Learning Journey

• Learn about the basic theory of flight
• Learn how the theory of flight affects the design of a paper airplane.
• Learn basic folding techniques by folding actual paper airplanes
• Learn basic competition tips and tricks

Organised by SAFMC partners, this Learning Journey session will allow participants to be familiar with and prepare for the different challenges in each category of the competition.

The glider building workshop aims to provide additional assistance to participants on how to build a glider.

This session aims to provide participants with an opportunity to test their glider designs and familiarise themselves with the competition site.

By going through these materials participants will get to learn:

• How airplanes fly
• Aerodynamic behind the design and concept of Radio Control Flight
• Construction and Material Applications
• Flight Test of Prototype and Quick Repairs Hints
• Rules and Regulations of CAT C1

This clinical workshop aims to assist participants to resolve queries on how to build a flying machine.

Are you up to the challenge to design drones that can be controlled through gestures?

Here is one device that may be helpful in your quest to conquer the challenges in Category D1 – which requires you to design, build and operate a system of up to 3 semi-autonomous air platforms to perform a multitude of tasks.

Leap Motion Controller is an optical hand tracking module that captures the movement of our hand gestures and translate to flight instructions for the drones. Learn more about the device in the link.

There is a myriad of interesting applications that people have used the Leap Motion Controller device for. One such application would be to control a drone! Check out the following YouTube videos to explore the possibilities!

✈️ Leapcopter – Nodecopter Controlled by a Leap Motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRECaiWOaIA&t=42s

✈️ Leap Motion Node Drone Flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfq2SisPvCU

One of the most important challenges to solve for SAFMC’s autonomous challenges is indoor localisation, where it is not feasible to use GPS. While there are existing commercial solutions like ultra-wideband positioning systems, these maybe too costly to be used for the competition. 

One great alternative are AprilTags – basically ‘large QR codes’ that allow the software to compute the position, orientation and identity of tags relative to the camera. Here is a tutorial by Theodore Lewitt on how you can do just that with a Raspberry Pi and OpenCV.

If programming one autonomous drone isn’t challenging enough, the enhanced Category D2 pushes the boundaries to challenge you further by making 2 such drones work together to complete a mission.

Here is a quick crash course to get you up to speed on what is a closed-loop control for autonomous systems and how such controls can improve flight stability and accuracy.

Autonomous systems take in multiple parameters from different sensors and combine them to effect the desired behaviour. Check out this video to learn more!

In celebration of DSO’s 50^th anniversary this year, SAFMC is enhanced to incorporate a challenge on Swarm Technology under Category E. Swarm programming presents a unique challenge in the areas of drone coordination and communication. If you’re wondering how you can turn individual drones into a coordinated swarm, here a video to get you started.

If you are using the Tello or Tello EDU drones, the DJI SDK provides swarm support, allowing you to create a swarm, add drones to the swarm, and send commands to the swarm. Click on the session link button to find out more!

For further functionalities, you can explore this library which includes advanced features for finer swarm control. (Link: https://github.com/dwalker-uk/TelloEduSwarmSearch)

Have a drone running on Robot Operating System? The micros_swarm_framework helps to facilitate the development and creation of a swarm. Or why not write your own framework if you’re feeling up to the challenge?