A fellow I know overseas, who teaches college level engineering, has asked me to advise him and his student on a project this year of building an autonomous drone.
After some initial dialog, I decided to prepare a list of drone building “fundamentals” that may help them succeed.
I’d appreciate any comments on this list.
Drone Building Fundamentals.pdf (443.8 KB)
When I teach this, I order things differently. For example: GPS accuracy and limitations is part of the Flight Controller discussion. Autonomy and mission wouldn’t be discussed until after the drone is built and tuned.
Teach students to use multi-meters, not smoke stoppers. Using a multi meter (rather than a smoke stopper) will lay down some basics that can be used for troubleshooting later.
I have a different take on Safety & Risk Management. I address some specific safety items that would be new to students early on (battery handling, props-off, etc) but main core has to come from demonstration, and proper practice while working. Set the expectation of safe work practices and lead by example as we’re working forward. If you want people to be safe it needs to be part of every aspect of the operation and built in to the work flow. When it’s just a bullet point on a PPT slide deck it’s a waste of time.
I could go on, but it would be key to know who the students are (college level engineering can mean a lot of things depending on the country your in) and what is the goal of the course? Is it to fly a drone, build a drone, design their own drone, etc.
Thank you @Allister for taking a look at this list.
I agree with your comments - and I appreciate them.
The event that prompted this list is a little complicated. I’ll do my best to explain.
The fellow who reached out to me is from the middle east. He was educated in England, but has returned home now. He’s working on a doctorate himself - remotely from England. He teaches engineering students at a university in his home country. He has some experience with engineering on full scale aircraft, and has followed ArduPilot for 3 or 4 years. This is how I came to his attention.
A student of his wants to build an autonomous quad-copter as a class project this year - and this fellow reached out to me for help and guidance.
I asked some probing questions and discovered that this fellow really wasn’t well versed on many of these fundamentals - which I expect is why he reached out for help.
It’s one thing for a DIY drone builder to learn as they go. But in an academic setting, milestones and schedules don’t provide that luxury.
So I put together this list of “fundamentals” to serve two purposes - to allow me to know where these people are starting from - and to alert them to what to be prepared for.
With a little input from me, I actually had Microsoft Co-Pilot generate this list of fundamentals. I thought it would be a bit of a time saver for me - and I only needed a place to start.
As you’ve had a role in this sort of education, your thoughts, comments and ideas are of great value. Thank you.