The demand for UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) has drastically increased within the past few years, with proven efficiency for remote sensing use. This paper analyses the feasibility of utilizing recycled plastics from bottles such as, Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) as 3D printing filament, in order to rapidly print foldable UAV airframes for remote sensing use. Previous work has failed to effectively address the process of 3D printing UAVs with a lack of literature pertaining to the ability of 3D printing UAVs with recycled materials and the environmental effects associated with this. To address this issue, this paper presents results analyzing the material properties of commonly used 3D printing filaments with that of the recycled filament, which has proven to be effective in use for this application. This new approach in manufacturing UAVs is expected to significantly benefit the low-cost manufacturing of UAVs, reducing the time taken to obtain UAVs, expanding the operational scope of these systems all whilst reducing the detrimental effects to the environment without any loss of functionality.
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