Each response to this design challenge is unique.
Students in the Electrical Design Studio are designing, fabricating and testing a drone prototype that can lift, rotate 180°and land.
In their third year, ECE students work on an engineering design that integrates all of the engineering skills they have learned to that point in their degree. The design studio also enables students to develop new skills in project management and teamwork.
The teams start with:
Two DC motors- One optical encoder (400 counts / turn)
- One 2-channel PWM current driver
- Propellers, bearings, shafts, magnets and other mechanical and electrical components are available to be ordered.
From these humble beginnings, the teams build helicopter prototypes with active lift and yaw. In the final iteration of the project, students create a hand-wound, self-starting lift motor that incorporates sensors, digital electronics and a switching circuit. The students also design and fabricate all of the mechanical parts for the helicopter. It is particularly challenging to counterbalance the weights of the motors and reduce friction in the system. The teams also develop the controller that uses information in their position and velocity sensors to determine the flight path of the helicopter.
Remarkably, some of the design teams managed to complete the design brief with enough time left over to create a graphical user interface.
Find out more: