Curriculum development of undergraduate and post graduate courses on small unmanned aircraft

Abstract

This paper describes the development of an undergraduate and a post graduate course on Small Unmanned Aircraft (SUA). Few emerging technologies provide the potential for such a diverse application of knowledge as SUA which are more commonly referred to as "Drones". They are being used for civil purposes in a growth business sector predicted to be worth billions of pounds over the next 10 years. They are also revolutionising everything from agriculture to film-making and are increasingly being used to monitor, research and conduct data gathering missions in surveying, mining, forestry, ecology, archaeology virtual reality and computer gaming. The purpose of this paper is to present the ideas and the researched findings which informed the rationale used for the curriculum development of the first Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Drone Technology to be offered in the UK, and also that of an accompanying Master of Science Degree in Unmanned Aircraft System Technology.

Design of a portable drone for educational purposes

“…This work has resulted in the publishing of a proposal for the introduction of a Europe wide regulatory framework for the operation of drones and is applicable to all SUA having a MTOM of 250g or more [12]. Drone operations at Wrexham Glyndwr University are conducted with SUA having a MTOM not exceeding 7 kg and are also considered a commercial undertaking [13].…”

A Challenge-Based Learning Intensive Course for Competency Development in Undergraduate Engineering Students: Case Study on UAVs

“…Furthermore, for university engineering programs, drone platforms have been used to encourage the development of intellectual curiosity, teamwork and disciplinary skills related to automation, programming, sensors, actuators, among others. Laboratory proposals to familiarize oneself with the drone's dynamics and its automatic control [27] have been described; in addition, the design of a toolkit to be applied to project-orientedlearning activities [28], as well as complete courses (from design to flight tests) [29] have been reported. Other results are implementations of activities and complete courses with simulated scenarios or real prototypes [30][31][32][33][34][35].…”