In the perfect college-world there would be no problems; everyone would have a 4.0 GPA, class attendance would be optional, and every group project would operate as seamlessly as was first imagined. Well, the “perfect college-world” doesn’t exactly exist, and unimagined problems arising during group projects are as inevitable as missing more than three days of class. This past week the Landmine Detection group faced this unfortunate reality firsthand. After weeks of waiting, anticipation building, and excitement growing, it was finally time to fly our UAV drone. Only one problem: it couldn’t get off the ground.
We were able to calibrate it, but simply put, our drone just wouldn’t arm. We’ve been working side-by-side the engineers from Nova Labs to diagnose the error, but at this point in time our drone isn’t fully functional. We have the utmost confidence that the problem will be remedied within the next couple days and we’ll finally be able to test out our drone, who, by the way, we have fittingly named “Tinkerbell.”
With no drone of our own to fly, we were left to observe the other groups as they tested out their new toys. What we witnessed was exactly what we had expected: a highly advanced piece of technology that if utilized correctly has the potential to make drastic changes in the world. The drone’s physical size and the power that it operates with are intimidating, and after watching them fly for only a few moments the importance of proper safety protocol was reconfirmed. Fred, one of the Nova Labs engineers, guided each group through their first flight just as a father would guide their child through their first bike ride.
The sense of nervous intimidation regarding the magnitude of the drone’s true power quickly turned into an overwhelming sense of nervous excitement. We realized as a group that our initially far-fetched dream of using a UAV drone to detect landmines in Syria and the Middle East really wasn’t that far-fetched at all. Our goal as a group is detect landmines, save lives, and make the war-torn regions of the Syria and the Middle East a safer place. After watching these drones fly there is no doubt that we have the capability to make this dream into a reality, all we have to is get Tinkerbell to stop acting up.
Authors:
Hope Ucciardi & Patrick Murphy