The birth of the Aeronautics Project coincides with the foundation of Aristotle Space and Aeronautics Team (A.S.A.T.) in October 2015. The Project’s initial goal was to participate in a worldwide aerospace competition, the Air Cargo Challenge (ACC) 2017. With that in mind, Nephele I, the team’s first Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) was designed and constructed. This was an experimental layout that would test the skills and experience of the team in the field of UAV design. With the completion of the first flights of Nephele I, crucial data and experience was obtained, leading to the creation of the optimized Nephele II, an aircraft mainly constructed from balsa wood and carbon fiber. The participation in the ACC 2017 with Nephele II was a significant milestone, as we managed to achieve the 12th place among 36 participants, the 1st place among the newcomers and the 1st place among the Greek teams.
Important changes in the Project’s structure followed and the new members, aiming at enhancing their technical and theoretical knowledge, decided to participate in the ACC 2019 with two UAVs based on different configurations. The competition took place in Stuttgart, Germany. Our team’s first UAV was Nephele III, which was constructed using the same methods as its two predecessors, but showed improved performance. The second UAV, named Aurora, was a completely new aircraft layout, following the motor-glider configuration. It was constructed mainly from composite materials, which was a huge step for our team in terms of new design principles and manufacturing techniques. Aurora is also the fastest and largest, in terms of dimensions, aircraft the team has built so far. ACC 2019 turned out to be a success for our team, as Aurora and Nephele III got the 10th and 12th place respectively in the global ranking, while A.S.A.T. retained its title as the best aerospace team in Greece.
After the outbreak of the covid pandemic, ACC2021 was postponed for a year, giving time to the team to invest in new ideas and manufacturing methods. Under this context Anemone, a UAV entirely made out of composite materials, was made in our team’s laboratory. Anemone’s mission was to host electrical equipment fot the collection of flight data. The experience that team gained from Anemone, during the test flights and her manufacture, led to the proper preparation of the next team’s project, Aeolus which was made once again in our laboratory from composite materials, and it was meant to participate in the 2022 ACC in Munich, Germany. In ACC of 2022, our team won the 9th place in the international ranking and 1st in Greece. Aeolus managed to complete 5 fligths without any technical problem at all.
After the competition, Aeolus completed several test flights, testing the electrical equipment that will be used in the team’s next project, Phoenix. Phoenix is a solar UAV whose mission is to supervise forest areas, detect wildfires and inform the fire authorities. Fire detection will be achieved through deep learning models based on artificial neural networks with image input from a camera. The UAV will have a 6-hour autonomy by the help of the solar cells integrated to the upper surface of the wing. This project is a challenge for the team as it will be one of the biggest UAVs that the team has ever built, with a very complicated mission that requires the right cooperation with many engineers form various fields. Phoenix so far, managed to win impressions by giving the team distinctions in competitions such as Greentech, Greenathlon, Smart Forest Innovation Challenge and redbull’s basement in which Phoenix represented Greece in the world finals in Istanbul, March 2022. Phoenix is currently in the design phase and we are testing its electronic equipment as well as the manufacturing methods that will be applied.
