Embry-Riddle Drone Summer Camp

Flying drones for fun is great, but they have so much more potential than most people think. Instead of using drones as toys, there are many practical uses. Adding autonomy to drones can allow for new possibilities, such as land surveying or package delivery. Tasks that used to be otherwise strenuous or boring for regular drone pilots can now be accomplished with a lot more ease. Last week, I attended a drone summer camp at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Embry-Riddle is one of the best aeronautical universities in the U.S and even the world. They offer a variety of degrees focused in aviation, engineering, and cyber-security. During this camp, the members in my camp group built and flew autonomous quadcopters along with some DJI Phantoms/Inspires and RC airplanes. We also spent some time in the classroom with the UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) professor. UAS focuses on the systems around and inside unmanned aerial vehicles. For the autonomous quadcopters, we used the f450 frame along with 1000kv motors + 30a ESCs and a 2200mah battery. To add autonomy, we used the Pixhawk Flight Controller running an open-source software known as Ardupilot with a GPS/Compass. The flight controller was able to be programmed using a software called Mission Planner. In this program, you can create a flight plan with waypoints, change the altitude/speed of the drone, disarm/arm, and do many other things. Besides a few friends and I, most of the other people in our group had little to no experience with building drones. We decided to split up and help the others build their quads. I felt that this particular experience was very beneficial, as it improved and refined my building skills through teaching. After the building was complete, we tested the motors and made sure everything was working correctly. We went out to the RC field and programmed a flight plan to all of our drones. I was surprised to see that all the drones followed their routes without any problems and flew well. At this point in the camp, we still had a few more days left to fly, as our professors had underestimated the time it would take for us to build the drones. We spent the rest of the camp flying RC planes and DJI drones. I didn't have much experience with flying RC planes prior to going to this camp, but I was able to learn and improve my RC plane flying skills a lot. On the last day of camp, most people in our group flew DJI Phantom 4s at the same time in formation and patterns while my friend and I flew/controlled the camera on a DJI Inspire to get some video of the other drones flying. The Inspire requires two pilots: one to fly the drone, and one to operate the camera gimbal. Although the actual building and flying of the quadcopters in this summer camp was a bit too simple for my skill level, I still enjoyed it. I did learn some new things about autonomous quads, UAS, and flying RC airplanes. See photos and videos here.