Growing industry
Just as a military technology like GPS became a massive commercial industry, professors Jim Scanlan and Andy Keane, and their talented team at the School of Engineering Sciences at the University of Southampton, foresee that Sulsa, their Unmanned Airborne Vehicle (UAV), will be a commercial hit. Within 10 years the UAV industry is predicted to grow to $55 billion per annum with uses ranging from search and rescue, surveillance, and exploration. The UK has a strong reputation in the field and Sulsa is designed to be printed using latest 3D laser technology, provided by 3T RPD Ltd. They are already busy working with the Antarctic Circle Survey, amongst other clients to deploy a UAV to study global warming.

How it works
Scanlan explains that the 3D printing process starts with a bucket of nylon powder and laser beam - that solidifies bits of it in graduated steps to build up a laminate shape. His team’s expertise is in creating the geometry. ‘In order to make the components strong enough you need intricate geometry on the inside,’ he says. ‘The best analogy, is the human skeleton, if you section a bone you can see inside a very intricate honeycomb structure that is very effective in providing strength. We’ve had to mimic that structure in our work because the nylon is not particularly strong material. That geodesic structure was developed for airships in the 1920s. It’s relatively straightforward to convert that geometry into files and machine instructions for a laser to gradually build up those layers.’

Bespoke printing
The UAV has to take off and land safely and manoeuvre easily. Military UAV systems are very expensive, so one of the things the team have produced is an autopilot that is very cheap compared with military technology. Keeping costs low is a priority, ‘you could imagine a farmer being able to afford a small UAV to keep an eye on his crops and survey his land,’ says Scanlan. ‘He can’t afford to spend  £2million on a system but he might be able to afford £10,000.’

Their department has just launched an MSc course for overseas students to design a UAV from idea to prototype. Their work will include developing monitoring systems for weather, pollution, disasters, enhancing power structures. As Scanlan says, the ultimate goal is to produce bespoke, affordable UAVs, which do useful jobs for people.