IRIS - ASPiRE

PROJECT "IRIS"

UAS CHALLENGE 2023

Simulation award

Project Overview

Iris is a student Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) project developed by the ASPiRE team (University of Western Macedonia, Team 31) for the UAS Challenge, aiming to simulate a real-world aerial mission that combines aircraft design, autonomous operation, and mission execution under competition constraints. The project launched in 2022, with the team organizing the work in phased development (requirements, system design, implementation, and testing) following the competition timeline. At its core, Iris is designed as a fixed-wing aircraft to explore aerodynamics, flight stability, and efficient flight performance, while keeping the overall build practical and manufacturable for a student team. A key project goal is full autonomous capability: Iris is being developed to navigate through mission waypoints, remain inside a defined flight area (geofencing), and complete the mission reliably with minimal human intervention.

The payload for Iris is conceived as a clearly marked aid package, carried inside the fuselage to keep the aircraft streamlined and to protect the cargo during flight. In the current design, the team plans to use an AirDropBox Micro with sand as cargo, targeting a payload mass of roughly 1–2 kg. The carriage system is designed to support the package securely without wrapping or reinforcing it, and release it only at the designated drop point. Payload delivery is handled by a trap-door / hatch mechanism: a servo motor’s rotation is converted into linear motion that retracts spring-loaded latches, allowing the hatches to open and the payload to drop, after which the hatches are intended to close again using torsion springs on the hinge axis.