Learning by Building: Design and Construction of an Autonomous Drone
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Two computer science students, two electrical engineering students, and six mechanical engineering students joined forces under the direction of Gloria Melara and Vidya Nandikolla to build a drone from the ground up. The goal of the project was to emphasize engineering design, innovation, communication, small group collaboration and critical thinking skills, while seamlessly integrating concepts from the different engineering disciplines into a real-world robotics system. “You can buy a drone off the shelf, but we didn’t want the students to do that,” Nandikolla explains. “They were required to research the integration of the electromechanical components—motors, microprocessor, batteries, controllers, etc.—and they had to match each component so everything would fit together. Most important, the design requirements had budget constraints.” The student team developed the drone’s design in house, researched the electromechanical components, flight control system, mechanical structure, microcontroller programming and motor speed controls. By the end of the summer, they had put together a drone that flew and navigated to a certain location. Work on refining the drone has continued into the academic year.