Introduction

In this project we have to analyze a small drone system which is designed to deliver medical supplies to
a remote area in Africa. The curise speed of the drone is 30 MPH and it carries mass of m kg. It flies at a
height of h feet. It is necessary to estimate the time of release so, it could safely land on the desired
target point.

Background and Methods Used

This drone load problem can be mathematically modeled using the following set of differential
equations:
mvẋ = −12CdxρAxvx2 … … … … … … … . . (1)
mvẏ = mg − 12CdyρAyvy2 … … … … … … … . . (2)

The MATLAB’s ODE solver will be used to solve this problem.

Matlab Code

The matlab codes used to solve this problem is given in the Appendix. Matlab ODE solver ODE45 is used
to solve the system of differential equations. The system of differential equation is defined inside the
function ode_fun.m. Then the main_script.m is used to pass this function to ODE45 to get the solution
for velocity. The format of this function is given as following
[time vel] = ode45(@ode_fun,[0 100],[30 0]);
The first parameter of this function the system of differential equations, the second parameter is
the time and third parameter is velocity. The ode45 function returns velocity and time vectors.
Then the velocity is plotted in figure 1. The distance is calculated by integrating the velocity
vector.

Assumptions
 Ax = 1.8
 Ay = 2.3
 Cdx = 1.35
 Cdy = 1.85
 h = 169
 g = 9.81
 m = 215
 air density= 0.0765
 vx = 30

Analysis
Figure 1 shows the velocity vs time graph for the system. It can be seen that at time 43.24 seconds the
package hits the ground and when the package hits the ground its velocity is 113.7 MPH.
 Figure 1 Velocity vs Time

The distance from which the package needs to be dropped is 20.9=05 feet.
 Figure 2 Distance vs Time

Conclusion

In this project we have analyzed a small drone system which is designed to deliver medical supplies to a
remote area in Africa. First the velocity at which the package hits the ground is calculated then the time
at which the package hits the ground is calculated. Finally, the optimum height at which the package
should be released is calculated.
Appendix
clc
close all
clear all
[time vel] = ode45(@ode_fun,[0 100],[30 0]);
plot(time,vel(:,2),'linewidth',2)
xlabel('Time (s)')
ylabel('Velocity (MPH)')
grid on
%Find Distance
figure
plot(time,vel(:,1),'linewidth',2)
xlabel('Time (s)')
ylabel('Distance (feet)')
grid on

distance = cumtrapz(vel(:,2));
figure
plot(time,distance,'r','linewidth',2)
xlabel('Time (s)')
ylabel('Distance (feet)')
grid on

function dv = ode_fun(t,v)
Ax = 1.8;
Ay = 2.3;
Cdx = 1.35;
Cdy = 1.85;
g = 9.81;
m = 215;
h = 169;
rho = 0.0765; % density of air
dv = zeros(2,1);
dv(1) = -(1/2)*(1/m)*(Cdx*rho*Ax*(v(1)).^2);%vx
dv(2) = g - (1/m)*(1/2)*Cdy*rho*Ay*(v(2).^2); %vy