Mechatronic Design and Kinematic Analysis of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: Hexacopter for Medical Support in Rural-Remote Areas

Abstract

Peru is a country with several areas that are difficult to access by land; likewise, the country has different communities located in these sectors, which makes it difficult to access medical teams to attend to emergency cases in these towns, which consequently increases the mortality rate of the local inhabitants, which according to INEI data, in the department of Madre de Dios amounts to 540 deaths. The transport of medical supplies with drones has a high potential to save lives during a medical emergency, therefore, in mid-2022, students of the Ricardo Palma University of the Faculty of Mechatronics Engineering propose the use of a transport robot. Air transport of first aid and medical material together with real-time communication equipment for hard-to-reach areas. In this research topic, the 3D mechatronic design is presented using SolidWorks software and for the kinematic analysis of the robot in which its roll, pitch, and yaw rotation axes are defined, Matlab R2019a, in addition, the equations of motion of the drone are obtained in this project. The board used for the programming of the robot is a Raspberry Pi 4. In addition, the aerial transport robot has a camera with night vision capability and a speaker for situation recognition and assistance, an infrared sensor for landing assistance, and lights for night recognition. It also has an external power recharging system with solar energy. In the future, it is estimated that the drone would work in the province of Manu, located in the department of Madre de Dios, as it has different native communities, approximately 496 people, which are located in regions that are very difficult to access.