A Retrospective Analysis of System Engineering Data Collection Metrics for a 3D Printed UAS Design

The authors recently executed a project in which we twice exercised the full product lifecycle of conceiving, designing, building, and testing a UAS. The process was fully instrumented, with a captured history of all key process metrics to include a full design history, software tools used, prototypes created, and person-hours performed per person and per task; all synchronized to key design reviews and events. The UAS were primarily constructed from additively manufactured polymer components, a technology that directly affected the product development lifecycle. All of the design/build raw product and metrics collected are being made available digitally to the design research community for analysis. This paper introduces the design process products to the community, presents a retrospective examination of the data collected during the design process, and provides summary results along with anecdotal lessons learned during the course of the project.