Prototyping

After going through multiple iterations of possible designs, we began making various prototypes. The prototypes varied not only in design but also in quality as we continued throughout the semester.

One of our initial ideas was using magnets as a way to have the drone be able to attach and detach batteries. As seen on the left, the paper plates represent the device interface with the magnet attachments. The top plate is the part of the interface that would hold the actual battery, and the plate on the bottom would be the plate that would be attached to the drone. Another aspect we wanted was to make it so that the drone could come in from any angle, hence the round design.

In this design, we wanted to cut down on weight. By removing all of the extra mass from the circular design and leaving just the main compartments, we lowered the material used and amount it weighed. At this point in the design stage, we narrowed down the type of magnet we wanted to use. The grey cylinders represent permanent electromagnets. The reason we chose these was because they always have magnetic properties and only needed an instantaneous charge to be deactivated. Unlike regular electromagnets that require constant power to have magnetic properties making them less efficient.

After some meetings with our faculty advisors, they recommended keeping that omnidirectional design and also include a way to make the interface more aerodynamic. So we did this by going back to circular design and rounding off the bottom of the battery pack.

One of our final designs was a re-iteration of the previous but the placement of the permanent elctromagnets was changed. Instead of having them descend from the top interface that attached to the body of the drone, we placed them so that they would be parallel to the side of the drone's main body. We did this so that the drone's center of gravity would not be changed as much, unlike in the previous iteration. This change in design helps in drone's maneuverability. We also added a flat bottom in the circular design to have more stability when the battery is on the ground waiting to be picked up.

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