Drone for Fire Fighting Built by UTAT

"Every year, the Univeristy of Toronto Aerospace Team (UTAT) competes in the SAE Aero Design competition which involves designing and building unmanned aircraft for a wildfire response mission.

Part of the mission requires a secondary aircraft to jettison mid-air from the primary aircraft to autonomously deliver the payload to a designated target.

UTAT used the Series 1580 thrust stand for dynamic thrust testing in the 0.3 m x 0.3 m wind tunnel at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS). During these tests, the team collected data on how the thrust and efficiency of our propulsion system varied across a range of airspeeds and motor RPMs, representing different operating conditions throughout the flight mission."

"While manufacturers provide estimates of the performance of motors and propellers, the Series 1580 thrust stand was key in the collection of in-house validation data to give us confidence in the design of our two aircraft."

UTAT also participated in the Aerial Evolution Association of Canada (AEAC) competition.

"This year’s AEAC project was Cyclone, a 14 kg hexacopter designed as an urban air mobility system. To maximize endurance for this year’s competition, we used the Tyto Robotics Series 1580 to select motor and propeller combinations by analyzing their efficiencies and current draw.

It was crucial not only when selecting our propulsion system, but also between flight tests. We crashed Cyclone countless times during testing and after each crash, we used the thrust stand to verify which motors were still usable and which motors produced unacceptable vibration levels. The thrust stand allowed us to recover quickly after each crash and safely continue our flight tests.

Thank you Tyto Robotics for providing the Series 1580 thrust stand kit! We are super grateful for your continuous support!"

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