Engineers Save Lives 2018 Drone Workshop

We ran another drones4good workshop for the Engineers Save Lives programme @UCLEngEdu last weekend. As you can see from the video above, there was a bit of an issue with the furniture, so all the groups got split up this time. Unfortunately, the main time lapse is a bit boring because of this, but we got some great photos of the flying going on around the rest of the building.

First casualty, the new improved dragonfly

The first casualty of the day was the new dragonfly model. This is now very light due to the new wing structure and flies very well. A little too well in fact, as it got bound to the wrong transmitter on its maiden flight, jumped up into the air, slammed into the wall and then hit the ground on a wing tip. You can see the damage above, so that one's not going to fly again. I quickly set up the other dragonfly and showed the students that it really does work. Interestingly, this time around most of the kit seems to have survived. We lost a few of the motors and we expect to lose frames, but nothing like last time when most of the motors were destroyed.

New this time are: Honey Bee and Dragonfly 2. AeroTurtle has also had an upgrade.

Lots of flying got done this time, all around the building because of the furniture being dumped in our usual flying zone.

The H-Frame works very well and now has improved motor mounts.

In addition to this, we also showed them the Lima simulator and a micro FPV drone, which they can take drone selfies with.

We wouldn't let them fly the real DJI F450, but we do show them the sensors and let them fly it on the simulator.

Camera looking at a screen, looking through the eyes of the FPV drone looking at you wearing goggles, seeing yourself from the drone's viewpoint. I know I'm confused.

The FPV drone was one of mine using an F3EVO board running Cleanflight and brushed motors. I flew it a bit with the Taranis controller, but the kids had more fun flying it around by hand and watching on the goggles and screen. The most interesting thing was their impression of the altered view it gave them of the world. The cameras generally have a 110 degree field of vision, so it's a little like looking though a fish-eye, but you need this to actually fly one and not hit things. The scale difference also makes things seem further away, so you get a very altered perception of objects as you move around in space. The wrap-around goggles also give the sense that you're seeing through the eyes of the aircraft, so it's very immersive and just like you're about 2 inches tall and really flying around the room.

This is my little FPV drone.

And finally, our new frame for this time, the Honey Bee.

Thank you to all our helpers this time around, Jose, Dave, Anna and Tianjian and also, Elpida, @en_topia and @CASAUCL.

#STEMClubsweek2018
#YoE #ThisisEngineering