Week 0: 7-11 May

Throughout the week, we met up with Prof Cesare, Prof Benoit and Dr Ho to clarify on the expectations from us for this project. We learn about past MnT projects by seniors to develop high altitude flight capable prototypes, and got relevant contacts that might be useful down the road. Also, we learn that our drone of choice (the one to be deployed), the eBee sensefly, have in-built security functions that made it unsuitable for our project. Back to the drawing board. Haiz…

 

Week 1-2:  14-25 May

Course introduction and Arduino/Comsol lessons!!! Wheeeee

 

Week 3: 28 May- 1 June

Met with some professors and seniors from Aerospace Engineering to get inputs on optimal drone design, and their inputs on our project. Quoting Prof Vu Dong, Professor from MAE and Director of Air Traffic Management Research Institute, “Crazy, but I like it!”.  Attended a drone making workshop, our first introduction into the hardware aspects of drone flying. Met up with Kanesh, a senior with is experienced with drones and tested his MnT prototype overseas, to finalize our expected deliverable from this project. Completed our project proposal, and begin sourcing for materials and discussing options to test our prototype.

 

Week 4: 2 – 6 June

Progress meeting 1!!! Shorthanded but never down! Didn’t get destroyed… that’s good! Did preliminary calculations on size of balloon needed. Begin purchase of arduino bots and we continued our efforts in finding the optimal equipment for our project. Decided on our new drone, the skysurfer 2000mm! Also, we had an introductory drone flying lesson with Kanesh! Woohoooo

 

Week 5: 11-15 June

Jia Yong and Darren are finally back from the US!! More drone flying/hardware lessons… Beginning to understand more on the software aspect of drone flying as well. Slowly but surely.

 

Week 6: 18-22 June

What a week! It started off with Progress meeting 2, which went… abit rough. Nevertheless, we move on! Our nichrome wire finally arrived,  but our cutting mechanism didn’t work initially, and took us a while to figure out the problem and optimize it! Had to redo bulk of our calculations after realizing our drone weight might be heavier than expected. And we didn’t factor in the operating voltage of our equipment… It’s all part of the learning journey. Bounced around Singapore looking for drone parts after giving up online delivery times.. Also, courtesy to Prof Benoit, we got to visit the Meteorological Service Singapore (shoutout to them!) and see how they deploy their weather balloons!! Super cool!!!! Shortlisted a couple of volcanoes for flight test (exciting whooo). Did a detailed proposal to submitted to the Indonesian civil aviation authority for authorization to fly our drones over there! Also, we inflated our first weather balloon to begin our initial tests on our payload ascend rate! Fun, exciting and eye-opening! Nothing beats some hands-on exercise to learn the ropes!XD

 

Week 7: 25-29 June

Events are picking up speed…Exciting times! Here are the highlights:

After running more calculations and simulation, we have decided on 2 major changes: (1) Changing from a 300g balloon to a 500/800g balloon, and (2) Changing our fixed wing from a skysurfer 2000mm to a Zeta Sky Observer. Reason for (1) is being despite calculations for the 300g balloon showing its is able to bring our drone up to the planned altitude at ideal speed with a tank of helium, the balloon will be completely inflated and stretched, making it much more vulnerable to the physical environment. A 500/800g balloon does the job as well, albeit at a faster speed, but our general consensus is that is a calculated and informed trade-off decision. As for (2), we have decided to switch over to the Zeta Sky Observer as it is able to carry a much greater payload than our skysurfer due to its larger fuselage space, giving us much more flexibility in designing the payloads or add more batteries to extend the flight time!! The skysurfer is now set as our backup drone.

Miraculously, our Zeta Sky Observer arrived within 4 days (shoutout to the folks from DHL and AliExpress), and we have set up whatever we could. All that is left is the motor for the plane to arrive and a test flight could be conducted….

Also, we have finally manage to sort out all the required radio links needed for our drone. Mind-boggling and frustrating process attempting to figure everything out from scratch and zero experience, but so fulfilling after we finally come out with our final schematic! Made our purchases, and they should probably all arrive by next week!:)

Moving onto the MAIN EVENT of the week: Test flight with the skysurfer from a balloon!

Many late nights were spent to make this happen. We had to use the skysurfer instead of the Zeta because the motor of the Zeta hasn’t arrived then. Encountered massive unforeseen problems with the plane calibration, took us close a day to resolve it! All part of the process! Everything locked and ready to roll…

ALAS, IT HAD TO RAIN. Mother Nature had other plans for us, and we had to reluctantly postpone the test to another day and head back to school… Nevertheless, we make our own luck and we believe it will happen soon! GAMBATTE!

 

Week 8: 2-6 July

Progress meeting 3! Went alright. A bit shorthanded this week with Yuhui and Jia Yong overseas.  Finished building up both Zetas.  Fixed up the servos for skysurfers and we did a first cutbox test with the Zetas! Glad to say it was successful!:)

Week 9:  9-13 July

The FPV system finally arrived, and glad to say it works well! Now it is left with connecting it with the PixHawk and we will have eyes in sky! (We are unable to do so this week because the Pixhawk is required for calibration tests). Finally secured permission/approval by CAAS to conduct our flight tests in Singapore. We decided to do trial test 2 on Friday. The entire week was spent soldering the ESCs, Arduino boards, etc. Unfortunately, as the motor for our Zeta has YET to arrive, we have to do the testing with our Skysurfer.

Finally comes the big day: Friday the 13th, trial test 2!

Another late night was spent at the lab the day before, getting organized and calibrating the plane. Had to rent a van to transport all our necessary equipment. All geared up and ready to go!

D-Day. Alas, despite the great weather this time, things did not go as planned. With everything rigged up and ready to roll, we deployed the balloon, only to realise to our horror that the balloon could not lift the plane(1.8kg)! This was highly contradictory to our initial prior tests in school, where we lifted a 4kg load with a much less helium using the same size balloon. Our conclusion was that the reason for the balloon failure was due to the helium used, which we suspect to be largely impure. The helium we used for trial test 2 was probably a lower grade than what we used for the initial balloon tests, and was not suitable for our mission.

Despite this failure, we learned many lessons from that day. Besides the quality of helium, trial test 2 was the first time ever we actually carried out the entire ‘setting-up’ procedure from arrival at site. We had to inflate the large 800g balloon on site, against strong wind conditions, tie it securely and tethered it, check all connections were secure. The experience was certainly invaluable, and definitely essentially in our overseas testing preparation! This will definitely make trial test 3 a smoother and more efficient process, and hopefully it will be a successful one!:)

 

 

 

Week 10: 16-20 July

Quite a frustrating week to be honest. Progress stalled due to the motor of our Zeta refusing to arrive (its has been 2.5 weeks, and it is somewhere in transit). Managed to test the FPV with the Pixhawk to get the valuable flight detail overlay on our OSD, glad to say it worked out well. Also, we have decided to scrap the Arduino from our cutbox, and instead, use the Pixhawk and a relay to directly cut the string! This is because we realise the Arduino merely over-complicates the connections to the Pixhawk and not worth the unnecessary headache. To cap off of the week, we went for a flying practice on Friday with our skysurfer just to keep in touch with our piloting skills!

Owing to unforeseen circumstances and time constraints, our group have decided to conduct the test next week using our skysurfer, and use that for our video submission footage. As for the overseas testing, it appears very likely at this point in time that it will probably only happen during recess week/December.

 

Week 11: 23-27 July

FOC week begins. But the grind never stops! In lieu of CN Yang FOP from Tuesday to Thursday and our plan for balloon test on Friday, we spent extended hours in the lab on Monday prepping all the logistics and plane calibration necessary for the test. With the imminent deadline, the stakes for mission success have never been higher. For this test, we continued using the skysurfer 2000mm, as the motor for the Zeta only arrived on Tuesday.

28th July, Friday.

We met at OHR at 9am. Everyone was still feeling the fatigue from camp, but nevertheless spirits were high! Weather was hot but good for flying, and the wind conditions were the best we had so far. While waiting for our helium tank, we went for a few rounds of test flights to get ‘warm up’ for the big event. Also, we prepared the other logistics that could be done to smoothen the process when the balloon-inflation process begin (which requires massive manpower).

When the helium arrived (relatively on time, shoutout to the delivery driver!), we inflated the 800g balloon. The difference in quality of helium between test 2(the failed one) and test 3(this one) was very much noticeable. The inflated balloon feels much more ‘sturdy’, and does not get tossed and blown around by the wind as easily. In essence, despite us holding the balloon down and the wind blowing, the balloon was still able to maintain its ‘shape’. Also, the upward force generated by the balloon also felt considerably greater than the previous test using the lower quality helium. After ensuring that our balloon was more than capable of lifting our plane (the balloon was generating a thrust of 7kg, our plane was around 2kg), we brought our balloon to the centre of the field to commence the balloon drop. It was also key to point out, this entire setting up process was much smoother and efficient compared to test 2 (despite having much lesser manpower),  largely because we have much more experience with setting up the drone and handling the balloon on site. Hence, this really showed that test 2 was not a complete failure as we gained much valuable hands-on experience.

With everything primed and loaded, balloon tethers secured, we released the balloon into the sky. The helium worked wonderfully, bringing the plane up into the sky. The moment the string was severed, time stood still. Everyone watched as the drone dropped from the sky….glided… and flew! Darren maneuvered the plane for abit, before successfully grounding the plane. The proof of concept was complete! We have showed that the plane could be successfully deployed from a balloon and flown! And we have gotten some valuable footage to show for as well.

Next, we attempted to repeat the test, this time using the autopilot function. Repeating our same steps, we watched to our dismay the plane dropping and spiraling out of control into the ground. We attribute it to the delayed reaction of the autopilot function in kicking in (it started too late, after the plane had fallen a considerable height). The plane could not pitch up in time, and crashed into the ground. Owing to time constraints (we had to return the rental van), we had to call it off. Nevertheless, it was great to finally have a successfully test!

Moving on, with one week left to submission, we hope to test out flying the Zeta plane, since our motor is finally here. Ideally, we could conduct another balloon drop test, but that will be subjected to how much progress we make next week. Regardless, with the proof of concept done, whatever done next week will be a additional bonus!:)

Week 12: 30 July – 4 Aug

Presentation week! We have decided to spent 2 days flying the Zeta (since the motor finally arrived), and despite how large the plane is, it flew amazingly well! The FPV worked fine as well too. Due to FOP commitments and time constraints, we did not conduct a balloon drop test for the Zeta.

Finally… presentation time! After 12 gruelling weeks, it’s finally time to present what we have. The presentation went well, and with that, our CY2003 Making and Tinkering Module has come to a close:) It has been a tiring, occasionally frustrating but fruitful journey. It’s all about the joy of learning!:)