US University Innovation Award Winner
Despite going to the same high school, and being less than a year apart in age, Bikash Kunwar and Rajan Bhandari never crossed paths in their native Nepal, at least physically. But it seems that there must have been some kind of connection of the mind between the two in their youth: both decided to pursue degrees in aerospace engineering 8,000 miles from their home country, and in the same city and state, at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, no less. Moreover, both are graduate research assistants in Auburn’s Vehicle Systems, Dynamics, and Design Laboratory (VSDDL). And both are members of a team of graduate students endeavoring to transform the field of emergency response and save lives through the global GoAERO challenge.
So is Stefanus H. Putra, also a graduate research assistant at VSDDL. His humanitarian instinct kicked in after reading a book on climate change. “I wanted to solve this problem, to be part of the solution,” the 25-year-old from Indonesia states. “In high school, I couldn’t wait to do engineering. Then when I got a scholarship to Auburn, I couldn’t wait to get here and then to work in Dr. Imon Chakraborty’s lab. Now that I’m here I have a real passion to use all that I’m learning and all the technology I’m using to help people.”
That is what GoAERO is all about. It is a global challenge to develop an entirely new class of flying vehicles singularly focused on saving lives through vehicles that outperform helicopters, drones, and ambulances in responding to wildfires, hurricanes, floods and other extreme weather occurrences and medical emergencies.
Team VSDDL is one of 14
awardees receiving funds from GoAERO with support from NASA’s University Innovation project. The financial prize validates the direction the team is taking with its flyer, while helping support further design elements that members are engaging in to fulfill GoAERO’s Stage 2 requirements.
Ben Davis, the 24-year-old VSDDL Stage 1 team captain and graduate research assistant in Dr. Chakraborty’s lab from Leeds, Alabama, has “loved designing and building rockets and other things that could fly since forever. My father did lots of travel for work. And my grandfathers were both involved in aerospace in Vietnam – one was an aircraft mechanic, and the other was an aerospace engineer. So, I guess I was predisposed to this.”
For Stage 1 vice-captain Henry “Cole” McCormick, who also grew up in Alabama (Decatur), aerospace engineering was the “logical direction for me. I spent a lot of time playing video games that involved flying machines. And in high school, I did a lot of flight simulation activities.” But he says a more seminal moment that influenced his career choice involved his grandparents. They lived in Dayton, Ohio, home of the National Museum of the United States Air Force, “and they used to take me there when I’d visit. Those trips really influenced my passion for aviation.”
Dr. Chakraborty, VSDDL Lab Director, founded VSDDL upon joining Auburn in August 2018 with a clear objective: “I wanted to create an organization that was involved in design, optimization, flight controls, flight simulation, and flight testing of novel next-generation aircraft concepts in a practical way relevant to both industry and society.”
The VSDDL team’s novel aircraft is the VT-04 Hexa-Hauler, which Dr. Chakraborty describes as “a ducted fan hexa-copter that can tilt its central row of fans forward and aft (thus, vectored thrust, or VT) to allow precise acceleration/deceleration without requiring changes in pitch attitude.”
He explains that ducted fans were chosen as they allow for a more compact vehicle and provide protection when navigating through obstructions. Power is supplied through an all-electric powertrain, using two battery banks placed in the front and rear of the vehicle. The battery installation allows for them to be charged in place as their mass precludes easy removal and handling by ground crew. The payload is stored in a compartment underneath the vehicle, accessible through doors on the left and right side, as well as an aft hatch. Additional larger items may be fixed to the bottom of the aircraft, and slung loads can also be carried.
The VT-04 Hexa-Hauler is designed to be piloted either remotely from the ground or by an onboard operator. “It can be deployed and operated with minimal ground support infrastructure,” Dr. Chakraborty says, adding that it can be transported using a standard pickup truck and trailer. This allows for rapid repositioning to support disaster relief operations. “Once on-site, it can be unloaded and made flight-ready by a crew of three in a matter of minutes.”
Further, the VSDDL design enables Simplified Vehicle Operations (SVO), allowing the vehicle to be operated autonomously and semi-autonomously with minimal training and without requiring highly trained, experienced, and often hard-to-find professional pilots.
For each team member, the inspiration behind their work comes from deeply personal experiences. Bikash and Rajan both note that their home country is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, including earthquakes, floods, and landslides, and climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of these extreme weather events. Both lived through the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal that killed nearly 9,000 and injured more than 22,000 people. The GoAero focus on humanitarian and life-saving missions in challenging, inhospitable topography appealed to both of them in a very deep and personal way.
Cole and Stefanus noted that they were drawn by the hands-on, practical aspects of GoAero, allowing them to focus on real world solutions rather than on paper designs. Ben has been involved with emergency services since middle school through programs like the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and was drawn to work on modern solutions to search and rescue (SAR) operations.
Even with their collective passion for aerospace engineering, and the skills they are developing at VSDDL, the team members say that the GoAERO webinars, which are hosted by the world’s leading authorities in their respective aviation and aerospace engineering fields, have been a huge knowledge booster. “We’ve watched all the videos,” Stefanus notes. “The diverse perspectives of the experts are definitely very useful.”
Having a singular goal has also been useful in that it serves to hyper-focus the team, says Cole. “The humanitarian aspect of GoAERO provides us with an interesting problem to solve. We’re not just building a flyer. There is a much larger mission. We’re confident that over the next decade, our solution will become the norm.”
To highlight your GoAERO Team, contact us at info@goaeroprize.com.
REMINDER: Stage 2 Registration Documents are available here.
Benefits for Teams can be found here.
