We’re developing the Autonomous Vehicle Infinite Air Time Apparatus, or AVIATA: a system that will be capable of carrying objects in the air indefinitely. To do this, we plan to use a drone swarm to hold a central frame supporting the payload, allowing us to swap individual drones in and out whenever they run low. With this design, AVIATA will have the reliability and versatility to assist in emergency relief, environmental monitoring, and supply transportation.
Our proposal has already been accepted by the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate as part of their University Student Research Challenge (USRC). More than that, we're motivated by our project’s potential impact: AVIATA is the first of its kind, achieving endless flight time with a compact system that can be quickly manufactured and delivered. Aviation technology is progressing rapidly, and it is our hope that AVIATA will help influence and define the next breakthroughs in autonomous flight.
Check out our GoFundMe page for more promotional material!
As of September 18th, 2020, we've started a blog on this website for writing updates on our project! The full list of posts can be found here:
This project was made possible by our generous GoFundMe supporters, including:
These results are based upon work supported by the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate under award number 80NSSC20K1452. This material is based upon a proposal tentatively selected by NASA for a grant award of $10,811, subject to successful crowdfunding. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA.