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End of Semester Review

Expectation vs. Reality

Coming into this class I saw that the Icon for the class looked more maintenance oriented, so I expected to do a lot of mechanical work with the drones. What ended up actually happening was more digital setup of the Believer drone and finally building the drone itself. The experience was actually a little less fun than I was expecting but more tedious.

2. Overview of the Semester

In the early labs we flew the Mavic 2 Pro and the Skydio 2 in a course that is set up to test the pilot when the drone is in sight or when out of sight. The middle of the semester labs was a mix of hands-on learning and system and programing for the Believer drone. The end of the semester we began building the drone when everything was setup.

3. Value of building from scratch

I learned that building from scratch is a difficult process that has a lot of system setup and programming. Once that is done then you can begin building the drone itself and placing the components into the body and carefully run the wires through the body and connect them properly or else everything will be different and cause problems later. This differs from drones that you can buy built and ready to go because this is like your baby and you care for it more and put more effort into it. This made me respect drone engineering more.

4. Skill Growth and Technical Learning

This helped me gain more experience in wire running and soldering. With the online programming and system management I got new experience with the ground system and on how to program a drone. I learned more on how to troubleshoot with drones as well in this semester.

5. What Surprised you

Programming was harder than I thought and building the drone was easier than I thought but still came with plenty of hitches while working. The challenges that came with building the drone and putting it together was most educational to me.

6. What are You Most Proud Of

I am most proud of my skill in being able to look at a drone that is already built and taking mental notes and physical notes then transferring what I had seen and learned into the drone that we are building. I helped solve a problem with the motor mounts by bring it up with the team and going to the professor with it.

7. Overall Takeaway

This course helped me be more confident when working with drone hardware and software. The things I can take into future work is how to solder and effective track wires and find where they go and what the connect to then replicate that into my own project. The biggest value from this semester to me is how to get hands on with a drone and be able to put one together properly and be successful.

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