Project Profile – Tiny Quadcopter

Project Summary

We are a group of senior students from CSULB (California State University, Long Beach), currently enrolled in our Senior Design Seminar course for which the project is being built.

The project still in its early stages of development, but our vision is to create a micro quadcopter (quad being optional, more rotors could be added if necessary) of dimensions less than 5×5 inches safe enough to be operated within a room, as inexpensive as possible which will be controlled by a web interface using TouchOS and Xbee communication.

We are planning on using a low cost CCD camera for target recognition and possible communication with the other bots that are to be built in the class.  The design will also include an IMU and a rechargeable Lithium-Ion or Lithium Polymer battery.

 

Project Goals

Besides the obvious being graded on it, we believe that successfully finishing the project will give us a great and well needed insight of how to work in a group and what to expect as far as future jobs, will also allow us to focus on our strengths and develop them in a more conscious manner.

We also believe this will help that will extend the horizons on how powerful and versatile the Arduino platform is, and to find new and cool projects to do with it.  Our final project’s main requirement is the inexpensiveness of the copter and focusing in the DIY approach.

 

Why we chose TinyCircuits 

The main incentive is certainly the size of the platform, being small and light enough and still have all the capability of the full size Arduino.  Other solutions were just too heavy or large for our needs.

This project will make use of the following TinyCircuits modules:

• TinyDuino Processor Board – used for the main control system
• TinyShield USB – To allow for communication and programming
• TinyShield Proto – To connect to our system
• TinyShield Motor – To drive the DC motors in our system
• TinyShield Power – To regulate the battery voltage for the control circuitry

 

Maker Team

Maria Meza – Project Manager
Zachary Bales – Mission and systems engineer
Rafael Morones – In charge of the computer systems and control engineering
Angel Nguyen – in charged of sensors, actuators and powertrain division
Mark Pawliszenski – in charged of the manufacturing engineering and 3D printing

There also a few more contributors to the group.