Multipurpose Research Drone

Inspiration

The main inspiration for the MPRD was the United States government's drones. While these drones may allow the government to gather important data on various security threats, they are out of the price range for most people or businesses. We wanted to create a more compact version of these drones that can collect various sensory data.

What it does

This drone will fly into untraversable or hazardous areas to collect information on the composition of the atmosphere, climate, infrared, and any other sensor that can fit into the drone's fuselage. This data will then be formatted in a way that is visually appealing for people to use it to better understand the environment they are dealing with.

How we built it

We built the MPRD with high strength 3D printing filament and cutting edge 3D prints. The drone is light weight, cheap, and very durable. This drone was built over the course of the GMU 36 hour hackathon, and we used every tool at our disposal.

Challenges we ran into

The primary challenge we ran into was printing the drone's parts. Each part took a few hours to print and that time was precious to us. We managed to use our time more efficiently by printing several parts at the same time with seperate 3D printers at GMU's maker space "the mix".

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of the sleek design and the long distance capabilities of the drone. It was designed in Freecad and it took many iterations before we got a model we liked. Through the use of NRF24L01 radio modules, the drone can be used for very long distances.

What we learned

The biggest idea we were forced to learn quickly was proper time management. 36 hours is not enough time to finish a project, especially one of our size. Proper time management has allowed us to get as much done as possible with 4 people working all at once.

What's next for Multipurpose Research Drone

The next step for the Multipurpose Research Drone is more iterations and more research into the market we are looking to get involved in. The drone we have at this point in time isn't all that we hoped for, but it is a very good start towards a very bright future.