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Tether System for Micro Aerial Vehicles
Rotary wing Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) suffer from limited flight time due to limitations in battery technology. The goal of this project is to develop a complete power over tether system for heavy lifting MAVs, including safety measures and ground station.
Rotary wing Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) suffer from limited flight time due to limitations in battery technology. Missions that require long endurance are challenging and often require multiple landings for battery exchange. In missions that require long flight time in local areas such as detailed close visual inspection, surface scanning, cleaning or spray painting, providing power over tether can solve the limited endurance problem of MAVs. However, there are many challenges to enable reliable power over tether.
The goal of this project is to develop a complete power over tether system for heavy lifting MAVs, including safety measures and ground station.
This thesis will be a joint project between ASL and Voliro (www.voliro.ch), an ETH-spin off developing the next generation of drones for aerial inspection and manipulation.
Batteries are a huge limiting factor when it comes to the usage of MAVs. Within this project, the student will develop a complete tether system to deliver power to MAVs. The tether system will comprise:
- Ground power station
- Tether winding and unwinding mechanism integrated in the ground station
- Mechanism to avoid that the tether accidentally gets into the spinning propellers
- Onboard backup battery to enable safe landing in case of a power outage.
Given the large amount of power needed, typically high voltage tether is used to reduce the amount of current in the tether, enabling the use of lighter cables.
Rotary wing Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) suffer from limited flight time due to limitations in battery technology. Missions that require long endurance are challenging and often require multiple landings for battery exchange. In missions that require long flight time in local areas such as detailed close visual inspection, surface scanning, cleaning or spray painting, providing power over tether can solve the limited endurance problem of MAVs. However, there are many challenges to enable reliable power over tether.
The goal of this project is to develop a complete power over tether system for heavy lifting MAVs, including safety measures and ground station.
This thesis will be a joint project between ASL and Voliro (www.voliro.ch), an ETH-spin off developing the next generation of drones for aerial inspection and manipulation.
Batteries are a huge limiting factor when it comes to the usage of MAVs. Within this project, the student will develop a complete tether system to deliver power to MAVs. The tether system will comprise: - Ground power station - Tether winding and unwinding mechanism integrated in the ground station - Mechanism to avoid that the tether accidentally gets into the spinning propellers - Onboard backup battery to enable safe landing in case of a power outage.
Given the large amount of power needed, typically high voltage tether is used to reduce the amount of current in the tether, enabling the use of lighter cables.
- WP1: Requirements definition and literature review
- WP2: Electrical circuit design for the tether system
- WP3: Design of ground station tether winding and unwinding mechanism
- WP4: Implementation and testing
- WP5: Experimental evaluation
- WP1: Requirements definition and literature review - WP2: Electrical circuit design for the tether system - WP3: Design of ground station tether winding and unwinding mechanism - WP4: Implementation and testing - WP5: Experimental evaluation
Background in electrical engineering, ideally with hands on experience in power electronics, PCB design and assembly.
Background in electrical engineering, ideally with hands on experience in power electronics, PCB design and assembly.
Send CV and transcript to:
- mina.kamel@mavt.ethz.ch
- florian.braun@mavt.ethz.ch