We have all learnt a great deal of technical knowledge that is applicable one way or another in our courses. It has equipped us with skills that we would not have been able to pick up from our curriculum.

  1. CAD was the first tool we had to use. It opened up the world of designing and manufacturing to us. We learnt how to create and design parts from scratch on SolidWorks, which was especially important for our project since we were unable to use much store-bought items. A few of the specific steps we learnt were draw, extrude, extruded cut and filet. In addition, CAD also allowed us to estimate volumes of object, like our blimp.
  2. CAD simulation helped us to choose more structurally stable designs. It was important to specify the correct boundary conditions and it was easy to see which design was stronger using the factor of safety.
  3. ANSYS fluent simulation ultimately aided our blimp design. Though we were able to use it to test out two different blimp shapes, we did not explore it too much since we did not use it frequently and it only served as a means of estimation.
  4. 3D printing was an extremely useful skill as it is versatile and the material is strong. Due to the nature of our project, there were little to no store-bought options for our more specified parts. Hence, we had to design and fabricate them in the MNT lab. We also managed to learn how Simplify3D (slicer software) interprets and slices the CAD into layers before the printing process can commence.
  5. Deburring tool was also used to get rid of the ‘skirt’ and supports from our fresh prints.
  6. Circuitry design and assembly were surprisingly challenging as there were so many factors to consider and there were a lot of specifications from all the components that we were using (LiPo battery, receiver, ESC, servo motors, coreless motors). We understood that while it is important to choose our components with weight factor in mind, electrical considerations were equally as vital since the electrical components have to be compatible with one another.  Although it was overwhelming at first, we became more comfortable as we analysed the specifications of our components methodically and slowly grasped their electrical concepts.
  7. Heat sealing and sealing via contact adhesive were the 2 methods that we used to construct the balloon.
  8. Soldering was extremely relevant to our project as many components had incompatible joints. Besides, the ESC was only a bare circuit board without the appropriate wires. With practice, we became much more efficient and the solders on our wires and board were not as excessive as before.
  9. Arduino programming became irrelevant in our final product but it was still a useful skill.  It allowed us to test out and control our servo motors before our remote controller came.

Beside these technical skills, the soft-skills and problem-solving skills we have acquired throughout the course were equally as important. It was definitely difficult to figure out what went wrong when everything was supposed to work theoretically. We were forced to critically analyse our electronics and flight performance, narrow down our issues, and fix them as we have done countless of times throughout the entire troubleshooting process.