To preface: This will be about my experience with the NDS R&D club because I learned a lot there, but not much in 209.
Going into the semester, I expected to just build a few fixed wing and multi rotor drones, but I ended up leading the effort to go to DCOMP and I am currently still leading a VTOL project for a competition in June. DCOMP is a competition put on by the US Army to build and fly FPV drones in simulated real-world combat scenarios. I ended up testing a lot of varying payload delivery mechanisms in order to deliver a payload accurately from a decent height. After DCOMP, I started leading the effort to build an AI powered autonomous VTOL. The VTOL presented numerous challenges and was different from anything else I had flown. One of the reasons for the VTOL’s challenges was that it was scratch built. However the benefits of scratch building significantly outweigh the drawbacks of purchasing a pre-built VTOL. Scratch building the VTOL gave me the opportunity to tune the VTOL setup exactly how I wanted and enable me to change the configuration when problems arose in test flights. Through my experiences with DCOMP and the VTOL project, I learned a lot about how offboard computers (computers that are separate and more powerful than flight controllers) integrate with flight controllers. I also learned a lot about leading a team project and getting everybody to work together toward the same goal. One of the things that surprised me was how much testing was needed to create a stable and reliable payload delivery mechanism for DCOMP. Many iterations of the payload delivery mechanism were tested and only one decent product came from the testing. However, I am glad I spent all the time testing payload mechanism, because I was the only person to hit the center of the target at DCOMP. That was one of my proudest moments of the semester. As the semester is coming to an end, I am taking my experiences and using them in my internship, where I am building a VTOL drone and using my experience with the competition VTOL to guide my decisions.
