{"id":9766,"date":"2012-06-08T11:36:28","date_gmt":"2012-06-08T15:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=9766"},"modified":"2012-06-08T11:36:28","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T15:36:28","slug":"unionville-grad-taking-human-power-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=9766","title":{"rendered":"Unionville grad taking human power to new heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

’04 grad Cameron Robertson working on design of human-powered helicopter<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Cameron Robertson, a 2004 graduate of Unionville High School is part of a team of engineers and designers attempting to build the first workable human-power helicopter.<\/p><\/div>\n

Since the days of Leonardo Da Vinci, man has dreamt of powering a helicopter by his own set of arms and legs \u2014 the ultimate air bicycle.<\/p>\n

For these 500 years, many have tried and failed, but a Unionville High School grad is playing a key role on a team that seems poised for a breakthrough.<\/p>\n

Cameron Robertson, a 2004 graduate of UHS, is working with Dr. Todd Reichert and a team of Toronto-based engineering professionals and students to build the Atlas human-powered helicopter as part of the AeroVelo team.<\/p>\n

They hope to capture the $250,000 Sikorsky Prize, awarded to the first successful human-powered helicopter to hover for one minute and reach an altitude of three meters. Although there have been multiple attempts to win the prize since it was announced in 1980, no one has been able to make it work.<\/p>\n

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Robertson working with his team, assembling the wing root structural elements.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really interesting engineering challenge,\u201d Robertson said this week via phone from Toronto. The challenge, he said,\u00a0 is building a craft light enough to be powered by the physical power \u2014 typically pedaling \u2014 of a single human.<\/p>\n

Robertson and his colleagues are using a combination of exotic light-weight materials \u2014 carbon fiber tubes \u2014 and custom modeling software to optimize weight, balance and performance. Many of the challenges are similar to a previous project the team worked on, an ornithopter \u2014 or flapping wing aircraft.<\/p>\n

The project is being funded through private sponsorship and a campaign on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter<\/a> \u2014 with a goal of raising $30,000 to fund the project (they\u2019ve raised a little more than $17,000 so far with about a week to go). The total project has a budget of $170,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Robertson (left) and his colleagues moving a partially-assembled wing section out for a test fit.<\/p><\/div>\n

And based on his track record, Robertson, a former Chadds Ford resident, seems poised to be part of another aeronautical breakthrough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel like we have the design expertise, after working on the ornithopter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The trick, he says, is size \u2014 but, understandably doesn\u2019t want to elaborate much and give away trade secrets. But, in general, the vehicle needs a lot of lift area, which means big, but limited power, it must also be light. That\u2019s the real engineering challenge, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of what we\u2019re looking for is a significant increase in efficiency,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Robertson has an M.A.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Toronto. He was part of the team that designed and built the Snowbird, the first successful human-powered ornithopter (flapping-wing aircraft). His expertise in composite construction techniques and materials engineering led to the incredibly lightweight structure which was key to the success of the Snowbird.<\/p>\n

In 2011, together Robertson and Reichert became the youngest recipients of the Trans Canada McKee Trophy, the highest senior award offered by the Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute.<\/p>\n

Robertson admits it is likely that the copter program won\u2019t have a commercial application \u2014 beyond the general use of light-weight materials and computer-aided optimization. But the team is also working on a related commercial product: a highly aerodynamic recombinant bicycle he says could be capable of going 70 MPH \u2014 a potential green commuting option down the road.<\/p>\n

While while human-powered copters might not be flying overhead anytime soon, Robertson said he thought that many of the advances could be used for High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) craft, lightly powered (solar or hydrogen fuel-cell) platforms that could replace some satellites \u2014 at a much lower cost, and with the ability to be more easily taken out of service and upgraded or repaired.<\/p>\n

While he says he can\u2019t really point to one thing from his days walking the halls at Unionville High that propelled him in this direction, he said he felt the school gave him an excellent foundation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always interested in this sort of stuff, I come from a family of engineers,\u201d he said. \u201cBut my time at Unionville was fun.\u201d He noted that he especially enjoyed his AP Physics class \u2014 but he also found time for more down to earth activities, such as playing on the school\u2019s rugby team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

’04 grad Cameron Robertson working on design of human-powered helicopter By Mike McGann, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com Since the days of Leonardo Da Vinci, man has dreamt of powering a helicopter by his own set of arms and legs \u2014 the ultimate air bicycle. For these 500 years, many have tried and failed, but a Unionville High […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[1442,1440,1443,1441,1444,24],"class_list":["post-9766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-carbon-fiber-tubes","tag-human-powered-helicopter","tag-ornithopter","tag-sikorsky-prize","tag-trans-canada-mckee-trophy","tag-unionville"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}