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CUAir, Cornell University Unmanned Air Systems, is an undergraduate student team continuing to push the boundaries of innovation in unmanned aerial systems (UAS). This year, the team aims to further develop some of our mission critical systems to solve real problems facing UAV industry. Some of our primary focus points are developing the Sense, Detect and Avoid capabilities of the aircraft so that it can autonomously avoid obstacles in flight, remodeling our ground station for increased capabilities in flight line operation, rebuilding our antenna tracker system for high speed communication with the UAS, and several new systems and updates for our 2017 system as well as the frame for our 2018 system. Additionally, the team hopes to further the learning experience for its members by enabling more members to travel to competition. Check out our website, YouTube channel, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages!
CUAir is an interdisciplinary project team of over 50 students working to design, build, and test an unmanned aerial system capable of fully autonomous flight (from takeoff to landing), target recognition, and payload delivery. Some of the team’s research topics include airframe design and manufacture, propulsion systems, wireless communication, image processing, target recognition, and autopilot control systems.
The team focuses on teaching its engineers through experiential learning, building beyond what they are taught in classes. Members learn by working hands-on with real-world systems to solve real-world problems. Students work together to build a world class UAS, from obtaining their own funding to building a complete system of sensors, servers, and actuators.
Theseus - CUAir's 2016 unmanned aerial system. Using knowledge from all fields, CUAir’s members manufactured a custom airframe with modular and easily transportable parts, a robust power system, a fully modular and tested distributed vision system, an autopilot, and a custom ground station. In over 100 test flights, CUAir emphasized testing and reliability within the modular framework to ensure that each piece of the system was safe and reliable. With support from this year's crowdfunding, CUAir will be able to fully iterate on the Theseus design and branch further into UAS design and manufacture.
We Give Students An Incomparable Learning Experience - CUAir provides hands-on experience building a production-quality autonomous aerial vehicle. The techniques and skills learned on the team are not obtainable through coursework alone. Students learn skills like interdisciplinary development, financial management, leadership, and more.
We are Pushing the Boundaries in Unmanned Air Systems - Our team is constantly innovating and developing unmanned systems to make them safer, more reliable, and easier to use. This helps expand their uses further to help their applications in search and rescue missions, farming, mapping/geophysical surveys, pollution control & air sampling, and delivery services.
We Give Students Increased Employment Opportunities - CUAir members have experience and a skill set that many of their peers do not. Employers value this knowledge and actively recruit CUAir members. CUAir gives students the exposure and experience to pursue careers in aerospace, robotics, embedded systems, and software engineering.
We Are Active In The Engineering Community and Beyond - Throughout the year, the Business team hosts events to spread STEM awareness and to promote the team’s message. CUAir also attends events and collaborates with other organizations to maximize audience reach. In the past, CUAir has collaborated with other project teams to host workshops for young students, presented demonstrations at the Sciencenter, attended start-up and technology conferences, and presented on autonomous robotics at the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum. As a team, we are very involved with the Cornell community, the Ithaca community, and the engineering community. We have numerous team social events and community outreach events. We believe in a culture of engineering excellence, team friendship, and community support.
CUAir relies on the generous donations from donors like you. As a team of students constantly striving to develop the next generation of UASs capable of competing on a world-class level, we rely on the support of the community to aid and advance our endeavors. With your help, CUAir aims to push innovation higher than ever before.
To learn more about the team, please visit our website.
Help the team get basic lab equipment. These include glue, screws, and other items that are small but essential to our continued success.
Help the team get sensors necessary for autonomous flight; a Pitot tube, GPS, 3D compass. These sensors allow the autopilot system to get a sense of it's position, velocity, and orientation to make sure it can stay safe and on course.
Help the team get components necessary to build a hot wire foam cutter for wing manufacturing.
Help the team get enough aircraft-grade birch plywood to construct a new fuselage. The fuselage is cut from special 6 ply birch that is resilient enough to survive many controlled belly landings while holding our expensive on-board systems securely in place.
Help the team get the necessary components to print and assemble one fully populated custom Printed Circuit Board (PCB).
Help the team build their wings by contributing enough to build a full set of wings. Each set of wings takes between 2 to 4 weeks of work to cut, sand, lay-up, wire and monokote.
Help team get the necessary components to create a ground station. The ground station serves as the center of control at test flights for our team members to work out of. By helping us make our ground station, you are enabling the members of CUAir to work far more efficiently and professionally on our mission critical systems.