FPV Drones

Over the years, I have built 4 custom FPV racing drones from off-the-shelf components and modified/upgraded several additional multirotors. The hobby has taught me about PID control tuning, sensor filtering, battery and electrical engineering, Radio-Frequency science, and flight dynamics.

5-INCH

While some drones seek to optimize one or two specific design parameters, this craft was meant to be a "well-rounded" flyer capable of carrying a GoPro for HD video recording. It compromises weight, power, and durability in such a way that aligns with my flying style to give thrilling performance.

3-INCH

While the 5" is my go-to drone for capturing cinematic video, in some cases, it presents too large of a risk to be flown in all places. I built this drone to be extremely light and compact while still having a powerful drivetrain cappable of spinning 3" propellers. This size-to-weight class maintains extreme maneuverability and provides an impressive flying exprience in a wider range of locations.

Ultralight GoPro

In order to get high-quality video from my 3" drone, I reverse-engineered a GoPro camera to be ultra-lightweight. While GoPro modifications have been done before in the drone community, I did not find anyone who had documented such drastic modifications to the specific camera model that I had. In the end, I was able to reduce the weight of the camera from 74 grams to 15 grams while maintaining its full functionality.

I also used topology optimization to design a canopy to mount the camera to the drone.

Frame resonance modeling

In the last few years, frame resonance analysis has risen to the top of high-performance Drone dynamic research. In this project, I developed an analytical model for studying and predicting drone resonance.


First, I performed a frequency study in SOLIDWORKS in order to visualize some of the common resonant modes that occur in typical drone frames. I used the results of the study to derive a 2nd order ODE that encapsulates the significant motion. Finally, I performed Fourier analysis on real gyroscope data from a drone to compare the real resonant frequencies with the eigenfrequencies of the kinematic model.


Despite its mathematical simplicity, the model proves to be a good predictor of the resonant frequencies. It could be used to guide initial frame design and inform gyro notch-filtering on drones where black box data is not available.

I also used MATLAB to explore the correlation between vibration frequency and throttle position. This plot gives insight into some of the noisy throttle positions which can be used to help tune dynamic notch filters more precisely.


Drone Films

In addition to the technological side of drones, I enjoy producing and publishing my own films including cinematic flight videos and build guide tutorials.

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