AT219 Davis Ferry Park 3D Bridge Scan

After practicing 3D scans with the Skydio S2+, our lab group decided to do a large, real-world scan. Our mission was to scan the Davis Ferry Park Bridge. 


We started our process by going to the scan location and creating a hazard assessment. Hazards at this site involved the water below the bridge, the power lines above the bridge, the thick metal pieces of the bridge, and the trees and houses surrounding the bridge. The Skydio S2+ has vision obstacle avoidance but it is still a good idea to be careful around thin objects like power lines that the cameras might not pick up. We also had to be aware of things like birds, airspace, and manned aircraft flight.

One thing to note about this flight was that it was hard to get a nice launch point and spot for a visual observer. The bridge was blocked by wildlife and water, so we had to launch from a grassy area by the road and then fly over to the bridge to scan. 

I would say a way to improve the scan would be to get things done faster. There was some overthinking about where the visual observers should stand and where the launch and landing points should be. If we drove to the other side of the bridge, there was a nice open area that could have been used. Instead, there was a lot of downtime thinking about what we should do. It is also a drone so you can fly it above obstacles. This overthinking led to some time constraints with people needing to leave to go to other classes. The flight itself went pretty smoothly, we just needed to watch out for the power lines.

I also think the software could be updated to where you don't need to fly the aircraft to set up the boundaries of the scan as this uses a lot of battery power. It would be nice if you could set things up with the drone on the ground.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UAS Teardown: 3D printed Motor Mount Final Product

Image
 After taking apart the drone, we needed to build a new motor arm for one of the motor mounts that had snapped. To do this we took measurements of hole sizes and locations, and distances for the motor, and then created a hand sketch of a motor arm. After completing the hand sketches we created a CAD drawing on NX. We used this CAD drawing, got peer feedback, and revised it.  After we were sure the CAD drawing would turn out well, well we sent it to a software called CURA. CURA is a splicing software that would help us 3D print our part. We 3D printed our part using PLA material and tested it on our arm, which turned out very well. Pictures of the finished product are included below. The only thing that didn't work out well with our design was that the mounting screws on the arm could not go all the way through the arm and out the other side due to a lack of holes on the bottom. The screw was still able to hold on the mount firmly, but if it were subject to vibrations, the scre...
Read more

Criminal Location Search (AT309 Week 11)

Image
In this lab, our lab groups met at the Boys and Girls Club in Lafayette to conduct a hostage mission. By the time my group was scheduled to arrive, we had moved our operation outside. The purpose of this lab is to test the capabilities of completing search and rescue work with a drone. We had one person flying the drone trying to locate hostages in high visibility vests, and the other partner would follow the drone, being a visual observer. We found this activity to be relatively unsuccessful because it was time-consuming and the visual observation would spot the participants hiding well before the drone could. It was also taking place in a very confined area. By the time my group was conducting the mission, we had started hanging the vests up in the trees and we had to take a picture when we found them. Figure 1 shows an example of finding the vest in the trees. Figure 1- Vest Location
Read more

AT209 Lab 5 Wind Speed vs Battery Life Measurement

Image
In this lab, we used Mavic 2 Pro drones at different altitudes to conduct measurements on wind speed by comparing battery life of the drones hovering in place. Methods: The first step in this lab was to gather our supplies. The class members in lab got partners, and each partner group got a Mavic 2 Pro drone, landing pad, and two or more fully charged batteries from the Purdue Dispatch Center. We then headed to coordinates 40.44364180047488, -87.03272783607103. We set up the drones with landing pads in a row, spaced 5 meters apart. We each had different assigned altitudes so we lined up in order of increasing altitude, south to north. The altitudes for all of the partner groups were 3m, 25m, 50m, 75m, 100m, and 121m. My partner and I flew at 75m AGL. We set up and pre-flighted the drones on one battery, and when everyone was ready, we switched the batteries to a new fully charged one and started up at the same time. We then all took off and flew to our assigned altitudes while facing t...
Read more