Week 15

Wrapping up the semester we decided to fly one last time with the Bramor. We picked the Purdue Wildlife Area. Here they have test fields that they study for various plant and vegetation growth. The weather was good to fly in other than potential rain. As the lead flight engineer my task was set up and break down of the Bramor. Me and Ian packed the parachute for the flight the day before, but within the 24 hour limit that is required. We also made sure the batteries were charged and packed. The setup went perfectly, one of our quickest set ups. We had set up the Bramor multiple times at this point (dry runs and actual flights). I took a video of the launch since this was our last time flying this air frame.

ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff   This video shows Ryan launching the Bramor.
                           As seen, Evan callouts when Ryan is able to pull the launch cord.


As always, I was nervous for the parachute landing (due to the nature of it) but it deployed nicely. I am very confident in my ability to pack the parachute but it was nerve wrecking regardless. After the flight Evan gathered the data and told us that over 1600 photos were captured, totaling about 160 GB of data. This semester was a fun and interesting one. I'm glad I was chosen to be the lead flight engineer. When I graduate I would like to get into systems engineering or design engineering. Being able to learn more about complex unmanned systems has broaden my knowledge on aviation. I work very hard on my other major AET(Aeronautical Engineering Technology). I would like to incorporate both my knowledge of UAS and AET so I can get a career that involves design of unmanned technology. While I am not very interested in career path that deals with GIS, it is still great to know. If I were to get a liaison position, it would be good to know both the engineering side and the data side.

I would like to take a moment and thank both Dr. Hupy's for their time and effort in this major. Dr. Hupy was new to teaching at Purdue and did a great job focusing our time into something that we could use in the career field. I would also like to thank my class mates I worked with these past four year, we made a great team and have tons of fun learning.

Week 14

Winding down the semester, me and Ian started the final video edits and finishing touches for the parachute packing video. Initially we thought the best idea would be to capture us packing the parachute from start to finish then do a voice over. We ultimately decided that we would instead insert photos of the training manual. This would include graphics of the training manual on how to pack the parachute. This would limit or even eliminate the need to open the training manual and search through it to find the section on packing. The parachute packing section in the manual also needed to be worked on. There were sections that did not meet our expectations. In the beginning of the video, we put disclaimers and guidelines to follow. These included following the video exactly how it is, asking instructor for further information if needed, and not packing the parachute if the packer was not 100% sure of their actions. We put these in here because the parachute is the only way to land and is the most important item on the air frame. Not packing it correctly could lead to catastrophic damage not only to the air frame but also to the sensors on board.

Using Windows Movie Editor we cut and pasted different parts
of the video. We also sped up redundant parts to eliminate wasted
time.

At the beginning of the video, viewers are instructed to
pause the video when training manual content shows up.
This enforces the notion that all steps will be followed exactly. 

The video did not take us long to make. The edits and making sure we put everything in the video that had to be said did take us awhile. We made slight changes to our content by adding in some addition steps. Something me and Ian did not do during the semester that we thought would be a good idea is to put a label on the parachute bag. This would include the packers names, date, and time. For future classes this would show who packed the parachute and when in case anything were to happen.  Below is the link final video.

A graphic of the parachute bag pre-packed shows packers
how the bag should look before it is placed in. 

https://purdue0-my.sharepoint.com/personal/iwilley_purdue_edu/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fiwilley_purdue_edu%2FDocuments%2F419%2FBramor%20chute%20fold%20training%20video%2FBramor%20Chute%20Training%20Video%2Emp4&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fiwilley_purdue_edu%2FDocuments%2F419%2FBramor%20chute%20fold%20training%20video&cid=17920ed4-c8c1-4fcf-a1d9-988614b79118

Week 13

Due to poor weather conditions our task was shifted from collecting data to another project. Some students set up for aviation day and others focused on their own small projects. Me and Ian had a small project that was making a video for how to correctly pack a parachute. We made this video in hopes that future students would be able to learn how to pack the parachute. When we learned how to pack the parachute we had to go strictly off directions on a training manual with very limited pictures. Having a video or slideshow would help tremendously by letting students see visually how to do it. Me and Ian first set up the camera so it could see the whole parachute. We discussed how we wanted to do it. Our plan was to video tape it with us doing in multiple sections. Since we were in a room with other people we also decided that doing a voice over for the video. This would also let us watch the video after hand and comment on the packing. Having to talk them through the process while packing the parachute could lead to missing information. While taking the video we also took photos up close to show finer details such as the folds and brake line. We took the videos in segments so that we could trim out sections that weren’t needed. Ian has put the videos into a video editing software so he could put in transitions and trims. The instructional video is nearly complete, we will look it over a couple more times and have someone else watch the video and pack a parachute before we finalize it. If there are any issues with the video, then the test run should show where the flaws are.

Week 12

As the weather was great, we decided to fly another mission. This time Ryan flew his M100 with the multi-spectral camera to gather more data. We also flew the Bramor to capture more of the river and the flooding that had occurred around it. Beforehand, me and Ian packed a parachute since the time after packing the previous one had expired. The manual states that there cannot be more than 24 hours between packing the parachute and release. This is mostly due to the creases in the parachute itself. If the creases stay then it can hinder the opening of the parachute, potentially causing a mishap. Teams were the same as last time and everyone participated in the pre-flight checklist.

Parachute packed and ready. The dressing of the cords, while important,
is not as important as making sure the strands do not cross over. The overall
quality of this chute was great and opened up perfectly.

This week me, Thomas, and Kyle started to make good headway on the poster. The poster is for the SATT presentation of capstone classes for the technology department. Initially, our poster was going to talk about the similarities and differences between Drone Logbook and Measure. Due to the weather, we were not able to get many flights in to test out the two software. We shifted our focus to crew resource management within UAS operations. Below you will see the final product. As you can see we first define what CRM is and how it applies to many applications, not just UAS. This is to introduce people into this concept that might not know what it was beforehand. Then on the right of the poster we point out different applications we used in our operations. Measure, Drone logbook, Trello, Google Drive, Groupme, Zello are all utilized by our operation in some aspect that was notable. We gave we brief description of each app after some constructive criticism from class. Our rough draft did not have any description so viewers might not have any idea what some of these apps were. Finally on the bottom right we described how CRM effected our day to day operations. In there talks about how we used roles, leadership, and crews to hand out roles to team members. The checklists that we used and how we used them were also highlighted.

The final draft for the poster symposium. Class photos of our flight manager
(Kyle) training the class on the Getac. The poster highlights how we use CRM
in UAS operations at Purdue.

Week 11

The weather was great and the planes were ready. For this week we were finally able to complete a mission with the Bramor. When I first entered the room I was tasked with packing the parachute. The parachute is the only way to land the Bramor so it is imperative that it is done with care. The parachute must be packed within 24 hours of the mission. This disrupts the operation because me and Ian must come in early to pack the chute. Me and Ian were tasked with packing two chutes. We had already packed parachutes before so we made quick work with it. While we packed the other groups went out to the test site to set up. As we arrived the groups were performing the pre-flight checklist. I took part in setting up the catapult and airframe since I am the lead flight engineer. Although I was helping, I did not take full control of it. I supervised it since I already knew the ins and outs of the setup. I wanted someone else to do it so they could gain some experience setting up. At this point in the set up, we were aiming the catapult so we could take off. One thing we could change about what we did was placement on setting up. The group that went out set up the catapult in a spot where we could only launch it North. This was highly problematic because we had a tail wind. At the time of setting up, wind speed was negligible, but once it got closer to launch the wind speed picked up. Me and Ian tried to move the catapult so instead of a tail wind it would be a crosswind. We couldn’t launch into a headwind due to obstacles. We set the Bramor onto the catapult with it ready to launch. After we winched the rubbers on the catapult, we were ready to launch. I was tasked with pulling the release pin. We set the aircraft into launch mode and I pulled the lever for release, and it took off.

The Bramor set up, catapult not armed. The catapult in this photo
is set up incorrectly. This is the set up with a tail wind.

The launch was rough, with the tail/cross wind that picked up, the Bramor also didn’t even take off. It was released off the catapult and immediately started sloping towards the ground. The motor eventually picked up the slack and took off. Me and Thomas were visual observers so we went to our spot in the parking lot. During the whole flight, my group and the launch group could see the aircraft. This could mean that we didn’t need the two other visual observing groups. After the mission was completed, it was time to land with the parachute. The Bramor rallied then started it descent to land. It popped the parachute and started descending. It was gliding very closely to the road, I am not sure what went wrong with the estimate slopes, but it was only about 50 feet from the road. We picked the Bramor up and recovered it safely with no mishaps for our first mission. Other than the parachute being tangled, it was a complete success.

Bramor set up, catapult armed. Catapult ready to launch
the catapult was moved from its last position to prevent a tail wind.
This position had a slight crosswind. 

Week 10

As the spring weather warms up we are going to start planning to go out to fly. Since the setup for the Bramor was so crucial we spent this week running more dry runs setting it up. This time we had different members on equipment and ground control. Since I had done a lot of the setting up I decided to take a step back and let Evan set it up. I oversaw the whole operation of the setting up of the air-frame

Bramor on a level surface for sensor calibration.
Small amounts of rain can be seen on the air-frame
luckily the air-frame is waterproof.

The Getac is the main interface for the Bramor. Here
you can see us setting up landing. loiter, takeoff
and rally points.

Bramor set up outside. catapult rubbers on. At
this point the Bramor is still being setup. Notice
the top hatch still uncovered.

of the Bramor and the catapult. We took times again and tried to find more flaws in the setup. This time was different from the others because we were able to take it outside to complete more checklist items that involved GPS. When indoors, GPS cannot connect to the aircraft because of the interference. The buildings roof has more than enough interference to completely block all signals. When we went outside it was raining so we had to quickly acquire satellites then bring the Bramor under cover. We were able to acquire the minimum amount of satellites for a little while but it was short lived. The cover still blocked satellites, but we were able to complete most of the checklist. Including mission mapping, rally points, take off points, and landing points. We had never done this before so it helped out a lot. After we set it all up we tore it down and came up with a plan for Monday. Next Wednesday looks like great weather so we are planning to do an actual mission then. Monday will be prep work for Wednesday, which will include batteries being charged and parachutes packed.

Week 9

Since the weather was still beyond our operational limits, our class met inside to perform more dry runs on the new airframes. Our first airframe was the Bramor, this time around we organized it similar to how we would in the field. We had one person on hardware (someone who will essentially put the Bramor together), one person on ground control (someone who has the tablet), and someone on the checklist reading it off. We timed each run, jotting down notes on what needed to be improved and what seemed to be running smoothly. We rotated out each role to get a feel of what needed to be done for each task.

The groups that completed the run through. The improvements are
listed on the right. This lets us see as a whole class what needs to be
improved, letting us fly more without mishaps.

This week we also started the operation run through of the DJI M600. Ryan is very familiar with this platform so he supervised us as we ran through the operation of it. We completed the checklist he made for it and gave suggestions as to what needed to be fixed or added.The M600 is much more simple than the Bramor. Since the class has plenty of experience on quadcopters, the M600 should be a breeze for us. The only parts we are unfamiliar with are the gimbal and landing gear assembly. We discussed how the landing gear fits on and the operation of it. The two notches on both the top and bottom of the assembly are orientation specific, meaning they can only fit properly with the orientation correct. Ryan should us how they attach and where the notches are supposed to go. 

Ryan showing us the details on the sensor. He took off the lens
and showed us how it worked and the things we need to check
for before operation (dirt, rocks, debris...etc)

M600 completely put together, this was set down after we put the
legs on the frame.

Week 8

In week 8, the C-Astral Bramor came in. Since this platform is going to define this program this was of utmost importance, especially since my main role for this class is main flight engineer. I will become familiar to the setup, operation, and structure of this platform. My job will be to train a single team to operate this fixed wing. Since everyone should get time on this platform, we will cycle out 1 person from the main team. This will ensure everyone gets training with the Bramor. When we first opened it, it came in two cases. One case had the catapult and one had the platform with accessories (except the 42 megapixel camera, which was included with the catapult).
In the picture below, you can the Bramor in one case, then the catapult in the other. Our task was to set it up with the given checklist. Kyle was in charge of reading off the checklist items, and I was following the tasks given to me by Kyle.

Air frame (Box above)
Catapult (Box below)

The wings are stored in an upper compartment
in the air frame box.

This Bramor was special due to its sensor package. This one had a Red Edge Altum integrated into its air frame. It
had special EMI shielding measures and mount design.











Below shows a photo of the top of the flying wing. The cover fits into the top by a latching pin and a lip that slides into the air frame. To us, this seemed like a design flaw, especially since the lip had a broken edge which made it very difficult to slide the lip into the slot. The cords in the photo are used to secure the parachute to the air frame. This is the only known method of safe landing so it is crucial. The two rubber tubes in the top middle of the photo is part of the pitot tube system. Looking just past the leading edge of the wing you can see the black pitot tube. The compartment with the "remove before flight" tag is where the parachute is held and deployed. It is deployed by a spring board that launches it out into the air, away from the propeller. Looking closely you can see tape on the air frame next to the red triangles. This tape is one of the important checklist items, its task to ensure redundant fastening of the wings to the fuselage. A feature you cannot see but is included on the air frame design is vortex generators. Just behind the leading edge of the wing is a piece of thick material that disrupts airflow over the top of the wing. Vortex generators are used to delay flow separation at high angles of attack by re-energizing the boundary layer. Since this aircraft can be subjected to high angles of attack to compensate for high winds, this is helpful for functionality. 

Bramor checklist dry run. This air frame has some interesting features that makes it unique.
Some of the parts on this are also 3D printed such as the engine cooling cowl. 

After running through the checklist carefully we did find some flaws with the checklist. It says to open to parachute port which normally wouldn't matter, but it says to do so before the aircraft has power. Which the only way to open the parachute port is through the ground control station. We will fix this by making small modifications to the checklist.

After we set up the air frame we familiarized ourselves with the catapult. This is the only method of launching the Bramor and it is crucial to know its functionality. The catapult works by using elastic cords under tension. You wrap the rubber to two points on the front of the catapult, then you use a winch to put the rubber under high tension. Once you are ready to launch, the user pulls a safety pin, then pulls a cord. The Bramor is launched quickly off the catapult and into the air where it automatically turns on its motor then proceeds to the mission. Below is a photo of the Bramor set up on the catapult and "ready" to launch. Since it was indoors we took precautionary measures to ensure it wouldn't take off. The red cords leading form the back to the front of the catapult launch the Bramor, without these it would never be able to take off. One of the checklist items is to ensure that no cords are tangled, this could cause a difficult launch or even a crash. The winch is down near the bottom of the catapult. Like a normal winch, you crank it to slowly build up tension on the cords.

Bramor and Catapult all set up ready to fly. Since this is inside, there are certain checklist items
we could not complete (GPS, wind speed, weather...etc) we did our best to complete a dry run.

Catapult pre-setup. The elastic cords have not been attached to the frame of catapult. The air frame
bucket is made from carbon fiber and weighs very little. This helps with weight reduction for a faster 
launch. Giving the bramor more speed to work with.

Week 7

Since we are still unable to fly in the field we are still working on posters and doing dry runs. This week poster work was the main focus. Me, Kyle, and Thomas are doing our poster on crew resource management and the big differences between Purdue's Drone Logbook and Measure. When looking at both the sites, Drone logbook seemed to have many more features. Checklists, times flown, operators, drones, inventory lists...etc the list goes on. It may need some more work to be more user friendly but it does have many useful features. We haven’t been able to use Measure so we don’t know what can go on the site. This impeded our ability to accurately judge both, the only aspect that we didn’t like was its lack of features. The site didn’t seem to have any tools, or at least any that we could find. We looked on Measures website to see what they claimed to have and still found nothing. On drone logbook we found a graphic with lots of claimed to have features. (Fig 1)

To us, this showed that drone logbook was able to advertise what their software could do, while Measures advertisement is much more broad and less specific. There were no specific graphics on their site that showed what it could do. But all this could only be due to the fact that we have not been able to utilize the software. We haven’t been able to fly yet so there could be features that are only accessible once flights have started. We will find out more once we have flights in. Below (Fig 2) is the beginning of what our poster is going to look like, we still need more data on CRM and both software's before we can make more concrete conclusions.

Week 6

In week 6, I was able to inventory the rest of the batteries for the DJI M600. The flight teams have been created based on what day/time they were able to fly, with the exception of Krysta. She has a revolving work schedule, meaning she sometimes works different days of the week. After looking at the times for our class to fly, there may need to be some changes. Most days a group of 3 or more can only be together for 1 hour. This is unreasonable because just getting the equipment and ground control station setup can take an hour. Those who are able to fly the most will be on the Bramor airframe. This is due to the complexity of the preflight checklist. I want to keep a flight crew specially for the bramor. This airframe is very costly and cannot afford small mistakes. One way of working everyone into the Bramor team is to switch out one of the team members on it. So if the team were to have 3 people. Person 1 & 2 would always be on the team but person 3 would be switched out with the other members. This would ensure everyone would have the chance to gain familiarity with it without significantly increasing the chance of an incident. There is still the issue of people simply not having the time to be able to fly, but that will have to be discussed in more depth. Since the weather is still unflyable we have been tasked with creating posters for the SATT poster symposium. In my group is Kyle and Thomas. Our poster idea revolves around flight crew and crew resource management (CRM). For our poster we will talk about how CRM is utilized in UAS operations, this is a key role for these type of operations. We have not been able to discuss the poster more throughly, but we will be working on it solely next week.

Week 5

During week 5, we had a dry run test for mission operation. What this consisted of is a theoretical mission that needed to be completed. As a team, we decided where the best location of our test site (West Lafayette Amphitheater) would be for a major flood. As a team, we chose what platform we would use, what day would be best suited, and how we would perform the mission. We picked out one of the shape files on our map then proceeded to choose a location where we would launch our aircraft. Since the mission would be to capture flooding, we would be utilizing an RBG camera with the highest resolution as possible. Which meant using the Bramor with its normal RBG camera. Theoretically before hand we would have video of the site area. Since we would have both, we would be able to compare the results before and after. We could also compare our results to the Tippecanoe GIS maps. The test run was a great idea and showed us a lot of could be flaws in our operation. We still need to work out minor flaws but the dry run was a success in showing us how we would do this operation if it came to be. 

During this week I also continued to pack parachutes for the Bramor. Since the parachute is the main method of landing for the Bramor, it is of paramount importance to get this up and running. Still waiting on the Bramor to create a checklist and its appropriate documents. 

Week 4

Due to inclement weather, class was cancelled on the day we planned to try out a dry run of our operation. What we had planned to do was get everyone together and simulate an operation. We would simulate us going out into the field to gather data from our test site. Since we wouldn't be flying, we would load an SD card onto the platform with data already on it. Then we would act as if we just came from from the field with all of our data. The flight team would then organize the data correctly and put it into the correct folder for data processing. This dry run would show us, as a class, what processes could be further developed or improved. A dry run would also give us a good feel as to how the operation should feel once we get into the real flights.
As for the flight engineering, Ryan has made an M600 checklist that he has put on drone logbook. We have reviewed the checklist but still need a dry run to test it out.

Week 3

Due to extended delay on C-Astral's Bramor, I switched my focus from parachute packing and creating an instructional video for it. Me, Ryan and Ian started to brainstorm a checklist for the M600. We also started to inventory our equipment. The M600 has a total of 18 batteries separated into 3 groups of six. To ensure we use the same six batteries together they are labeled different colors. Yellow, blue, and purple were the colors chosen. While we started to make a list we decided that using QR codes to label the battery would be a good idea. I made QR codes for 6 of the batteries and have them saved.
The class also started using drone log book, which will ultimately help me with creating checklists and inventory lists. The site has its own category for flight, maintenance, inventory, personnel, documents and incidents. Drone logbook will be very useful for in field use of checklists and flight records. Planned for next week is creating a checklist for the M600 on drone log book itself, this will help condense all of the classes resources down to a few sites. If any maintenance is done on any of the platforms we have a section dedicated to jot down any notes or major maintenance done.

Week 2

As the lead flight engineer I was tasked with learning to pack the parachute for the Bramor. For this week me and systems integrator, Ian Wiley practiced packing the parachute. The packing guide consisted over 35 steps. We first started out by hand deploying the parachute, after that we made room on a desk so we could have room to fold it. Step by step, me and Ian followed the procedure taking notes of what would be good to have in an instructional video. We were able to pack it twice during the time of our lab. The first time packing was much more difficult than the second, due to us never packing this parachute before. The most difficult part we agree would be the most important part. The weaving of the cords at the end. If the cords are tangled then the parachute could have a chance of not being deployed, causing the Bramor to potentially take a very hard landing.  This is the step me and Ian are working on the hardest due to the difficulty of it.

Bramor Parachute packed
(the most important aspect is the cords being woven correctly so it deploys)

Bramor Parachute during packing (1st attempt)

During this phase of the packing, we separated the 8 gores into a neat pile. 

419 Capstone Preparation

In our first week of class, the class had discussion on how to classify the data we collect from our flights. Evan, as the data analyst, had two options that were discussed. In the photos below he drew out how the data would be organized. In class we also set up folders for our own use in this class along with mapping a drive.

 Here on the left is the diagram on how data will be collected, stored, and released. There is also the naming convention for the data on the right hand side of the photo. This was the main topic of discussion and took us most of the time.

For my job, I was able to see the parachute and look into the folding of it. We received the Bramor user manual and in it was the guide to packing the parachute. It consisted of 35 steps.