Project

# Title Team Members TA Documents Sponsor
59 QR code tracking drone
 Alexander Amiel
Angelos Guan
Umer Belagam
 Chaitanya Sindagi design_document1.pdf
design_document2.pdf
final_paper1.pdf
final_paper2.pdf
presentation1.pptx
proposal1.pdf
Team Members:
Umer Belagam - belagam2
Alexander Amiel - aamiel2
Angelos Tingrui Guan - tguan2


Problem Statement: Many drones use a controller, like a game controller, to fly it. This is usually enabled with one’s phone to keep track of location and to be used as a camera to see where the drone is looking. What happens if the phone dies? if someone gets a call/notification, this can exit the camera mode from the phone/controller. What if the drone is locked onto a person, but it doesn’t know which one to focus on?

Solution Overview:
Use a unique pattern (Ex. a QR code or a simple unique shape) for the user to hold in order to control the drone. This would solve the problem where there are multiple people in sight and the drone may follow the wrong user.
The drone would detect the pattern and follow it from a fixed distance and at a direct angle.
When the pattern is not detected, the drone would halt in its current position and display warning with LED and alarm on board. The user can then hold the pattern in front of the camera for the drone to detect and follow.
Potentially use rotatable camera for better tracking and more degree of freedom
Use different patterns to indicate different commands like flying to the ground and shut down or potentially changing the distance the drone would keep from the pattern. Give priority orders to the commands to avoid confusion if multiple patterns are detected.

Solution Components:
- Sensor Subsystem
- Flight/navigation control: GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetic sensors to keep
the drone flying upright and stay in position when it needs to.
- Obstacle avoidance: ultrasonic sensors on each side
- Object detection: camera
- Power Subsystem: Lithium ion batteries and a USB charging and discharging control circuit.
- Electronic Speed Control and motors: 4 BLDC motors and 4 ESCs to control each of them
- Camera Mount: 3d printed camera mount for the raspberry pi camera with servo controlled tilt

Criterion for Success:
The drone can detect the pose & distance of the QR code
The drone can successfully track QR code’s trajectory within some error boundary

Similar Projects and Competitors:
The DJI Gesture tracking drones already presents a solution for this that tracks a drone using different hand gestures. They don’t always work reliably and the drone can get confused on which person's hands to track if there are multiple people.

Questions for the TA:
Are there any consumer drones/flight controllers you recommend for us to look at
- Should we buy a ready made flight controller with all the sensors and a microcontroller to use those inputs for controlling the motors or should we make our own flight controller?
- Any other method for tracking aside from a QR code like pattern.

El Durazno Wind Turbine Project

Alexander Hardiek, Saanil Joshi, Ganpath Karl

El Durazno Wind Turbine Project

Featured Project

Partners: Alexander Hardiek (ahardi6), Saanil Joshi (stjoshi2), and Ganpath Karl (gkarl2)

Project Description: We have decided to innovate a low cost wind turbine to help the villagers of El Durazno in Guatemala access water from mountains, based on the pitch of Prof. Ann Witmer.

Problem: There is currently no water distribution system in place for the villagers to gain access to water. They have to travel my foot over larger distances on mountainous terrain to fetch water. For this reason, it would be better if water could be pumped to a containment tank closer to the village and hopefully distributed with the help of a gravity flow system.

There is an electrical grid system present, however, it is too expensive for the villagers to use. Therefore, we need a cheap renewable energy solution to the problem. Solar energy is not possible as the mountain does not receive enough solar energy to power a motor. Wind energy is a good alternative as the wind speeds and high and since it is a mountain, there is no hindrance to the wind flow.

Solution Overview: We are solving the power generation challenge created by a mismatch between the speed of the wind and the necessary rotational speed required to produce power by the turbine’s generator. We have access to several used car parts, allowing us to salvage or modify different induction motors and gears to make the system work.

We have two approaches we are taking. One method is converting the induction motor to a generator by removing the need of an initial battery input and using the magnetic field created by the magnets. The other method is to rewire the stator so the motor can spin at the necessary rpm.

Subsystems: Our system components are split into two categories: Mechanical and Electrical. All mechanical components came from a used Toyota car such as the wheel hub cap, serpentine belt, car body blade, wheel hub, torsion rod. These components help us covert wind energy into mechanical energy and are already built and ready. Meanwhile, the electrical components are available in the car such as the alternator (induction motor) and are designed by us such as the power electronics (AC/DC converters). We will use capacitors, diodes, relays, resistors and integrated circuits on our printed circuit boards to develop the power electronics. Our electrical components convert the mechanical energy in the turbine into electrical energy available to the residents.

Criterion for success: Our project will be successful when we can successfully convert the available wind energy from our meteorological data into electricity at a low cost from reusable parts available to the residents of El Durazno. In the future, their residents will prototype several versions of our turbine to pump water from the mountains.