Tanner Research, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: N201-X01

Description

Accurately delivering small payloads (<1 kg) short distances (~2 km) using autonomous Group 1 UAS is vital during disaster relief and recovery operations, particularly where the terrain or geopolitical situation hampers rescuers such that air delivery addressing the ‘last mile’ problems is the only effective option. With today’s global economies of scale and lack of a domestic industrial base for sUAS components, the typical sUAS cannot be rapidly manufactured, assembled, and delivered in an appropriate time window, in large quantities. While this lack of a domestic supply chain cannot be solved overnight, the judicious design of airframe implementation and ready adaptable use of commodity electronic/mechanical components can dramatically improve this supply chain issue. Tanner’s proposal to solve this problem is to avoid using these hard to procure, long-lead-time, high-end components, by designing a sUAS system that will operate with commodity electronics and domestically available low-cost materials.