timeline

Fall 2018

During the fall quarter, we primarily focused our efforts on the hardware development portion of our project, including assembly and set up of both the receiver and tanker drones to have them in stable flight conditions.

Receiver Drone

  • Assembly of body completed but faced PX4 OS issues when trying to interface Pixracer flight controller

Tanker Drone

  • Assembly completed and DJI N3 flight controller interfaced
  • Motors function correctly
  • Linear actuator design functions
  • First iteration of battery switching case 3D printed

Winter 2019

During winter quarter, we wrapped up the complete assembly and stable flight of both the drones. All of the peripherals for the tanker drone were already interfaced during Fall quarter, so we continued to test the tanker during Winter and worked on connecting all the peripherals to the receiver. We also worked on PCB development during winter quarter.

Receiver Drone

  • Drone able to maintain stable flight and in-flight testing completed
  • Interfacing with OpenMV camera complete

Tanker Drone

  • Drone able to maintain stable flight and in-flight testing completed
  • Testing of latching mechanism using electromagnets completed
  • PCB for drone operates correctly

Spring 2019

During spring quarter, we focused on wrapping up the remaining software programming to enable the drones to fly and perform battery switching.

Receiver Drone

  • Completed battery switching mechanism 3D printing and assembly - final iterations
  • Tested in flight battery switching and landing

Tanker Drone

  • Completed battery switching mechanism 3D printing and assembly - final iterations
  • Assembled completed mechanism onto tanker

Other

  • End to end system testing of complete battery switching procedure