Abstract
Thesis Project Portfolio
ICARUS-1—Dragonfly Unmanned Aerial System
(Technical Report)
Exploring Perception of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Law Enforcement
(STS Research Paper)
An Undergraduate Thesis
Presented to the Faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Science
University of Virginia • Charlottesville, Virginia
In Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
Bachelor of Science, School of Engineering
Justin Matara
Spring, 2026
Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
ICARUS-1—Dragonfly Unmanned Aerial System
Exploring Perception of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Law Enforcement
Prospectus
Executive Summary
Violent crime decreased 4.5% in 2024 (FBI, 2025), but law enforcement agencies face a dilemma. Police officers must respond to emergency calls, conduct patrols, traffic stops, collect evidence from crime scenes, and uphold public safety on a daily basis. However, police departments are overburdened, facing a nationwide 10% staffing deficit (IACP, 2024). Ground vehicles, radios, and helicopters extend officers’ reach, but are imperfect solutions. Faster helicopters cannot fit narrow streets while larger police vehicle fleets require more human officers. Residents expect crime prevention, prompt responses, and equitable policing regardless of labor shortages.
UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are one solution to this dilemma. They serve as miniature “eyes in the skies” for police departments, protecting the public while conserving individual officers, being controlled from a distance. UAVs vary from propeller-based quadcopters to plane-like fixed-wing drones, to bio-inspired designs. This latter category pairs the maneuverability and efficiency provided by propeller based and fixed-wing aircraft. One proposed bio-inspired UAV adopts dragonfly flight dynamics with four independently controlled flapping wings. The flexibility suits the varied roles police departments have for UAVs from emergency response to traffic monitoring. However, UAVs have their flaws. Their deployment raises questions about data leaks, digital sabotage, and over-intrusive technology. My research project explores the rhetorical battle as relevant stakeholders seek to stabilize the emerging sociotechnical system of UAVs on their own terms.
Various micro-aerial vehicle designs have emerged across fields such as law enforcement. Most UAVs or drones are quadcopters; they house a central flight controller propelled by four equally spaced rotors as depicted in Figure 1. They are cheap, simple to build, and can easily hover, turn, ascend and descend. However, quadcopters are loud when operating, detrimental for surveillance missions. They also struggle in narrower spaces with their inherently stable rotors. Conversely, fixed-wing drones resemble airplanes, extending their range, stealth, and forward flight speed. Their fixed wings cannot hover or vertically take off and land, lacking static lift generation (Rennie, 2016).
ICARUS-1, the bio-inspired UAV or “robotic dragonfly” flies using four independently controlled flapping wings powered by brush DC motors and bent crankshafts. A battery powers the motors, driving the crankshaft that converts rotational motion into wing flapping. This system propels the UAV forward and has it rise, fall, turn while moving, and hover. Dragonfly-like wings boast up to a 230% higher lift to weight ratio than comparably sized quadcopter rotors, increasing flight efficiency (Liang et al, 2023). The wings connected to a central lightweight central structure housing the flight controller, translating user-given inputs into motion, and electronics powering the UAV. ICARUS-1 sought to fly forward at 0.5 m/sec and have a camera to record onboard footage like other quadcopters. Our design consisted of off-the-shelf parts to decrease costs and provide team members with valuable experience in designing, prototyping, and manufacturing. We also applied knowledge from projects like DFly-1 in Nanjing, China (Cheng et al., 2025), another dragonfly-based UAV with tandem wings moving in pairs. Our team focused on developing independently controlled wings, a major design challenge. They provide greater responsiveness and better fit into tighter spaces. However, the four independent wings increase weight with two additional DC motors. Our control scheme and computational models predicting lift have more variables, adding points of failure. We addressed those added issues with clear sub-teams and constant intragroup communication, effectively leveraging our team’s fifteen members to split challenges into smaller design hurdles.
Inequity is a major concern in law enforcement. Communities experience over-policing, needless scrutiny and excessive arrests, or under-policing, neglect by law enforcement agencies (Boehme et al, 2020). These tensions fuel perceptions of hostile police-community relations, as residents expect unresponsiveness from those charged with protecting them. Supporters frame UAVs as an answer to those tensions by identifying gaps in patrols and better allocating human officers. California’s Chula Vista Police Department (CVPD) provides one such example. Their California law enforcement agency leads the nation in police drone use (Basu, 2024), having 8883 deployed flights since 2022 (Hargrove et al, 2024) for their DFR (Drone as a First Responder) program. Their deployment generated controversy as residents filed a lawsuit against the CVPD to disclose drone footage. My project aimed to compare local news coverage to city correspondence on the case. I employed comparative analysis of these sources to reveal the interpretative flexibility of the CVPD and local residents, as both groups seek to impose their perspective on ethical police drone operation. I also researched how demographics such as race, wealth, or political affiliation influence public perception of police drones. Understanding why exactly the lawsuit was filed and its wider implications on the burgeoning field of UAVs in law enforcement.
Notes
School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
Technical Advisor: Haibo Dong
STS Advisor: Kent Wayland
Technical Team Members: Kathryn Geoffroy, George Zach, Lily Byers, Matthew Sendi, Jeremiah Nubbe, James Scullin, Nicholas Owen, Luis Ramos-Garcia, Mark Piatko, Jafar Mansoor, Theodore LengKong, Owen McKenney, Carter Nickola, Andrew Golemon-Mercer
