GPS). UAVs were most often associated with the military.

Basically, drone is a flying robot. Working in combination with GPS, the flying machine may be remotely controlled or can fly autonomously by software controlled flight plans in their embedded systems. Drones are most often used in military services. However, it is also used for weather monitoring, firefighting, search and rescue, surveillance and traffic monitoring etc. In recent years, drones have come into attention for a number of commercial uses. In late 2013, Amazon announced a plan to use unmanned aerial vehicles for delivery in the nearby areas future. It is known as Amazon Prime Air, it is estimated to deliver the orders within 30 minutes inside 10 miles of distance. So it is clear that domestic usage of UAV has vast future possibility in different fields rather than military usage. Drones for military use were started in the mid-1990s with the High-Altitude Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator (HAE UAV ACTD) program managed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office (DARO). This ACTD placed the base for the improvement of the Global Hawk. The Global Hawk hovers at heights up to 65,000 feet and flying duration is up to 35 hours at speeds approaching 340 knots and it costs approximately 200 million dollars. The wingspan is 116 feet and it can fly 13.8094 miles which is significant distance. Motherland security and drug prohibition are the main needs Global Hawk was designed for. Another very successful drone is the Predator which was also built in the mid-1990s but has since been improved with Hellfire missiles. “Named by Smithsonian’s Air & Space magazine as one of the top ten aircraft that changed the world, Predator is the most combat-proven Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) in the world”. The original version of the Predator, built by General Atomics, can fly at 25,000 feet for 40 hours at a maximum airspeed of 120.

Insecticide sprayer

Insecticides are chemicals used to control insects by killing them or preventing them from engaging in undesirable or destructive behaviors. They are classified based on their structure and mode of action. Many insecticides act upon the insect’s nervous system (e.g., cholinesterase inhibition), while others act as growth regulators or endotoxins.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin culex meaning “gnat”). The word “mosquito” (formed by mosca and diminutive -ito) is Spanish and Portuguese for “little fly”. Mosquitoes have a slender segmented body, one pair of wings, one pair of halteres, three pairs of long hair-like legs, and elongated mouthparts.

Cockroaches

The cockroaches are an ancient group, with ancestors originating during the Carboniferous period, some 300-350 million years ago. Those early ancestors, however, lacked the internal ovipositors of modern roaches. Cockroaches are somewhat generalized insects lacking special adaptations (such as the sucking mouthparts of aphids and other true bugs); they have chewing mouthparts and are likely among the most primitive of living Neopteran insects.

Problem Statement

Recently, diseases caused by insecticides have been posing a great threat to humans. These diseases caused mostly by insects mainly affect the world’s poorest people examples malaria caused by mosquitoes among others. These diseases persist under conditions of poor environments and are concentrated in the developing world.  On 1^st January, 2016, the United Nation adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Among these goals was “Good health and wellbeing” at number 3 with the objective to end epidemics of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) example malaria. In recent discussions on how to end these diseases, a great challenge faced has been on how people (mostly rural dwellers) still disregard these diseases despite its negative effects. By the start of the post-colonial era to date, the world has observed a tremendous increase in the number of recorded cases of malaria attributable to unsafe water, poor housing condition, and poor sanitation. Children are the most vulnerable to these diseases, which kill, impair, or permanently disable millions of people every year, often resulting in life-long physical pain. These diseases are a great threat to humans and have caused great damages to individuals in the developing world. Damages caused by these diseases have been observed in the educational sector, agricultural sector, and number of death rate.

Research questions

• Can insecticides be completely eradicated from our environment? If yes, how?

• Is there any means/possibilities through which we can mitigate the high death rates in Africa caused by insecticides.

Objective

The aim of this project is to design and realize a semi-automatic unmanned aerial vehicle sanitization device.

Specific Objectives

The following were the objectives of this project.

• To remodel a drone system for aerial vehicle sanitization
• To realize the system by bringing all components together
• Carryout performance evaluation.