Uppaluru, Harshvardhan (University of Arizona), Rastgoftar, Hossein (University of Arizona), El Asslouj, Aymane (University of Arizona), Ghufran, Mohammad (University of Arizona)

Drones Practicing Mechanics

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "UAS Applications II" (WeB5), Wednesday, June 7, 2023, 16:20−16:40, Room 466

2023 International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS), June 6-9, 2023, Lazarski University, Warsaw, Poland

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 19, 2024

Abstract

Mechanics of materials is a traditional engineering course that exposes undergraduate students in a variety of engineering fields to the principles of strain and stress analysis. However, material deformation and strain have been evaluated theoretically, numerically, and empirically tested using expensive machinery and instruments. This article describes a novel method for analyzing strain and deformation using quadrotors. We propose to treat quadrotors as a finite number of particles of a deformable body and apply the principles of continuum mechanics to illustrate the concept of axial and shear deformation in $2$-D and $3$-D motion spaces. The outcome from this work has the potential to significantly impact undergraduate education by bridging the gap between classroom instruction and hardware implementation and experiments using quadrotors. Therefore, we introduce a new role for quadrotors as "teachers," which provides an excellent opportunity to practice theoretical concepts of mechanics in a productive way.