Really good to see bigger groups of students working together on a multi-disciplinary project. These students deserve congratulations :)
However, i will point out a few inconsistencies here:
Comparing a small scale RC plane to a drone is a misrepresentation. These vehicle is barely above the micro UAV range and falls in the small UAV range category. The interviewer seems to have zero knowledge of subject matter and kept comparing it to drones. The students did talk about missiles but such small aircrafts are not capable of a carrying a significant payload which can inflict significant damage let alone carry a high end camera with pan-tilt compensated platforms.
I believe the local industry is already good with acrobatics and there are several flying clubs in Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi. Locally made small planes are even exported. Even in medium range UAVs pakistani industry is coming up with good competition and Karachi's company is selling UAVs to australia and US for border patrol etc. While every new design is appreciable, this one in particular is not state of the art. Refer to the TedxKarachi video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v__tRUfKAek
As far as radar detection goes the descriptions presented were sketchy as well. US drones evade radar because of their stealth technology and advanced radar systems. This small aircraft can barely carry a navigation system onboard, not to mention radar system. Its true that terrain hugging UAVs like the cruise missiles can evade radar but they are really really quite else they can be easily spotted.
Another inconsistency was that the students said that the plane will switch to autopilot when it goes out of range or its operation frequency is compromised. That can only happen if the plane has an autopilot onboard. In later part of video they suggested in "future work" that they want to integrate navigation system with GPS into it. GPS and INS (inertial navigation system) is an integral part of autopilot. If its in future work than how come the plane can auto switch to autopilot? I know for sure that autopilot kits are very expensive as our associated research group developed an indigenous autopilot kit at NUST (E&ME College) in 2009 using off-shelf components and processors. Its an ongoing project at NUST with several research groups working on it for previous 5 years (almost). Another project was of VTOL (vertical take off and landing capable UAV) which my classmates worked on for two years. I'm not sure of its current status.
All of the above is purely a technical critique based on my knowledge and experience of the subject. I do not intend to undermine anyone or any institute. Everyone's effort must be appreciated.
Best Regards
To: pakgrid@yahoogroups.com
From: zashah@kth.se
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2012 15:01:48 +0200
Subject: Re: [pakgrid] Pride of Pakistan
Uzair Sukhera
---
Systems Engineering Grad '11
Cornell University
To: pakgrid@yahoogroups.com
From: zashah@kth.se
Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2012 15:01:48 +0200
Subject: Re: [pakgrid] Pride of Pakistan
AoA ,
Indeed a great start, I am ready to finance in few of those . Zabardast ..
BR
/Zeeshan Ali Shah
On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 12:59 PM, ahtisham aslam <ahtisham_a@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear All,
Congratulations to all the team and we wish more success for them.
Regards===================================================
Dr. Muhammad Ahtisham Aslam
Assistant Professor
Department of Information Systems
Faculty of Computing and Informatin Technology
King Abdul Aziz University
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
http://bis.informatik.uni-lei pzig.de/AslamMuhammadAhtisham
From: Adil Farooq <adil_farq@hotmail.com>
To: msee2011@yahoogroups.com; pakgrid@yahoogroups.com; fall2010vlsi@googlegroups.com
Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2012 7:54 PM
Subject: [pakgrid] Pride of Pakistan
Must Watch..!!
DRONE Version-II Made by UET Lahore...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH60qZaFwng
Regards
Engr. Adil Farooq
MSc (Electrical Engg)
Uni. of Engg & Tech.
Taxila, Pakistan
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