Engineer of the Future

Owned by Cheryl Li
Last updated: 2022-01-28 by Jennifer Luo
6 min read

1) Describe product idea in one sentence

WARG is creating an autopilot system for an unmanned aircraft that completes mission specific tasks like detecting targets on the ground, object transport, and object retrieval for use in competition.

2) Target market

Our target audience is students at UWaterloo interested in gaining valuable hands-on engineering experience by joining our design team. These students learn how to build and operate a cutting edge unmanned aircraft while taking an active role engineering design process.

3) Problem to solve

We hope to create a cutting edge unmanned aircraft that will compete in the annual Unmanned Systems Canada Student UAV Competition 2022 this year, which requires coordination between the technical challenges that characterize the development stages of the project, and administrative tasks such as budgeting and sponsorships that make this experience possible for the students on our team.

4) Solution

Currently, we’re solving this problem by building an aircraft to compete in the Unmanned Systems Canada UAV Competition 2022. Having a competition to work towards advances our goal of getting UW students involved in advanced aviation, as they get experience building an aircraft to tackle an industry problem while interacting with leaders in Canadian aviation. Our aircraft stands out with a high degree of autonomy running on custom, specialized hardware to deliver better performance than commercially available drones. We've been developing this solution for 2 seasons now, and we've seen rapid progress in both our technical achievements and the internal systems that support our innovation. By building an outstanding aircraft for this competition, we're pushing the limits of what students have done with autonomous flight while creating life-changing impact on the careers of our students.

5) How does it improve on existing solutions

With respect to the opportunities we create for UW students, there are simply no other teams at UW that work on aircraft, leaving us as the sole student design team focusing on Canada's significant aviation industry. With respect to our innovation, we specifically improve on vision-based autonomous systems, hover-based path planning and the use of advanced materials. Few drones, commercial or consumer, are autonomous and even fewer use vision-based systems, as they aren't suitable for the most profitable commercial operations, but are for our competition. However, vision-based technologies are feature cheaper and less volatile than the multi-sensor systems that most drones on the market use and advancement of this technology will open new opportunities for autonomous drones. Our path planning is more adaptable than what's on the market, as it's predicated around the idea of simply following geographic points, allowing us to define those points in whatever manner is more effective for the competition. Lastly, our aircraft frame is built out of carbon fiber, allowing us to build a lighter, faster drone with more endurance than what's currently on the market. Our innovation is part of a rapidly growing industry that's underrepresented at UW, and this is what helps our solution improve upon others.

6) Budget

Mech:

  • Motor, Weight Scale, Drone Frame Material, Grabber Frame Material, Camera and Servo

  • Option 1 (Min): $1910, Option 2 (Median): $2955, Option 3 (Max): $4000

Computer Vision:

  • Nvidia Jetson, ASUS Wifi Adapters, Raspberry Pi4B Ground SBC, Raspberry Pi 0 Air SBC, Raspberry Pi Camera V2 

  • Option 1 (Min): $500, Option 2 (Median): $750, Option 3 (Max): $1000

Firmware:

  • Dev boards, programming materials, sensors and other peripherals 

  • Option 1 (Min): $300, Option 2 (Median): $650, Option 3 (Max): $1000

Electrical Engineering:

  • Flight Controller PCB, Power Distribution PCB, Battery Management System (BMS) PCB, Custom Motor Controller PCB, Gimbal PCB, Firmware Training PCB, 80A Electronic Speed Controllers (Turnigy) and 5000mAh 6S 40C LiPo Batteries

  • Option 1 (Min): $1490, Option 2 (Median): $2745, Option 3 (Max): $4000

Admin:

  • Competition Expenses 

  • Option 1 (Min): $6500, Option 2 (Median): $7000, Option 3 (Max): $7500

Total Budget Range: $10700-$17500

7) Funding Sources

The funding we received last year was from WEEF and EngSoc and we roughly received around $15000 dollars from them in the last year. This money was used to spend on materials we needed to make our aircraft for last year’s competition as well as competition expenses.

8 ) What will we spend money on

see budget

9) What impact will money have

We are currently in the process of creating our aircraft for this upcoming 2022 competition, and have three distinct operations that require funding:

RC Communications and Control

Mechanical Tooling

Firmware Tooling

These processes require funding for the prototyping, manufacturing, and designing stages. The Engineer of the Future Fund will allow us to continue with the development of our project, and in addition supplement student learning. With your support, we can achieve the goals that we set out for this year leading up to the 2022 Unmanned Systems Canada Student Competition.

10) Timeline *Jenny

First aircraft takeoff and landing (R1 & R2).

 

First flight between two distinct points separated by at least 50m (R1).

 

First flight where the aircraft is able to maneuver forwards, backwards and turn about its vertical axis (R3).

 

First flight where the aircraft can fly between two points at least 4km apart (R4).

 

First time we can transmit a video feed from the aircraft and display it on our ground station (R5).

 

First time we are able to change the direction the aircraft camera is facing using movement of the gimbal and aircraft (R5).

 

First time we are able to pick up an object sized similarly to the device (R6).

 

First time we are able to fly between two distinct points >= 500m apart while carrying an object similar to the device (R7).

 

First time we are able to release an object being carried, similar to the device, such that it does not hit the ground with excess force (R8).

 

First time we are able to release an object similar to the device into a container sized similarly to the one at competition such that it does not hit the bucket with excess force or tip over (R8).

 

First time we are able to scan a QR code (R9).

 

First time we are able to transmit the location from the scanned QR code to the autopilot (R9).

 

First time we are able to display the questions from the scanned QR code on the ground station (R9).

 

First time our aircraft is able to autonomously fly between two points >= 500m apart provided the aircraft is airborne (R10).

 

11) Long term goals

We hope to continue building a design team that enriches the university experience for students at UWaterloo by providing mentorship and opportunities. An important aspect of this is participating in competitions, as it helps to establish deadlines for projects, give our work some credibility, and provide students a fun opportunity to show off their hard work. As a student-led team, our main priority is student learning. Whether we succeed or fail in competition, the goal is to ensure that students leave the team with technical skills and memorable experiences that they take with them after graduation.

12) Competencies

We improve rapidly with a startup mentality

Our team is built around rapid improvement, as evidenced by WARG’s tremendous growth over the last couple years. We subscribe well to the agile methodology and resolve blockers efficiently by having our leads focus their efforts on identifying and resolving blockers. By focusing on resolving inter-team blockers and blockers that require further resources, we are able to continually detect problems and improve our operations to execute our ideas.

Our students have diverse expertise

We use effective recruiting to identify and target the expertise that we need and offer our students an unprecedented amount of ownership over projects. Our low turnover shows that the autonomy we give our students ensures that we retain the talent we require to execute our plans and ideas.

We’re passionate about what we do

Our team structure fosters a high degree of passion for the idea and the team. Students are personally invested in what they do because of our high level of ownership. Our recruiting strategy emphasizes personal connections to identify and recruit people with a passion for aviation. We provide a high level of mentorship and the ownership we allow for creates personal development. More than any other team, we are designed to encourage the passion and hard work required for us to execute our idea.

13) Relevant Comments *Jenny