Drone Project

September 11, 2022

I started exploring drone design in my first year while working with the Embedded and Robotic Society. I was interested in drones and thought building one from scratch would be a great project. My first attempt was a disaster - I used basic parts and an Arduino, but the drone was unstable and couldn’t fly.

It was a good prototype nonetheless!

I spent hours trying to tune the PID settings, but it was a nightmare. I eventually gave up and put the project on hold.

During the pandemic, I decided to try again. This time, I invested in a better flight controller, which made a huge difference. The drone came together more easily, and there was a lot less fiddling around.

I didn’t get to fly it much as I realised flying a drone is lot more challenging than I initially anticipated. I think I underestimated the extent to which modern drones use stabilisation technologies like IR sensors and GPS, which I didn’t have. Trying to stabilise the drone manually without these aids was a complex and quite frankly, a frustrating experience. I kept a recording of one of the flights.

I still enjoyed tackling these challenges, despite the setbacks, and learned a lot about drone design. This in addition to a new level of respect for actual drone pilots out there.