We have a new 3D printer to help 3D print our parts!
Propulsion team designed and printed the tilt rotor joint that allows the housing to rotate. To fit the joint into the housing, they had to cut rotor’s metal frame. Next they will work on the new flight controller and problem-solve some issues with the low servo angular range for tilting mechanism. The servo has a low gear ratio (2.4 :1) where it takes 216 degrees to create a 90 degree turn in the whole nacelle of the tilt rotor.
The Mechanical Design team has completed a second iteration of tilt rotor housing prototype and has changed the base support to allow more room for onboard electronics. The new frame for the fuselage is still in progress and the team is redesigning the frame’s joints.
The Fabrication team has begun assembling the tail by lining up the main wing ribs. The project manager, Cheng, warns Fabrication that the wing spar is too thick to fit through the holes in the wing ribs, therefore, they need to sand it down.
Ground Station has complete their new mapping program with Leaflet. The graphics are more clear and intuitive to work with. They also completed the initial database framework to allow the program to store flight plans and mission results. They fixed the network simulator to demo the aircraft’s flight behavior. Lastly, they have started working with Avionics to create specifications for our communication protocol
Radio and Comm team has completed coding the client (UAV) commands into their software and they will be collaborating with Ground station to brainstorm on server relay ideas.
As said before, Avionics is working with Ground station to create the program’s network protocol and refactor code. The software division of Avionics is working on the sensor firmware, ESC software, and Pixhawk/Arduino connections. The hardware division is focusing on the tilt rotor servo layout, Voltage regulator load testing, and utilizing the program EAGLE to create PCB layouts.
And we are not meeting for Week 7 to respect the federal holiday, Veteran’s Day.