MN Space Grant 2014 2015

Community College Quadcopter Competition

Preliminary Design Review
ICC Quadcopters (Team Name?)

Written by: Matt Bozicevich, Bridger Hopkins, Samantha Henderson, Kyle

Williams, Tiffany Fideldy, Daevon Abrams
Advisor: Mason Hansen
Institution: Itasca Community College
Report Date: (?)

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction.3
2.0 Elev-8 Build/Fly Progress...4
3.0 Progress and Plans for Competition Challenges.4
4.0 Plans for Competition and Flight Day Operations..6
5.0 Organizational Chart(Missing?)..?
6.0 Budget and Parts List..6
7.0 Schedule..7
8.0 Appendices..8

1.0 Introduction
This is the MN Space Grant Quadcopter Competition project done by Itasca Community
College. The team is working to build a quadcopter to compete in a regional competition for
community colleges that is put on by the University of Minnesota with funding through NASA in
hope to create lasting interest in STEM fields. The competition is designed to incorporate 3D
modeling, design, programming, data processing, laser cutting, 3D printing, along with other
various aspects of STEM. The goal of the competition is to begin with a quad-rotor platform and
make modifications and additions to it so that the platform can complete a number of
competition tasks that explore and record an unknown environment.
Pictured Above:
Carlee Klenotich
Tiffany Fideldy
Samantha Henderson
Matt Bozicevich
Kyle Williams
Daevon Abram
Bridger Hopkins
Mason Hansen
We have broken into multiple sub-teams within the project. Each team is responsible for
individual sub-team meets that pertain to the teams area of work. Each sub-team has at least two
members so that collaboration can take place for each component of the quadcopter project. The
sub-teams are as follows:

1.1 Rotor Protection

Carlee Klenotich
Bridger Hopkins
Matt Bozicevich
Tiffany Fideldy

1.2 Camera Mount

Tiffany Fideldy
Matt Bozicevich
Daevon Abrams

1.3 Report
Bridger Hopkins
Samantha Henderson

1.4 Interface and Controls

Kyle Williams
Samantha Henderson
Bridger Hopkins

1.5 Procurement
Kyle Williams
Carlee Klenotich

1.6 Budget
Tiffany Fideldy
Mason Hansen

2.0 Elev8 V2 Build/Fly Progress

The ICC quadcopter has been working together to get ready for the spring competition. As a start
the group has gotten the Elev-8 built and put together. One of the motors went out so more are in
mail and on the way, waiting to be replaced. Once the parts needed arrive in the mail, the team
will be able to finish the elev-8 and begin the flying process.
Meanwhile, a couple of the members have been putting together some possible rotor designs
through solid works. We have also disassembled the rotor protection from the parrot as an option
for a rotor design. The team has been deciding on what type of camera and camera mount to use
for the Elev-8 V2. A sample model was made to show how we could rotate the camera around.
Also, the Elev-8 V2 has arrived and we have started construction. As of now, we have
successfully soldered all of the connection with assembly beginning.

3.0 Progress and Plans for Competition Challenges

The Itasca Quad-Copter Team began building our first quadcopter kit, the Elev-8, at the end of
September, 2014. We have built the frame, finishing up soldering, and are currently
programming and calibrating the quadcopter for flight. Constantly improving and innovating
design developments.
3.1 Promotional Video
The promotional video will consist of the building of the quadcopters depicted with a short time
lapse of the progress over the course of the year, and mainly show case our innovative designs by
showing the quadcopter in action. For this task we have dedicated one member of our team to
help record video and the progression of our work. As the quads get more and more flight time,
we expect to accumulate exponentially more video footage. Letting the video footage build up as
4

we push ahead on our designs, we plan to focus on compiling our video towards the end of our
competition. As the time approaches, the work load and skillset will help the team decide who
will become the leader of the video editing.
3.2 Rotor Protection
Unanimously, we see the importance for rotor protection, and in turn have made it our first
priority. With the help of the entire team, we have brainstormed a list of attributes that the
protection must meet. We are focusing on making sure our design will be excessively durable,
light weight as possible, airstream to avoid posing new challenges, and selfishly attractive.
After discussing the methods of rotor protection we should use, we decided to use high density
foam as internal support with a carbon fiber shell. The foam would provide the shell its support
as it hardens and the shell would provide a lightweight, durable protective shield for the rotors.
3.3 Flight Training
This was a priority from day one, and thankfully an appealing task. During our first weeks as a
team, we added structure to our agenda assuring the most efficient use of our time. One of those
building blocks was designating pilot practice time. Every couple weeks, we divvy out the two
mini quads we have to be practiced with, which may be the most fun and challenging task so far.
The skill progression has shown to be exponential, but we also recognize the important
difference between the smaller drones and our Elev-8. Because of this we will soon have to
implement a similar practice regiment to hone our individual skills on the full size quad.
To complement our valiant pilots, we will aid them with the cutting edge electronics. Keeping
the static weight to a minimum we are researching components and flight controllers. The flight
controller must be concise, giving our quad maximum stability, user friendly flight interface,
accurate data points, and a seamless failsafe to assure personal and collateral safety. To obtain
these goals we plan to implement live stream video for piloting along with height and range
sensors for leveling and stability to not only control the quadcopter, but also to keep a stable and
level camera orientation. GPS will open the door to autonomous flight (return home failsafe),
altitude detection, corresponding coordinate system for image tagging, and a range of data
collection tools.
3.4 Camera Mount
The design for the camera is still early in the development stage. We are making final decisions
on our live stream video hardware, and once we have the parts for reference we will start
construction on the camera mount. With that being said, we do not plan to reinvent the wheel but
rather improve upon it. The initial designs plan to innovate the factory camera gimbal to meet
our requirements listed in the rotor protection section. The camera gimbal design will also evolve
to become multifunctional, using the unique capabilities to house other creative features.
3.5 Close up Imagining Challenge

With this challenge we identified some of the limiting factors to try and overcome them. The
quality of the picture will depend upon the distance and angle to the target, visibility of the
target, quality of the camera, the distortion associated with vibration, and stability of the quad
platform. The camera will definitely be multifunctional, used for piloting, mapping with GPS
tags, and the imaging challenge. The camera will ideally incorporate IR illumination, and
interchangeable lenses. The camera gimbal is meant to handle most of the stabilization and
vibration reduction, but is also key in the ability to target vertical and horizontal images.

4.0 Plans for Competition and Flight Day Operations

Equipment needing to be switched out during the exploration may be the camera(s). We were
talking about taking a camera being able to look straight up and behind the quadcopter. Also we
will have a camera in the front and give it the ability to look up and down in order to determine
the scale of the map. The scale can be found in a corner of the map and will tell you the ratio of
the two units of measure. Multiply the number of inches on the map times the scale to determine
the true distance. The students with the most flight experience will be the ones who fly majority
of the time at the competition although all the students have flight experience.

6.0 Budget and Parts List

Each quadcopter group was given $3,000 as a budget to be spent on parts for the quadcopter.
Please see Table 6.1 in the appendices for a detailed summary of cost estimates thus far. The
costs of the items in Table 6.1 does not include the cost of shipping. Currently this list is of all
the parts that have been purchased using the allotted $3,000 budget. The budget will continue to
go towards the purchasing of electronic components as well as materials for the manufacturing of
parts for the quadcopter.

7.0 Schedule

8.0 Appendices
Table 6.1 Current parts and cost of each part
Part Vendor
Solder Tip Amazon
Cleaning Wire
and Holder

Quantity
1

Cost Per Item

$9.47

Total Cost
$9.47

Solder Spool Amazon

Holder with
Weighted Base

$13.50

$27.00

Analog Amazon
Soldering
Station

$93.56

$280.68

Parrot Drone Amazon

Charger

$21.50

$43.00

Helping Hands Amazon

with Magnifying
Glass

$4.52

$4.52

11.1V LIPO Amazon

Battery

$29.99

$29.99

Balancing Amazon
Charger

$45.99

$45.99

Switch Power Amazon

Supply for
Balancing
Charger

$14.99

$14.99

Hook up Wire Amazon

Kit

$20.95

$20.95

Alligator Test Amazon

Lead Set

$11.06

$11.06

Copper Magnet Amazon

Wire - 2oz

$5.97

$11.94

Copper Magnet Amazon

Wire - 4oz

$7.20

$7.20

RC Eye One Amazon

Propeller Set

$7.99

$7.99

$11.99

$11.99

Parallax

$499.00

$499.00

Elev-8 Crash Parallax

Pack

$39.99

$39.99

HW30A ESC - Parallax

Programmed

$13.99

$27.98

KA20-20L 1050 Parallax

Kv Brushless
Mtr

$19.99

$19.99

Elev-8 11.1V 3.3 Parallax

LiPo Battery

$29.99

$29.99

HW30A ESC BlueSkyRC.com

Brushless Mtr
Speed
Controller
Elev-8 V2

Total

$1143.72