Scoop Water Tank and Collection Design
- Alison Thompson
- Conall Kingshott
Big Project | Project | Project Manager |
|---|---|---|
Comp 2025 | Payload | @Alison Thompson |
Task Description
In order to deliver water, we’ll need somewhere to store it, this task is to design what we use to do so. We’re open to ideas for how we do this, but it needs to be fully sealed other than when collecting and dumping water.
This is Conall’s brainchild so the description is gonna be vague, read updates for a better idea.
Constraints
Constraints | Written By | Append Date |
|---|---|---|
holds ~2.5L of water | @Alison Thompson | Sep 25, 2024 |
total weight <=1kg | @Alison Thompson | Sep 25, 2024 |
Task
Task Progression/Updates
Author: @Conall Kingshott Date: 2024/09/21
Initial Ideation (ripped by Alison from AEAC 2025 Design Sprint )
Initial research on pumps seems to show that pumps on the scale we can fit in the payload have insufficient flow rate for our use-case. A custom peristaltic pump with servo power and multiple parallel flows could be worth investigating, but my designer’s instinct is that there is a reason they all have such low flow rates.
Peristaltic Pump 12V DC Miniature Laboratory high Flow 220ml/min Kamoer KHPP260 self-Priming Circulation Pump Small Liquid dosing Pump
As far as designing the payload without a pump, I believe designs with a hinged flap will struggle to be water-tight because you will need such a strong force to keep the flap closed with a long moment arm. The first design I’ve sketched out would be a cone in 3D with a top and bottom plate with some kind of o-ring or gasket. The red stage in this sketch is stationary. The payload is submerged in water in the first image. Air can escape out the top as it fills with water. Then, the black cone is moved upwards, creating a seal on the top and bottom. Then the black cone is lowered again to release water. Ideally this can all be rigged up to be controlled by one servo.
Below is a similar concept. It is less geometrically complex, but when you release the water, it will flow out at the edges.
Author: @Conall Kingshott Date: 2024/09/21
Landing Gear and Barrel Geometry
Worked on some basic geometry sketches and the concept is less easily executed than I thought it would be originally. The first image below is the basic geometry of the drone with a hypothetical angled landing gear below it. The triangular shape in the middle of the landing gear is the above-described water collection mechanism. The drone is hovered over the barrel.
The image below is the drone in its “landed” state with the water collection system fully submerged in the barrel and the angled landing gear on the lip of the drone to keep it in place.
The water collection unit is less deeply submerged than I would have liked. I will work on some geometry tweaks like shortening the height and widening the width of the collection cone to try and make some small improvements.
If the height of the cone is 5”, the volume is 2.5L and we can complete 15 cycles.
If the height of the cone is 7” we get 3.5L and a total of 7 cycles.
The exact specifics of the geometry we want to use can be finalized in the long term, but these volume calculations are promising.
Author: @Conall Kingshott Date: 2024/11/06
CAD Updates
The previous plan was to mount off the angled landing gear at the bottom, but this proved really awkward to package. Instead, the mechanism will be mounted off the bottom side of the center-block of the x-frame.
The initial plan for mounting the servo during ideation was to have it close to the top face of the cone, but that would result in the servo being submerge in water when the drone lands. Instead, the servo will be mounted at the top of the mechanism. A line will then be fed all the way down through the carbon fiber tube and attach to a bar on the bottom of the cone which will pull it up.