Project SunrIde: The Implementation of Photovoltaic Cells on Aircraft Surfaces

Aviation is accountable for nearly 2% of carbon dioxide emissions and there has been a need for aircraft to be more environmentally sustainable . In the last decades, solar energy via photovoltaic panels is being used as an alternative energy source for humanity. Solar-powered airplanes have piqued the curiosity of the general public and the aviation industry due to their usage as an environmentally friendly alternative. 

• The research will be carried out into existing aircrafts that enable the successful implementation of PV cells on different surfaces (i.e. wings, fuselage).

• Research on current battery and photovoltaic cells technology for the selection of the most appropriate one. 

• Design of the aircraft using two different Computer Aided Design (Fusion360, OpenVSP Aero).

• Begin to carry out tests of the structure using Finite Element Analysis software (Fusion 360 / ANSYS) to determine if it is strong enough. Physical tests were also carried in the university's laboratory facility.

• Use the data collected to improve the design further, and make it stronger, lighter, or simpler to use. At this point, more features could be added to the design. 

• Proposed aircraft's aerodynamic performance was tested using different computer software (OpenVSP Aero Simulation and CFD)  to calculate carbon dioxide emissions based on fuel requirements.

• Produced a finalised version to demonstrate its functionality.  Cost and carbon dioxide emission savings were also analysed.

Project SunrIde: Modular Telemetry and Ground Control Adaptable to Multiple Launch Vehicles

Project SunrIde is developing rockets with increasingly advanced capabilities which are beginning to necessitate remote monitoring and control.  Many university-level rocket systems implement GPS tracking but don’t provide for more advanced monitoring of system state and environmental conditions both outside the rocket and in the payload bay. This project will aim to devise an optimal framework for tracking and monitoring a high-altitude (up to 100 km) vehicle via a ground station whilst making the best use of the limited bandwidth available with low-cost off-the-shelf hardware.  A review will be conducted of state-of-the-art telemetry and ground control implementations across a range of launch vehicle types and budgets. This will feed into a proposal for a system design which can be tailored to fit the mission profiles of SunrIde’s current and future rockets. Further, it should be straightforward for other teams to tailor this blueprint to their needs.

Team SunrIde's first Ground Station which will be used for control and live telemetry of high power rockets. The team is expected to launch thrice in summer 2021 using a solid model rocket (1200ft), a solid motor rocket (30,000ft) and a liquid engine rocket (10,000ft) . Recording and transmitting analytic system behaviour will support analysis of root causes of system failures and opportunities for improvement.

Research Allocation:

Richard: methods of maximising bandwidth utilisation; dynamically shaping content during mission; preprocessing (cleaning, compression, encryption); resilient encoding into frames for transmission; end-to-end process from a systems engineering perspective.  Then: design a robust and adaptable signal pipeline; develop a paradigm for straightforward mission-specific configuration.

Zafeiria: Provide radio link research and analyse radio modules and antennae appropriate for different applications. Investigate GPS location and trajectory tracking for high altitudes reaching space. Ground Station Facilitation, development of the Ignition box module prototype product. Investigate Graphical User Interface implementation to visualise live telemetry and system behaviour.

Project SunbYte 4

The aim of the project is to construct and launch a high-altitude solar tracker telescope on a zero-pressure balloon in order to capture undistorted images of the sun. This has significant challenges and is very difficult to do from the ground, due to atmospheric distortions.  The overall aim of the project is to prove that not expensive solar telescopes that can be launched into the high atmosphere and are as effective and more cost efficient than expensive, stationary ground-based telescopes.  Three iterations of the tracker telescope have been launched before working with different space agencies, REXUS/BEXUS program from Estrange Space Centre in Sweden and twice with NASA’s Hasp program from New Mexico. Based on these flights, improvements will be made to the payload structure and software in order to demonstrate the further feasibility of the project. This year the project will fly from Estrange Space Centre in partnership with the HEMERA (Horizon 2020), SSC program.  The observations captured by the payload will be used by solar researchers and can be useful for the monitoring of solar flares. High energetic solar events e.g. CME, flares etc., in a worst-case scenario, have the potential to cripple the worlds telecommunication and power grids. £5.6 billion has been invested worldwide in order to prevent and monitor this potential catastrophe.

 The team will be comprised of 30 active members and split into two major teams, the technical team, which includes the structural, optics, electronic and systems sub-teams. The business team is comprised of the outreach and finance sub-teams. The project draws experience from a range of students across the university. Who will be working together to ensure that the project launches successfully. 

Project MarsWorks electronics research, development and implementation

The European Space Agency (ESA) is hosting a competition to design a reduced size Mars rover in their European Rover challenge (ERC) in September this year in Poland. The competition is international and has teams from many other universities competing. 

There are four tasks which the rover must complete

• a traversal task where the rover must get from A to B autonomously and map its route

• a science task where we must take and store multiple samples on board the rover and do in situ tests on the samples

• a maintenance task where we must operate an electrical switch panel and measure voltages

• a collection task where we must find and store cache which are placed at specified coordinates.

The basis of the rover is that it must weigh under 50kg and fit in a cylinder with a radius of 0.75m when everything is retracted. We can change the rover up between each of the four challenges to better optimise it for a task (i.e. changing the robots end effector). We have to make as much of the rovers’ abilities as autonomous as we can to score more points and the team with the most points, win. There are points for lots of different aspects of the challenges, mainly that of accuracy and safety, but artificial intelligence is a big push this year.

This project is focusing mainly on the electronics which will go inside the rover and the communications between the computer, which will be in an area around 200m from the rover. We won't be able to see the rover to give a better feel for what controlling a real rover might be like, where we can only rely on camera data.

Sheffield University Nova Balloon Lifted Telescope II (HASP programme)

The project is dedicated to the developing and testing of the gimbal of the telescope and its stabilisation system. It includes programming of microcomputers (eg Raspery Pi), and the development and testing of algorithms. 

In regards to this, the project's milestones include

• improve the existing algorithms which were used previously in SunbYte missions

• identify weaknesses of algorithms and develop a system which will be able to provide accurate stabilisation based on information received from HASP organisers on rational speeds of gondola in all three directions

• test the improved algorithm with the newly built gimbal for SunbYte II

The Sheffield University Nova Balloon Lifted Telescope – Project ‘SunbYte’

Primary objective: Track and obtain images of the sun using the Balmer series H-alpha deep-red visible spectral line at wavelength 656.28 nm. Using a 299 mm diameter, 800 mm focal length parabolic (Cassegrain/Ritchey-Cretien system telescope) mirror, we will connect this onto a Raspberry Pi camera sensor with an H-alpha filter.

Secondary objectives: Acquire scientifically valuable solar images (ie images at diffraction limited resolution, unable to be obtained inexpensively on Earth due to its atmosphere).

Tertiary objective: Promote and increase solar and space engineering studies at the University of Sheffield.

Bridging the Gap in Robotics: A Cost-effective and Pragmatic Approach to Developing a Domestic Robot

Award: the best project in a Final Year Project

Liquid Rocket Engine Modelling for Control System Design

Modular System Design in Solar Observation

Designing a hybrid quadcopter for radiation mapping using scintillator crystals.

Mechatronics and control systems design of a 6-DOF, multipurpose Mars exploration manipulator

An LQ-MPC flight control system for aerial docking on Mars

Aerodynamic study of SunrIde sounding rocket using CFD

Thermal control and heating system in space

Scientific balloon system carrying a payload for emergencies

SunrIde: Sheffield University Rocket Innovative Design Engineering

Ankita took the role of a structural and mechatronics engineer to design the structure of the rocket followed by testing and analysis of stability (also, if interested, she worked on electronics parts which are responsible for rocket stabilisation and up/down link data transfer). 

The structural engineering for the design of the body tube and other integral parts of the rocket required simulations on the open source software - “OpenRocket”. Ankita gained knowledge in how to select a suitable motor and propellant according to the design and structure of the rocket. A lot of work with electronics was required for the telemetry and flight computation, needed for altitude tracking.

SunbYte: Sheffield University Nova Balloon Lifted Telescope with NASA

Mr Yun-Hang Cho took on the role of systems engineer to integrate electronics and mechanics together and deliver a working device capable of tracking the sun at low pressure and low temperatures. 

Yun-Hang was based at the University of Sheffield’s department of Automatic Controls and Systems Engineering STAR laboratory. He tested the ability of the experiment to withstand near-space, vacuum pressure and temperatures down to -80C. This was achieved by fitting our experiment into a chamber (Manchester University), which was slowly cooled whilst air is drawn out. Various electronics operated in sequence to identify weak points in the system and investigate thermal contraction in mechanical linkages which may cause the system to freeze.