Situation Simulation public draft

Situation Simulation

Situation Simulation Public Draft 1

As you know, OpenRelief is about more than the technical aspects of disaster relief. It is a design project to help improve our responses via new ideas and new approaches. The robot plane we are developing is one part of this. The radiation sensor is another. However, we also need to address the question of how such things can fit into the real world.

To assist with this we are experimenting with wargaming concepts. While these have conventionally been associated with military planning, and more recently with aggressive management training, we are aiming to create simple, adaptable and interesting ways to help people think through the inclusion of advanced technology in their humanitarian efforts.

As a sort of gift to everyone who has patiently supported, contributed to and believed in this project throughout the year, today we are releasing the first public draft of the OpenRelief disaster response situation simulation. This was developed by Kevin Walsh, an experienced game-master, and someone who has used a bird’s eye concept that we can hopefully adapt and evolve to suit responders around the world. You can download it here:
http://www.opendawn.com/openrelief/situation-simulation/

The first release edition (with updates incorporated from suggestions by Mike) is due shortly.

 

 

OpenRelief in SciDev.net

“The more people that have access to this technology, the more opportunity there is to get eyes in the sky where they are needed.”
— Shane Coughlan

A new article about OpenRelief has been published in SciDev.net. Big thanks to Jan Piotrowski for conducting the interview and for helping to spread the word.

See http://www.scidev.net/global/technology/news/drones-edge-towards-affordable-disaster-tool.html for more details!

Version 2.0.2 of the Open Source Airframe released

Version 2.0.2 of the Open Source Airframe has just been released.

The biggest fix is that the Bill of Materials is now properly in-sync with the current airframe.

The download size has also been reduced 48.5% compared to the previous version, making it quicker and easier to share the design.

== Changelog ==

– Updated the Bill of Materials
– Removed unnecessary files, compressed video to save space
(we dropped from 16.5 to 8.5 MB, a 48.5% reduction in size)
– Removed the battery folder to reduce confusion (many options)
– Reordered the Tail Assembly directory to make it simple

Download the CAD schematics and the bill of materials here:
http://www.opendawn.com/openrelief/documents/CTOL-UAV-2.0.2.zip

The link to the latest version of the files is always:
http://www.opendawn.com/openrelief/documents/CTOL-UAV-current.zip

== Please note ==

We are in a period of rapid development right now. There are some upcoming beta technologies that will enter the design package, so if you are starting a build project you might want to remain flexible for a while.

Here is the beta test schedule for Oldham College:
– This week improved tail
– This week improved front fuselage
– 3 weeks new landing gear
– 4-5 weeks new wing

OpenRelief Open Source Radiation Detector

Released under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 by Andrew Back

The updated detector in all its glory

As some of you may recall, Andrew Back created a rather nice low-power radiation detector for OpenRelief last May. He refined the design around the turn of the year with the removal of the need for a large battery pack to provide a reference charge to the ionisation chamber.

The OpenRelief website now has an updated dedicated page discussing the detector, linking to the schematics and code, and providing plenty of pictures:
http://www.opendawn.com/openrelief/radiation-detector/

Version 2.0.1 of the Open Source airframe now available

Second Generation Open Source Airframe

Second Generation Open Source Airframe

A minor update to the Open Source Airframe has been released. This was a fix to airframe specs and a clean-up of unnecessary images that reduced the download size by 9 megs. Another important point is that the newest version of the airframe can always be found at this link from now on:
http://www.opendawn.com/openrelief/documents/CTOL-UAV-2.0.1.zip

== Version 2.0.1 ==

3/06/2013

– Replaced/updated the README.txt to reflect empty weight of 5.5kg
– Removed unnecessary photos to reduce size
– Fixed design file versioning

Download the CAD schematics and the bill of materials here:
http://www.opendawn.com/openrelief/documents/CTOL-UAV-2.0.1.zip

The overview page for the airframe has also been updated:
http://www.opendawn.com/openrelief/open-source-airframe/

Did you know…OpenRelief is active in Japan?

Taichi Furuhashi, Vice-President at OpenStreetMap Foundation Japan and owner of the MAPconcierge company is coordinating our outreach.

This week he will be at the 29th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science to discuss OpenRelief with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) representatives during the innovation session. He will be speaking on the Learning Innovation Creation Mechanisms in Space Activities panel.

Meanwhile in Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture (inside the Tohoku tsunami disaster area), the local community has approved flights for mapping purposes. Taichi will be working in conjunction with volunteers from OpenStreetMap Japan and Tokyo University to deploy the original OpenRelief RC airframe over the city. Later in the year we also hope to send the Open Source Airframe to help with long-distance work.

Finally, I thought it might be interesting to share some of Taichi’s slides in Japanese. They give a preview of his mapping work using drones in Japan, and a peak into the future of OpenRelief x OpenStreetMap Japan:
http://www.slideshare.net/mapconcierge/foss4g-2012-osaka-mapconcierge-x-openrelief

OpenRelief at LinuxCon Japan 2013

Coverage on LWN.net

Coverage on LWN.net

You can see some coverage of the OpenRelief presentation at LinuxCon Japan 2013 over at LWN.net. Big thanks are due to the organisers for letting us present at the venue and for Jake Edge for writing us up.

Preview here: “Shane Coughlan talked about the progress (and setbacks) for the OpenRelief project. That project had its genesis at the 2011 LinuxCon Japan—held shortly after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident that hit Japan—as part of a developer panel discussion about what could be done to create open source technical measures to help out disaster relief efforts. That discussion led to the creation of the OpenRelief project, which seeks to build a robotic airplane (aka drone) to help relief workers “see through the fog” to get the right aid to the right place at the right time.

The test airframe he displayed at last year’s event had some durability flaws: “airframes suck”, he said. In particular, the airframe would regularly break in ways that would be difficult to fix in the field. Endurance is one of the key features required for a disaster relief aircraft, and the project had difficulty finding one that would both be durable and fit into its low price point ($1000 for a fully equipped plane, which left $100-200 for the airframe).”

Jake also posted a rather dashing photo of our new airframe release announcement.

Second Generation Open Source airframe released!

Second Generation Open Source Airframe

Second Generation Open Source Airframe

OpenRelief is proud to announce the release of the second generation open source airframe.

Edward Strickland, a gentleman with a degree in aeronautical engineering, experience with Open Source Auto Pilots and 7 years experience with QinetiQ and UK MoD, has lead the development of the OpenRelief airframe. This is an expansion of his research regarding commercial Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) drones.

The first version of the OpenRelief CTOL-UAV airframe was released on the 6th of July 2012. You can read the original release announcement here and download the version 1.0 CAD files / bill of material here. It is based on a Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) airframe Eddie developed for VTOL testing purposes.

Eddie and his team in the UK have been hard at work to simplify the build, improve the strength and enhance the performance of the OpenRelief airframe since July last year. OpenRelief is proud to announce the release of the 2.0 airframe at LinuxCon Japan on the 31st of May 2013. It features the following refinements:

• Updated tail section to simplify and strengthen
• Updated front fuselage to strengthen
• Updated rear fuselage to strengthen
• Added some reference photographs to assist with build

The airframe is licensed it under the TAPR Open Hardware License 1.0 (http://www.tapr.org/OHL)

You can download the CAD schematics and the bill of materials here:
http://www.opendawn.com/openrelief/documents/CTOL-UAV-2.0.zip

Here is an overview of the specs:
* Length 1.4 meters
* Wing span 1.8 meters
* Chord 30cm
* Uses counter-rotating motors (redundancy, speed, balance, no torque)
* Uses remote servos (wing flaperons, the tail surface) for more storage and ease of repair
* Empty weight 3kg
* Thrust is 12kgs
* Max load 12kg (lift at 100mph/160kph is approx 12kg)
* Endurance is between 1 to 4 hours with existing specifications
* Wings can be repositioned to change CoG for large payloads
* Stringers located on the fuselage to carry the wing, landing gear and other items (modules)
* These channels also hold internal items like the motor via bulkhead rings, for quick changes
* Fuselage can carry liquids (same diameter as 2L bottle of cola)
* Can be launched by rail and use parachute recovery
* Can be fitted with front wheels for conventional landing in rough fields

* CAD files are from Solidworks