Aaron Ganick: An Autopilot Experience
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 trial.pdf | 5.77 MB |
An Autopilot Experience
Aaron Ganick worked on creating an autonomous radio controlled airplane for his SURF-IT 2009 University of California, Santa Cruz experience. He will be a senior this year at Boston University majoring in Electrical Engineering. Aaron worked in the i-nrg laboratory under Dr. Katia Obraczka and a PHD student Vladislav Petkov. The goal of the project was to implement an open source autopilot software onto a small remote controlled plane to conduct data transference experiments. Using the software, the plane was able to fly completely unmanned using gps waypoints.
Aaron's task was to troubleshoot all aspects of the previously constructed plane and autopilot hardware setup. He successfully modified and reduced the noise between several onboard radios. He also tuned and modified the open source software to match the planes physical orientations. Ultimately the plane was used as a mobile aerial node to conduct experiments with stationary ground nodes. The project was a success and has inspired future work to use larger planes with greater fuel capacity.
