Lesson 3 40 mins 

INTRODUCTION TO DRONES (5 mins) 

The term UAV is an abbreviation of U​nmanned A​erial V​ehicle, meaning aerial vehicles which operate without a human pilot. UAVs are commonly used in both the military and police forces in situations where the risk of sending a human piloted aircraft is unacceptable, or the situation makes using a manned aircraft impractical. 

HISTORY OF DRONES (5 mins) 

Give a brief history to explain about how drones have evolved to reach the current level.

The earliest recorded use of a UAV is August 22, 1849, when the Austrians attacked Venice using unmanned balloons loaded with explosives. 

TYPES OF DRONES (15 mins) 

Ask the students different types of drones they know about. They can list them down themselves Explain different types of drones based on size, capacity, build. This should widen the thinking of the students as different types of drones can be built based on the requirement.

Fixed wing structure 

Fixed wing drones as the name suggests have two fixed wings along the lateral axis of the aircraft. Fixed wing UAVs consists of a rigid wing that has a predetermined shape (airfoil) which make flight capable by generating lift caused by the UAVs’ forward airspeed. This airspeed is generated by forward thrust usually by means of a propeller (Explained in later modules) being turned by an internal combustion engine or electric motor. 

Control of the UAV comes from control surfaces built into the wing itself, these traditionally consist of ailerons an elevator and a rudder. They allow the UAV to freely rotate around three axes that are perpendicular to each other and intersect at the UAVs’ center of gravity. 

Advantages:

● It consists of a much simpler structure in comparison to a rotary wing. The simpler structure provides a less complicated maintenance and repair process thus allowing the user more operational time at a lower cost. 

Disadvantages: 

● The only disadvantages to a fixed wing solution is the need for a runway or launcher for takeoff and landing however VTOL (vertical take off/landing) and STOL (short take off/landing) solutions are very popular to help eradicate this issue. 

● Also fixed wing aircraft require air moving over their wings to generate lift, they must stay in a constant forward motion, which means they can’t stay stationary the same way a rotary wing UAV can. This means fixed wing solutions are not best suited for stationary applications like inspection work. 

Lighter than air 

Aircrafts such as balloons and blimps are designed such that when filled with a gas lighter than air (Eg. hot air , Helium, Hydrogen) displaces the atmospheric air apart and floats in the air like a wooden plank floats in water. The difference in density of gas inside and outside the aircraft creates the lift in these aircrafts. 

Rotary wing aircraft 

Rotor blades work exactly the same way as a fixed wing, however constant aircraft forward movement is not needed to produce airflow over the blades, instead the blades themselves are in constant movement which produce the required airflow over their airfoil to generate lift. 

Multi Rotor are further sub classified based on number of rotors: 

● Quadcopter – 4 Rotors 

● Hexacopter – 6 Rotors 

● Octocopter – 8 Rotors 

● Deca-copter – 10 Rotors 

● Do-Deca-copter – 12 Rotors 

Advantages: 

● The biggest advantage of rotary UAVs is that they can take off and land vertically. This allows the user to operate with in a smaller vicinity with no requirement of landing/take off area. 

● Their capacity to hover and perform agile manoeuvring makes rotary wing UAVs well suited to applications like inspections where precision manoeuvring for extended periods of time is required.

APPLICATIONS OF DRONES (5 mins) 

➔ Discuss with students and make it engaging. Gather some interesting applications from internet to talk about. 

FUTURE APPLICATIONS OF DRONES (10 mins) 

Motivate the students to think about different future applications. This should also motivate them to actually learn about drones rather than just build and fly.

➔ Widen the thinking of the students by discussing possible future applications ➔ Discuss about various projects involved in the curriculum using pluto blocks as examples if needed