INNOVATION May-June 2012

identification, successfully completing its mission and earning the team an honourable mention. This year, the team will be entering the competition again with updates to the 2011 model UAV that will better house the payload equipment with room for expansion, while still remaining portable. The team is also working toward the goal of making the plane completely autonomous for flying, including take-off, landing and target identification. Built to be inexpensive, lightweight and portable, Team Guardian’s UAV is based on a remote-controlled propeller plane. With a wing span of 1.6 m, length of 94 cm and a weight of 2 kg, it has been modified to be disassembled and stored. It uses the ArduPilot Mega autopilot system, an inertial measurement unit, a GPS for telemetry data and an XBee wireless communication system. An off-the-shelf wireless video system relays live footage back to a ground control system. This year, the team has added a hatch on top of the plane to more easily access the internal components, as well as a video system gimbal to stabilize the video camera so that it is always perpendicular with the surface of the earth. One of the main tasks this time around has been improving the reliability of the GPS data acquired and transmitted by the plane. Matt Keeler is one the Team Captains: “The UAV Team has exposed us to a lot of different and interesting technologies, processes and software that we can apply to technical projects. Systems that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to gain experience in: antennas, wave propagation to software and image recognition systems for cross platform communications.” The team is enthusiastic about the opportunity to compete. It’s a good thing, too—during what they call “crunch time” they’re putting in up to 12 hours a day now that exams are over; otherwise during the semester, team members might be putting in up to 10-12 hours a week on the project along with a full course

team hopes to incorporate tool-changing to be able to swap between a high-speed, high-resolution nozzle, and a filament extruder to be able to produce their own printing material. Having tested a prototype, the team is hoping to now build the full machine. Says Bayless of the experience, “I’ve definitely gained a new appreciation for the amount of work and care that it takes to take an idea into a real working machine. But I’ve been hooked on this project since the start, and just knowing that it has so much potential to become genuinely useful to other students is enough to keep me working at it. Despite the effort involved, working with other team members who are as excited about 3D printing as I am makes it a lot more enjoyable.” High Flying SFU Students Explore Potential of Unmanned Aircraft

Team Guardian: Jessica Peare, James Allnutt, Ginelle Nazareth, Ben Tuline, Irene Tong; (front) Bryan Pattison, Kevin Young, Tim Gjernes, Matt Keeler, Luke Routley, Miguel Cruz.

Applying engineering solutions to real world challenges, the members of SFU’s Team Guardian are designing and building customized, autonomous aircraft that may prove to one day save lives. The team is developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVS, capable of being sent into dangerous conditions to provide

September 24 – 28, 2012 Calgary,Alberta,Canada

INTERNATIONAL PIPELINE CONFERENCE & EXPOSITION MEETING THE CHALLENGES

real-time surveillance of remote areas. UAVs are able to accomplish tasks that may be too difficult, inaccessible or too dangerous for humans, either gathering data or performing tasks remotely. They are already in use by researchers, law enforcement and military. Team Guardian started in 2010 and the team now has 11 members, all students from the mechatronics engineering program at SFU. Last May, the team entered the Unmanned Systems Canada Student Competition in Quebec, a competition with the goal of using UAVs to assist forest firefighters by monitoring a patrol zone and identifying the location of fire outbreaks or other hazards, such as people or property in danger. The plane flew autonomously up to a distance of about 1.5 km away and sent back a live video feed for target

The international pipeline industry will come together for the International Pipeline Conference & Exposition 2012 to share leading edge information which provides the industry with the tools to meet the evolving challenges of pipelining in today’s world.

THE CONFERENCE September 24 - 28, 2012 Hyatt Regency Hotel & TELUS Convention Centre • 13 Technical Tracks with over 300 quality papers • Highly Informative Tutorials • International Presenters and Keynote Speakers • Panel Sessions/Poster Sessions • Student Paper Competition and Best Paper Award • Networking Opportunity Luncheons & Receptions

THE EXPOSITION September 25 - 27, 2012 Calgary TELUS Convention Centre • Over 150 exhibiting companies • Displays of innovations in pipeline technology • Over 3,500 visitors from 40 countries • IPE Industry Reception • Complimentary entry for Conference delegates and industry professionals

Major Exhibition Sponsors

For more information and updates visit our websites:

Conference: www.InternationalPipelineConference.com Exposition: www.internationalpipelineexposition.com

@IPC_Calgary @petroleumshow

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