2024-05-07 AEAC Sync

Owned by Nathan Green
Last updated: 2024-05-08 by Daniel Puratich
5 min read

Attendance

Mechanical:

  • @Nathaniel Li

  • @Smile Khatri

  • @Evan Janakievski

Electrical:

  • @Ishman Mann

Embedded Flight Software:

  • @Aidan Bowers (Deactivated)

  • @Roni Kant

  • @Yuchen Lin

Autonomy:

  • @Tong Zhang

Operations:

  • None

Directors:

  • @Daniel Puratich

  • @Nathan Green

Agenda

Propulsion + Control

  • Pegasus 2

    • @Smile Khatri Mounting motors by end end of week

    • @Smile Khatri Frame wil be done by tommorow, adding in arms, landing gear is done, adding motors

    • motor mounts

  • Pegasus 1

    • Good to fly

    • We should motor test before next flight test to be sure

  • Mostly completed

Sensing

  • Pegasus 2

    • Should test flight Pegasus 2 with minimum hardware then mount

    • we have spare opflow and gps

    • no spare range finder

    • technically a spare but it’s not great

  • Pegasus 1

    • no changes needed

Video System

  • Pegasus 1

    • Make camera mount more rigid

      • nathan added this requirement to reduce vibe

    • Replace downwards facing camera

      • current one has a green artifact

      • swap with a new one, coordinate with EE

      • mostly mounting it, @Smile Khatri

    • moving camera to new location so not blocked by cabin

      • right now it’s on left, we want on right (alongside with all the video stuff)

Command + Telem

Action items / blockers:

  • Peggy 2

    • we have RFD, can do test flight with it

Updates:

Tracking Antenna - General

Action items / blockers:

  • Tracking ant is just for control, not for video

    • Arduino tracking antenna is working and ready to be tested at a flight test

  • Gemini stuff isn’t tested, but motion of antenna is

    • Hardy is working on code here

    • GPS is working

    • Possibly ready for this weekend, @Derek Tang @Hardy Yu to confirm

    • Would liek to test gemini this flight test this weekend

 

General Updates

  • Everyone should read the CONOPS, especially competition goers to ensure we understand the objectives!

Flight test schedule

  • This Weekend

    • Peggy 1 only

    • Simulate for different scenarios, more pilot testing

    • Flying near an airport is not legally viable …

    • Saturday return to service flight test

    • one set, check controls, auto-tune, new batteries

    • we could try flying faster to increase power consumption to match our task 1 speed

  • Next Weekend

    • peggy 1

      • New antenna placement and RF filter testing (just prove system isn't terrible)

      • If anything isn't perfect this weekend, we use next weekend

    • Pegasus 2 flight test

      • We can use houston’s pixhawk

      • minimal hardware, prove functionality

      • nothing leaves peggy 1 for peggy 2, do not risk the comp intent system.

  • Competition

General Questions

A big list of questions from @Daniel Puratich CONOPS review.

  • When do we have the flight test grounds booked?

    • @Yuchen Lin booked!

    • we this weekend Saturday 11am to 6pm

    • we do not have it Sunday

    • this is true for this weekend and next weekend

  • How fast we wanna fly?

    • 18km/hr is optimal for efficiency calculated

    • we found it to be a bit fast so we went down to 10km/hr

    • keeping it low is nice to avoid vibration issues

    • we could try new magfit parameters on a flight test to see if it fixed vibration

  • Task 1 Laps

    • We are targetting three laps for competition

    • We’re limited by battery capacity and not time

    • 20 mins for three laps

    • gives us time to land safely

  • What portions of task 1 and task 2 are we targeting to do autonomously?

    • All of task 1 can be theoretically done autonomously

    • We’ve done past three flight tests full autonomously

    • we need to set battery failsafe in ardupilot (and test this)

    • for task 2, everything except the landing portion, pilot will manually land.

    • What is autonomy’s role at competition? Answerred.

  • Where do we plan on placing the task 1 tracking device?

    • its a couple centimeters we’ll figure it out

    • @Nathan Green

  • Do we plan on covering the top of the drone to avoid exposed wires?

    • Waterproofing needs to be discussed

    • @Smile Khatri to make a meeting on this

    • Battery shrouds cover the main power leads

  • Are we all onboard with Peggy 1 as competition aircraft with Peggy 2 as a backup?

    • no disagreement?

    • We could swap the landing gear, the peggy 2 gear is more rigid

  • Will lighting be ready for this flight test? Realism points on the line here …

    • @Nolan Haines @Parker Lawrence-Valeriani please answer this stat ….

  • Plan for completion of the pre-flight presentation? Due Thursday before comp.

    • May 23rd we need to submit, possibly @Emma Chan to lead this effort

  • Does our GPS meet the Flight Readiness Button Requirement?

    • We’ve kept this on in software and will continue to do so.

  • What is optimal altitude between 328 and 400 ft to fly at for task 1?

    • flying higher will take more power

    • 350 ft (106m or we round to 105m) target to give margin

  • Task 2, how do we feel about landing pads? Which one do we want to aim for? General strategy here, I know we play it by ear.

    • B is beside the overhang

    • is there a passenger safety requirement here

      • Task 2 doesnt say anything about landing safely or in one piece, can we plan on possibility of crashing into lz c?

      • will look into safety requirements

    • the hard one is C with overhang

      • overhang will kill gps

      • Nathan’s more worried about gps denied than video link denied

    • Can we test gps denied to see if the op flow carries

    • we can play by ear based on RF signal strength

    • landing pad is where you need to decide

  • Delegation of final report writing. 90 minute speed-run.

    • Last time people tried to prepare before then four or five worked on it until flight window. Then the remainning bit was filled in by all at the end.

  • Does the cabin have “At least one clear and visible signage/instructions/placard for accessibility features”?

    • We don’t have this yet

    • The ramp meets this, add in a sign, target before next flight test @Evan Janakievski

  • Can we add a kill switch test to this weekend’s flight test?

    • check for flight test

  • Does Pegasus have a valid registration under Nathan’s name? If so, can we add it to the document we have to track numbers in confluence?

    • We have insurance

    • it’s approved for advanced use but

    • we need to get a registration number as well

    • Nathan has a number for a custom built drone, will go on confluence list

    • @Nathan Green

  • What are we characterizing at the flight test?

    • How many laps are we targetting for competition task 1?

      • see above

  • Review RFCs