Sindy
The Sindy Project is Institute's own unmanned aerial vehicle development project. The aircraft was designed to serve as a test platform for UAV on-board avionics system development. The mathematical model will be identified and it will be made available to the public. The main goal was to create an easily reproducible aircraft, using accessible parts and simple technologies, which only require ordinary tools. This feature - together with the availablity of the mathematical model - makes this aircraft a good platform for control research purposes. Since the integration of UAVs to common airspace requires safe aircraft, considerable effort is put in developing safety critical UAVs.
The twin-boom configuration of the airframe offers duplicated control surfaces, even the elevator is split. This, in addition to the two electric motors, enables this plane to serve as a test platform for various research purposes like reconfiguring control developments, sense and avoid collision avoidance system and many others. The fuselage is entirely reserved for the payload; it can carry up to 1-4 kgs of avionics and test equipment. It has a modular construction: different set-ups can be installed to the frontal section in a few minutes, and the fuselage itself is also easily changeable. The fact that the easy reproduction was given priority over the weight reduction significantly constrained the possible shapes and the quality of the parts used. As a result, a good general condition and functionality can be maintained, even after numerous disassembles. The foam and plywood parts made the easy modification possible, and the smooth and shiny surfaces give an aesthetic look to the aircraft. The vast majority of the components are either laser cut plywood or hot-wire cut foam. Such technologies provide the cheap and fast manufacturing of the components. Coverings of the nacelles and the fuselage are thermoformed in vacuum. The use of precut parts enables a fast assembly: a new aircraft can be built in about 180 man-hours. For three people, the assembly spans through 5 days, taking the curing times into account