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GEMUS Flapping Wing Vehicle

GEMUS Force Transducer Test

November 2025 -

Status: In Progress (Force Transducer Tests)
Under the advising of Dr. Nak-seung Patrick Hyun and alongside Jeffery Zhou and Gilbert Chang, a gliding-enabled, mode-switching, unmanned sensing (GEMUS) flapping wing vehicle is being developed as a control system development platform to better understand how birds with high aspect ratio wings are able to conserve energy via dynamic soaring. The preliminary design has been partially validated through force transducer tests, with wind tunnel tests upcoming for further validation. Currently, the vehicle is capable of producing 515 grams of thrust and 180 grams of lift while weighing around 250 grams.

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Solid Rocket Motor Design and Analysis

Rocket Launch

October 2025 - November 2025

Status: Completed
A custom solid rocket motor utilizing a three-point star port geometry was developed at Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories for use in a model rocket that launched in November 2025, allowing us to validate the accuracy of ballistics and trajectory simulations. The grain geometry, chosen for its high volume loading, was designed in SolidWorks and is estimated to be 4.6" x 1.212" in length and diameter respectively. From ballistics simulations, this H91 class motor was expected to produce around 258.70 Ns of impulse for a burn time of 2.79 seconds while still providing a 1.390 safety factor for maximum chamber pressure. An openMotor ballistics simulation predicted a maximum chamber pressure within 3% of recorded maximum chamber pressure, while a MATLAB trajectory simulation was able to get within 2% of altimeter apogee readings.

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Analyzing the Aerodynamic Performance of Flexible Finite Wings

FEA of Flexible Wing

April 2025

Status: Completed | Deliverables available!
As the final experiment for the Aerodynamics Laboratory (AAE 33401) course, a custom experiment was developed that would test the aerodynamic performance of flexible, finite wings in a wind tunnel. More specifically, these wings would be additively manufactured with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and would have varying levels of stiffness. When faced with high freestream velocities, the most flexible wings yielded surprising aerodynamic and structural behaviors.

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Workflow to Estimate Heat Transfer for High Altitude Flight

MATLAB vs. Ansys Comparison

March 2025 – May 2025

Status: Completed | Deliverables available!
In collaboration with Anish Agarwal, Shreesh Nalatwad, Noah Smith, and Will Stupart, a MATLAB interface was developed to estimate heating characteristics from forced convection and conduction for a simulated sounding rocket. Users are also able to approximate insulation thickness needed to protect avionics and other internals. By leveraging lumped system analysis, simulation time is reduced by over 90% compared to Ansys Fluent while only yielding ~10% error, making this a valuable tool for early rocket design iterations.

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Closed-Loop Control Translational Ornithopter

Unsteady Vortex Lattice Model Simulation

February 2025 – May 2025

Status: Discontinued | Deliverables available!
Under the advising of Dr. Nak-seung Patrick Hyun and in collaboration with Andrew Hadikusumo and Darin Tsai, a biomimetic translational ornithopter robot was in development while Ptera Software's unsteady vortex lattice method was utilized to determine aerodynamic characteristics of the wing-flapping motion based on varying linkage lengths and ranges of motion.

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Unmanned Controls/Avionics Test-Bed

UCAT Version 4

January 2025 – May 2025

Status: Discontinued
Due to a need for low-stakes testing of avionics and control systems for future rocket projects, the Unmanned Controls/Avionics Test-Bed (UCAT) was designed to provide a simple testing vessel for avionic communication range and eventually control surface deflection dynamics.

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VEX Robotics Competition 15" Robot

Competition Robot

February 2024 - March 2024

Status: Completed
Late into the 2023-24 VEX Robotics Competition season, a sub-6-inch height robot in the 15"x15"x15" category was designed that would end up with a record of 5 wins, 4 losses, and recognition for the Design Award at the Illini Cornfield Clash tournament.

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Mars Sample Retrieval Mission Design

Northrop Grumman Space Award 2024 Presentation

September 2023 – December 2023

Status: Completed | Deliverables available!
In collaboration with Alayna Miller, Shreesh Nalatwad, and Nischal Suhas, a 72-page report was authored detailing a hypothetical Mars sample retrieval mission based on mission parameter calculations done in MATLAB with the patched conics approximations.

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