Aarti Phatke
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Kimberlee Kearfott
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: NERS/BME / Engineering
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Oral5
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: Breakout Room 6
Authors: Aarti Phatke, Marlee E Trager, Kimberlee J Kearfott
Presenter: 2
Abstract
For hundreds of radioactive sites around the world, regular radiation monitoring is crucial for maintaining control of materials, reducing radiation doses, creating accurate records, and conducting experiments. In addition, the cleanup of large areas of land that have been contaminated with radioactive materials requires extensive pre- and post-mitigation radiation surveys. Safety and efficiency considerations sometimes dictate that unmanned surveillance is preferable. Because they are not limited to travel on existing roads and may view surfaces in a line-of-site fashion avoiding interference from natural features and built structures, aerial platforms for radiation detectors would be most useful. A team of students is thus designing an Intelligent Radiation Awareness Drone (iRAD) with a radiation detector as its payload. This presentation is focused on the electrical harness and power distribution system for the drone. The power budget is first constructed by analyzing the allocation of available electrical power based on the sensors, motors, and digital radiation detector proposed for the drone. Considering both power requirements and the drone’s wiring schematic, the power module on the drone’s power management board (PMB) can be programmed using PX4 software (C++ based) and QGroundControl. Final results for this study will include statistics on the efficiency of the power distribution estimated with the average power consumption of each component and the drone’s average fight time. Actual data concerning performance will be obtained through trial runs with the drone.
Engineering, Interdisciplinary
