Team Asteria Origin Dynamics Incorporation from The Aerospace Society, participated in the 2022 edition of the Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) and secured the second position in the National Round of this competition held in January.
The team comprised of the following 7 members:
Aaron Barthwal XII-H (Operation Planner and Developer)
Akul Ranjan XII-J (Programme Director and Manager)
Divyansh Nayan XII-E (Mechanical and Business Analyst)
Kushagra Goel (Robotics and Electronics Engineer)
Samannita Halder XII-G (3D and CAD Specialist)
Shiven Kanodia (Components and Payload Developer)
Samriddhi Mishra XII-H (Electrical Systems Engineer)
The team had proposed their UAV ‘Asteria’ which was inspired by the Arctic Tern, a two-summer-seeking migratory bird for the fuselage. This configuration was accompanied by the Choice of a Blended Wing Body integrated with a Cyclocopter, an elaborated mission plan with a fully automated warehouse as well as higher quality equipment for both ground support and drone and for maximum efficiency.
The team is grateful to the Principal Ms. Padma Srinivasan, Mr. Ajay Goel (Physics Faculty), and senior members of Aeross: Siddhansh Narang and Ashvin Verma for their mentorship.
The Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) is an international Aviation design challenge organized annually by the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The competition provides high-schoolers a platform to apply concepts learnt in the classroom to address real problems faced by industries while working in a team environment. Teams are tested across multiple arenas: they must come up with a disruptive and feasible solution to a real world problem, learn to use industrial CAD/CAM and simulations softwares, engage with mentors employed in diverse STEM-related fields, and justify their design choices to prove their solution is practical and profitable enough to solve the task at hand.
In addition, they must also demonstrate proficiency in writing and convincingly presenting the value in their solutions, demonstrating industry level work ethic.
The competition adjudges teams on both technical and soft skills, making it necessary for students to deploy efficient skill specialisation, time and work management and leadership.
In recent years, the competition has focused on utilising Unmanned Aerial Systems to run a delivery service. Teams are tasked with designing UAVs capable of ferrying packages, creating a theory of operations, and developing a feasible business plan to operate a fleet of such UAVs commercially.
