Waterloo DefenceWaterloo, Ontario

Waterloo Defence

Autonomous defence systems

A University of Waterloo student design team. We design and build our own autonomous defence systems.

Recon VTOL

Reconnaissance is won by whoever stays up longest, and it should not cost more than what it is watching. Ours launches from open ground with no runway or crew, then cruises on the wing instead of hovering.

Autonomous CUAS Turret

Drones account for 70-90% of military casualties in modern warfare. Our solution is an autonomous turret that snipes them down mid-flight, accounting for bullet speed, drag, and wind speed.

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We recruit every term, in every discipline.

Recon VTOL · all-weather platformScroll ↓
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Projects
Recon

Recon VTOL

Hovering burns power fast, which is why a quadcopter measures flight time in minutes. A fixed-wing plane is far more efficient but needs a runway. This drone does both. Four rotors lift it straight up, then it pitches forward and the wing takes over, so power only goes into hovering during takeoff and landing. The camera underneath sits on a motorized mount that moves opposite to the airframe, cancelling vibration and wind so the image stays steady. The body is sealed against dust and water, and it launches from open ground with no runway, catapult, or ground crew.

Autonomy

Autonomous CUAS Turret

A rifle on a powered mount that rotates horizontally and vertically. A camera detects a drone against the background and tracks it across frames to measure its speed and heading. The bullet takes time to reach the target, loses speed to air resistance, and drops over that distance. The computer calculates where the drone will be when the bullet arrives and aims at that point, correcting for bullet speed, air resistance, and crosswind. The motors drive the mount to the aim point and hold it. The operator fires from a position away from the gun.

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