BRAVE

This project’s goal was to devise a plan for ‘building rescue using air vehicle extraction’ (BRAVE) and design an air rescue drone to suit this goal. This was a direct response to recent events where conventional means of rescue have failed victims trapped in the building. A new idea was proposed with the intention to save lives in the future. The vehicle was designed to be a quick response, unmanned system which reduces risk to personnel and can reach the tallest parts of a given buildings. This unmanned vehicle was unique because it could carry people to safety on the ground at a size which was manoeuvrable in urban areas.

From the conceptual design of a full-scale model, based on previous industry vehicles, a scale prototype was, focusing on three main areas of design and research: the structure of the vehicle; the propulsion system and a rescue mechanism. The structure of the vehicle was based on typical aircraft fuselage design and was optimized to be lightweight and for additive manufacturing using a type of plastic. The propulsion system was a bespoke rotor, designed specifically with the requirements of maximum diameter and the all-up weight (AUW) in consideration. Finally, the rescue mechanism was designed to demonstrate that of the conceptual model. The result was a scaled prototype, which demonstrated a working rescue mechanism, but was not able to demonstrate this during flight