Whisper Ascent: Quiet Drone Delivery

We are a team of University of Delaware Mechanical Engineering students working on a NASA grant to research a drone delivery concept that is quieter than existing solutions. We were selected for NASA's University Student Research Challenge (https://nari.arc.nasa.gov/usrc). We have nearly completed the first segment of this challenge and now are looking to raise funds for materials to complete the second part, including building a custom kite-drone.

A big problem with vertical take off and lift (VTOL) aircraft of all types is the amount of noise generated. If you've been nearby a helicopter taking off or a hobbyist flying their drone in the neighborhood, you know how much of a nuisance these vehicles can cause. In particular with small drones, it is not the decibel level but the pitch at which the noise is generated. Our goal is to address this issue with a novel solution.  

To do this, we plan to create a tethered, powered kite "lifting vehicle," which will stay up in the air by the force of the wind, and stabilized by its own propellers in times with lack of wind. A cargo-carry drone on the ground will then be lifted up by a pulley system from ground to the kite vehicle. It will be lifted in virtual silence, as the kite vehicle will be high enough to barely hear the sound of its' stabilization propellers (hence the name, Whisper Ascent).  

To date, we have built a cargo drone prototype and done several hop tests, as shown in our video. We also experimented with several self-assembled quad-copter style drones to tune our flight stabilization code, leveraged from open source code already available. We built a large 3-axis test station gimbal to test out stabilization prior to flying our custom drone.  

Our team members are Wes Connor, Karlens Senatus, and Abubakarr Bah

 

The ultimate goal of this NASA grant is to create a proof of concept for an efficient and novel drone delivery system for all types of deliveries such as medical supplies, common items, and food.  

Your support will help in adding to the body research for public companies in this area to reduce their noise pollution while decreasing the cost of deliveries for small goods. You may benefit directly by experiencing quieter drone delivery systems in the future as this type of delivery becomes more prevalent.

For company donations, we will place your logo for donors who wish on our cargo drone and kite drone wing or body shell.