You can fall down seven times as long as you get up eight.
Initial ideation of our drone attached with GPR technology
Landmine detection, (aka “Mine Sweeper”), has had a few, and by a few I obviously mean a plethora, of failed attempts before we found a solid goal, plan, and prototype. At week one we were given a drone that was only a few months old. Out of the 35 kids in the class, only about 10 people knew how to work drones, what kind of machines they were, and how they were built. Because of this, both WRTC and Industrial Design students were already in the “failing” column for knowledge on drone UAVs. This first fall was a tough one, but we got up with only a few bruises.
After meeting as a team, separate from our three hour class period on Wednesdays, we knew it was time to expand our minds and come up with collaborative and innovative ideas. After designing our mind map that seemed to be a messy pile of sticky notes, we thought we were getting somewhere. We put our first presentation and proposal together and were ready to share our ideas with the class, our professors, and Nova Labs. In short, we failed again. Our group was criticized for our design of the slide and our idea for detecting landmines was too broad. Although our group felt overwhelmed with embarrassment and lacked hope, we still went back to the drawing board full of optimism.
Ideation sketches of our modular multi-sensor system
All of the comments and criticism from our professors and mentors were helpful. We knew that they were just pushing us to do our best and strive for an even more meaningful project. Our professor said, “Take this drone. Make it yours. Find something that hits home to you all when you hear about landmines then use this drone to fix it.”
After several meetings in the studio center, X-labs, and a few at the local bar, our minds were still determined to get on the right track.. We honed in on this project by first changing our team name from Corndogs to MineSweeper. Although that does not seem to be the most vital change it was the most motivational one. Each group member took it upon themselves to read the group contract, show up to every meeting, and do substantial outside research.
Infographic depicting the price and weight of our full inventory of materials
It has only been six weeks and there has been major progress which has led to us starting to see success. We have mapped out our business plan for bill of materials. We have our first prototype sketched. We have made contact with Mala and Raytheon Solipsys. We have test flown drones, and we have grown to be one team inside of six different majors.
The road is long and far from easy. Being a part of something so complex and challenging can be discouraging, but if we can get up at the end of each week and report back to the drawing board we will have success.
Authors: Hope Ucciardi & Patrick Murphy