Quadcopter construction and tuning
First Person View Racing Drone
For my senior graduation challenge in high school (a yearlong project), I decided to build a First Person Video racing quadcopter. The drone is piloted with virtual reality goggles which receive a live video feed from the quadcopter. The construction involved sourcing the frame, flight controller, ESC’s, and motors etc. The largest challenge came in the form of mastering PID tuning which involves control theory. The opportunity to explore this important but complex subject, while having fun flying drones was a uniquely engaging experience.
Learning to Fly
I learned a tremendous amount about everything from soldering to the legality of different wavelength video transmission bands. At the end of the day all of this culminated in the ability to fly in one of the most immersive possible ways. The sense of speed and ability to lose oneself in a truly novel perspective was a great reminder of the power that engineering and design can have from a purely experiential standpoint.