Maple Seeds

1
Maple Seeds

• Concept Generation
• Group Members
• Clinton Bencsik
• Mark Brosche
• Chris Kulinka
• Chris Redcay

2
Introduction

• Customer Harris Corporation
• Project Maple Seed-Inspired Sensor array
• U.S. Military use
• Probably in desert environments
• Very open-ended design specifications
• Today
• Existing products and ideas
• Critical Assumptions
• Our Concepts
• Final design choice

3
Problem

• Create a sensor housing which incorporates
  auto-rotating flight
• Sensors will be dropped from an altitude via
  aircraft
• Purpose
• Detect disturbances caused by human or vehicle
  movement
• Relay information to centralized computer

4
Priority of Sub-problems
Sub-Problems Rank
Flight Characteristics 1
Transmitting 5
Sensing 4
Power 3
Durability 2
5
Customer Requirements
ENGINEERING REQ. ENGINEERING REQ. ENGINEERING REQ. ENGINEERING REQ. ENGINEERING REQ. ENGINEERING REQ.
  TotalMass MaterialFractureStrength Young's Modulus MaterialMachinability/Formability Cost TerminalFreefallVelocity
CUSTOMERREQ Fall slowly X         X
CUSTOMERREQ Survive fall   X X      
CUSTOMERREQ Hold sensors       X    
CUSTOMERREQ Retain shape after impact   X X     X
CUSTOMERREQ Retain function after impact   X X     X
CUSTOMERREQ No moving parts           X
CUSTOMERREQ Auto-rotates like maple seed X         X
CUSTOMERREQ Cost per Seed 1500-2500 X X X X X  
               
  2 37.9 0.8 High 1,250 2.5
Units kg Mpa Gpa   Dollars m/s
ENGINEERING TARGETS ENGINEERING TARGETS ENGINEERING TARGETS ENGINEERING TARGETS ENGINEERING TARGETS ENGINEERING TARGETS

6
Existing Products

• Lockheed Martin (NAV)
• 1.7 million in Nano Air Vehicle Program
• Program was quietly canceled

• Maple Seed Copter Toy
• Uses the principles of maple seed flight

7
Critical Assumptions

• Solar powered
• Energy storage
• Auto-rotating flight
• No moving parts
• Sense human / vehicle presence
• Triangulate disturbance
• Networking wireless transmission capabilities

8
Sensor Concepts

• Customer suggestions
• Infrared sensors
• Seismic sensors
• Other options
• Microphone sensors
• Using sound waves through air ground
• Accelerometers
• Used to detect vibration
• Motion sensors

9
Flight Concepts _

• Maple seed (auto-rotating)
• Single wing
• Double wing
• Increased wing area
• Increased cargo space
• Lightweight
• Increases flight time
• Narrows material selection

10
Flight Concepts
11
Concept Screening Matrix
Screening Matrix
12
Final Design Choice

• Flight
• Auto-rotating single wing sensor housing
• Sensing Method
• Combination microphone and IR sensor
• Material Selection
• SDM housing with possible carbon fiber wing
• Power
• Solar power with either a charged battery or
  capacitor
• Transmission
• Wi-fi data transmission

13
Conclusion

• Used Customer needs to determine problems and
  sub-problems
• Sorted sub-problems by importance and compared
  them to our concepts to determine final design

14
Future Plans

• Build prototypes for flight tests
• Find proper ratio of weight to wing span
• Test microphones for disturbance sensitivity
• Design a basic circuit for amplifying disturbance
  signal
• Test battery vs. capacitor
• Which will work better in extreme environment
  conditions
• Find maximum achievable power using mini solar
  panels over small surface area
• THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!