{"id":58282,"date":"2016-04-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-mechanical-engineering-students-refine-wingman-device-to-prevent-airplane-wingtip-collisions-on-ground\/"},"modified":"2016-04-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T00:00:00","slug":"uri-mechanical-engineering-students-refine-wingman-device-to-prevent-airplane-wingtip-collisions-on-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2016\/04\/uri-mechanical-engineering-students-refine-wingman-device-to-prevent-airplane-wingtip-collisions-on-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 mechanical engineering students refine ‘Wingman’\u2014device to prevent airplane wingtip collisions on ground"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I., April 12, 2016\u2014The \u201cWingman\u201d is taking off in a new direction.<\/p>\n


\nMechanical engineering students at the 溏心vlog免费B站 have refined a device created by students two years ago that can prevent wingtips on planes from colliding while the aircrafts are being towed on the ground.<\/p>\n


\nThe device\u2014now called the Wingman 360\u2014has caught the attention of Delta Airlines, which is so interested in the project it has agreed to field test a prototype of the design.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThis is an incredible opportunity for our students,\u201d says Bahram Nassersharif, a 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering professor who is overseeing the project. \u201cThe students are not only learning about aviation and airport operations, but also about creating a new device that has the potential to significantly mitigate on-ground aircraft collisions and wing damage during maintenance operations.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe 5-pound, plastic device temporarily attaches to a plane\u2019s wingtip with suction cups. Ultrasonic sensors in the device detect when the aircraft is getting perilously close to another plane on the ground or the wall of a hangar as it\u2019s being towed.<\/p>\n


\nIn 2014, 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering students created a device, but it was only capable of a maximum detection angle of 90 degrees and suitable for small planes, not large aircraft. (The device was so highly regarded it won first place in a national Federal Aviation Administration competition.)<\/p>\n


\nWingman 360 has a 180-degree field of view, making it even more effective. The device is also versatile; it can be mounted on different areas of the wingtip. Plus, the price is right: $2,200 for two devices\u2014one for each wingtip\u2014and a module.<\/p>\n


\nThe new system offers a different way of signaling a possible wingtip mishap. The old device emitted warning lights and sounds, which had to be seen by the worker towing the aircraft. Wingman 360 sends a signal to a module, or box, on the tug\u2019s dashboard, triggering a buzzer and lights.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIn the past, airline workers needed to be physically looking at the wing to see the lights,\u201d says Laura Corvese, of Portsmouth, a senior engineering student working on the project. \u201cYou can imagine how hard that would be to manage. It would be very difficult to tow an airplane and look at the wings at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe device would not be permanently attached to the plane. Workers would put it on the aircraft\u2019s wingtips when a plane is being moved to a hangar.<\/p>\n


\nCorvese and three other mechanical engineering majors on \u201cProject Runway\u201d\u2014Mitchell Contente of Bristol, Cody McMillian of Portsmouth and Gilbert Resto of Providence\u2014created the project for their senior capstone design project, a yearlong class that requires students to solve real-world problems with viable products. Nassersharif taught the class.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe took a lot of the students\u2019 creative ideas from two years ago and used them in a different way,\u201d says Corvese. \u201cOne of the major changes is that the new device is better for bigger planes.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nResto, who did much of the electrical work and coding for the device, says it was exciting as a college student to work with Delta Airlines, an international company: \u201cIt\u2019s a great opportunity to have a hands-on experience and apply everything I\u2019ve learned in my undergraduate career,\u201d says Resto, who recently accepted a job with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport.<\/p>\n


\nContente agreed: \u201cThis capstone project is invaluable. It taught us how to see a design through from beginning to end\u2014from early concepts to the final production model,\u201d says Contente, who found a job after graduation at Sensata, an engineering firm in Attleboro, Mass. <\/p>\n


\nDelta learned about the 2014 Wingman last year and reached out to 溏心vlog免费B站, for good reason: Aircraft wingtip collisions and damages are costly for airlines. Impressed with the students\u2019 work, the airlines decided to sponsor the capstone design program for mechanical engineering.<\/p>\n


\nCollaborating with Delta has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the students say. Delta representatives visited the 溏心vlog免费B站 students on campus, and the students toured the company\u2019s headquarters in Atlanta, where they met with top engineers and learned about aviation design.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cOur Wingman has the potential to be something very big,\u201d says Corvese, who plans to attend Boston University in the fall to pursue her master\u2019s degree in mechanical engineering and robotics. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to think that something I worked on with my team of friends might actually be used on a national level.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe prototype will be finished at the end of the month. The students are expected to test the device on a large aircraft, possibly at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe\u2019ve taken this from a concept to a design to a build in less than a year,\u201d says McMillian, who landed a job in the fall with Raytheon. \u201cTo see it in action so soon will be really rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe students will present a poster about their project during the American Society for Engineering Education Northeast Conference April 28 through 30 on the Kingston campus. The conference topic this year is \u201cRevolutionizing Engineering Education.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\u201cExperiences like this capstone project are revolutionizing engineering education at 溏心vlog免费B站,\u201d says Nassersharif. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible for our students to be on the leading edge of aviation design.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above: The \u201cProject Runway\u201d team of 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering seniors, left to right: Mitchell Contente; design engineer; Gilbert Resto, electrical design engineer; Laura Corvese, team leader; and Cody McMillian, financial analyst.

\nPhoto courtesy of 溏心vlog免费B站 engineering professor Bahram Nassersharif.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I., April 12, 2016\u2014The \u201cWingman\u201d is taking off in a new direction. Mechanical engineering students at the 溏心vlog免费B站 have refined a device created by students two years ago that can prevent wingtips on planes from colliding while the aircrafts are being towed on the ground. The device\u2014now called the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}