Overview
This project is a fully custom 1.8-metre fixed-wing UAV — designed from scratch in Fusion 360, aerodynamically evaluated in Autodesk CFD, and 3D-printed across multiple print sessions. The end goal was to build an autonomously navigated observation plane without GPS that can fly along the coasts of Malaysia with a camera and alert local law enforcement when it detectds turtle poachers. The lack of GPS is to ensure the poachers are unable to jam the UAV’s avionics with their EMF guns.
Design & CFD
The airframe was designed in Fusion 360 with a focus on minimizing weight and modularity: each section is sized to fit a standard print bed, with alignment pins and bonded joints at the wing-fuselage and tail interfaces. Wing geometry was iterated in Autodesk CFD to evaluate lift-to-drag ratio and stall characteristics across the expected speed range, informing the final airfoil selection and wing attack angle.
Structural considerations drove wall thicknesses, infill patterns, and spar routing — the main wing spar is a carbon rod bonded into printed spar tubes in each wing panel.
Avionics & Autopilot
The flight stack is built around INAV (open-source navigation firmware for STM32-based flight controllers):
- PID tuning — manual stick inputs used to identify and correct oscillations in roll, pitch, and yaw axes; iterative in-field tuning
- Waypoint navigation — INAV’s mission planner used to define GPS waypoints; the aircraft flies the mission autonomously after hand launch
- LoRa telemetry — long-range telemetry link streams flight data (GPS position, altitude, airspeed, battery voltage) to a ground station for real-time monitoring and data logging
- OSD — on-screen display overlays key flight parameters on the FPV video feed
Flights
The aircraft has completed multiple autonomous waypoint missions and manual FPV flights. Logged telemetry data has been used to refine the PID gains and validate cruise performance against CFD predictions.