UTA Libraries Drone Club: Report And Evaluation Of Spring 2019 Workshop Series

U T A with star in the center, used when staff photo is unavailable

by Martin Wallace
June 14 2019

Student with Drone

The purpose of the UTA Libraries Drone Club is to provide students with opportunities for hands-on teaching and learning experiences while gaining basic understanding of quadcopter design, construction, programming, and piloting. This program supports two of the Libraries’ strategic imperatives: “Catalyze the Academic and Professional Success of UTA Students and Faculty” and “Be a Hub for Experiential Learning and Creativity.”

The inaugural workshop series began in early February 2019 with weekly meetings, and concluded in mid-April in time for final exams. In total, there were 10 meetings, and approximately 30 student participants. The first three meetings were scheduled for one hour, but each went over schedule by at least half an hour. Therefore participants decided to extend the meetings to two hours long. The smallest attendance (5) was at the first meeting, and the largest attendance (20) was at the fourth meeting. It was at this meeting that it became apparent that the two quadcopter kits purchased by The Libraries didn’t provide enough hands-on work to go around; many students were standing around watching others work. This may be partially the reason for the drop off in attendance after the fourth meeting, where 8-10 participants arrived for each meeting.

Students were encouraged to bring their own quadcopters or parts to build their own quadcopters. Near the end of the semester, one student obliged by bringing three of his own mini quadcopters which he built from scratch for drone racing purposes. Other than this one occurrence, as already mentioned, the only drones we worked on were the two kits supplied by The Libraries.

In order to support students participating in the Maverick Advantage Distinction program, students in the Drone Club were encouraged to explore the application of drones in their chosen major and/or career path and to write a reflection about their experience having designed, constructed, programmed and piloted a drone for their chosen application. In spring 2019 semester, no students sought or earned recognition for this program. In retrospect, it would have been extremely difficult for any student to accomplish this, given our slower than expected pace and the limited number of parts we had to work with.

Thomas Perappadan, a Computer Science major and research assistant at UTARI led the drone-building and programming workshops. My role was mostly administrative and participatory. I secured funding & supplies, scheduled the workshops, and made sure all participants followed safety best practices.

Our goal was to have the two library-supplied drones assembled, programmed for manual and autonomous flight, and made available for library lending by the end of spring semester. Due to the problems with 3D printed parts (explained below) and a defective battery that we could not return or afford to replace, we fell short of this goal. We successfully completed and test-flew (both manually and autonomously) one quadcopter, and the second one is near complete, lacking a battery and a better frame. We will finish the second quadcopter in fall 2019 semester.

Perhaps the biggest headache we encountered was with using 3D printed parts. Using the Black Pearl model downloaded from Thingiverse, we printed the parts using multiple settings over several iterations, some taking as long as 17 hours to print. We had to redesign the screw holes on some parts after printing them and finding that they were not the right size for the screws we had purchased. Ultimately, we ended up purchasing a frame from Amazon that was far less costly than what we had already sunk into printing the parts. We will purchase another of this frame for the second quadcopter in the fall.

The other sticking point is with a lending policy for the drones. Several months ago, I inquired with UTA attorneys to find out if there exists a campus-wide drone/UAV policy. To my surprise, none currently exists, but the University is considering a policy and they invited me to serve on the committee that will be responsible for drafting it. Once a campus-wide policy is in place, The Libraries can move forward with a policy on quadcopter lending. A few things that will be required will be for the borrower to have FAA quadcopter pilot certification, undergo training for the specific quadcopter being borrowed, and to notify the University if the drone is being used for aerial photography (which falls under existing policy). Borrowers will also need to supply their own SD card for the drone’s onboard Raspberry Pi.

Toward the middle of the semester, a core group of participants began to emerge. These students attended nearly every workshop and took the most initiative to construct the quadcopters, thus getting the most hands-on experience. A lot of the initial work was mundane and tedious involving printing and filing parts, soldering connections and fumbling with tiny screws to assemble frames. Near the end of the semester, it was clear to me that the students who were most engaged and attended the most meetings were the same students who did most of that somewhat boring beginning-phase work.

There is an interest among a few participants to start an official drone club through UTA’s office of student organizations. Currently, no UTA student organization exists for the purposes of drone hobbyists, enthusiasts, or those curious about and wanting to learn more about drones. A registered student organization would qualify for a small amount of funding each semester, which may be useful toward purchasing parts & supplies. We will revisit this option in fall 2019. In the meantime, one of the participants setup a Discord server that allows us to continue communicating over the summer.

Some photos and videos from our spring 2019 workshops are available on Google Drive.

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