Micro Aerial Vehicle / Mohd Hezri Mohd Ghani and Hamidi Yusof

Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) is a new class of flight vehicles, which is much smaller than normal aircraft. Due to its small size, stealth, and availability of micro size camera and sensors, MAV can be used for surveillance, visual reconnaissance and damage assessment. In this project, an attempt was made to design, fabricate and fly an MAV. In the process, detail testing on the MAV aerodynamic and the Astro Firefly System propulsion unit were performed. It was shown that the MAV configuration can fly stably. An MAV weighing 100 gram with maximum dimension of less than 40 cm was successfully fabricated using balsa wood. The power source is 2 170 mAhr lithium polymer battery. The MAV is designed to be controlled using elevons. Flight test of the MAV failed due to insufficient thrust from the propulsion unit. This design failure is due to over estimation of the propulsion unit efficiency as compared to the actual efficiency of 35 -37 percent as determined during the wind tunnel test.