Assignment #1: My First Post for the Course

Intro

For the following I was asked to review past students blogs and find things that I liked and did not like. The viewing and critique of the fallowing 5 e-portfolios serves a dual purpose, both to help the owners build on their pages and to allow me to start mine. The final part of this assignment is to write about my interests in UAS.

Previous E-Portfolio Review

Alan Pecor AT419 Spring 2020

This site is bland but provides a lot of information that is easy to digest at first glance. The quick access section that fallows the blog post real is appealing and the total pageviews is fun but would do better tucked away to clean the page up. The only thing it serves is to break up two long lists. The contact information section would be better without a black highlight. The Hyper links should go to individual posts and not sections in a continuing real.  

Jaspar Saadi-Klein  AT419 Spring 2020

The overall theme of the blog page is bland and visually uninteresting. The information however is presented very well. It provides good detail, visuals, and labeling. The maps are easy to follow and the integrated videos flow with presentation of information. The "Capstone Project Update" shows good scaling between the amount of content provided and the scale of the images. Compared to his "Mounting the MicaSense RedEdge 3 to a DJI M600" and "C-Astral Bramor ppX UAS Mission Planning" posts that present them selves more as instructional material. 

Lucas Write AT419 Spring 2020

Lucas Writes blog is visually intriguing. It is great to see every post in its own posting square with a brief description and simple prompts to share, comment, and carry on reading. The "Fall 2019 Final Presentation" is spectacular and stands out beyond all others for its display but is the only of its kind and lacks substantial information. Other posts are rich with information and well organized. 

Lucas Adam AT319 Spring 2019

A dark background is hard to make work because you are stuck with everything standing out compared to a traditional page. The "Maps, Tables, and Figures" section seams incomplete since each lab is noted with or without photos. The neon in every section is hard to read and the neon in the photos only continues to take way from blog.

Tim Pruss AT419 Spring 2020

At first glance this page seems organized and well put together. It is clean and simple. It would be nice to see an archive or links to content by month or title. As the page continues, its theme becomes lost and feels like a run on. The photos take up too much room with too little content. The implication of tables works well and fits neatly into the content. The "Search This Blog" function at the end of the home page is convenient but the last few functions on the page could be organized better. 

After review of these blogs I intend to keep my page clean and fluent. It seems important to not drown the page in content or color. Having appropriate functionality or tabs, hyper links, and visuals will help build a professional site. Continuing on both in this course and out side work, I can for see the curriculum finding a place in my e-portfolio as a base for exercising technical writing and communication skills.

Me and Unmanned Aerial Systems

My background at the time of this paper are already vast. I had flown remote controlled helicopters and planes as a child. Growing up my love and interest in aviation never wavered and during my freshman year of college, at Purdue University, I chose to add a dual major in UAS to fulfill extra course requirements for a Professional Flight degree. My first course was taught by a PhD student and my attentiveness to the details and technical parts of the class showed a higher level of understanding than what was expected for my position. I attribute this to the engineering courses that I took all 4 years of high school, graduating with a high school diploma and a certificate of Engineering Sciences by the Arizona Career and Technical Education Quality Commission. 

With these skills I was asked to help on a unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research projects. The idea was to build a 200 pound drone that could operate with in the national airspace. This would take steps into industry innovation setting forth the standard for construction, documentation, certification, and finally operation of a civilian unmanned aerial system (UAS). I joined in after 2 year of paper development and research and was able to attribute my creativity and problem solving skills by creating sketches, CADing (digital modeling) and finally using my machining skills to create costume fully functional parts that were used in the aircraft. Parts of that process were done working along side licensed air frame and power plant technicians. Unfortunately this project was shelved indefinitely 5 months after I joined. One full scale prototype was developed just shy of sanding and painting. (Figure 1) One appearance was made at an undergraduate research fair at Purdue University in 2019 winning best in show. During this time and with the same professor and PhD student, I was able to teach airspace and help teach other parts of the FAA 107 Remote Pilot Certificate to the Indiana State Homeland Security, Department of Hazardous Waist Management.

Figure 1: Undergraduate Large UAS

The semester after this I started work with a new professor but the same PhD student. In 16 week time we flew data collection missions for the Purdue Forestry department. At first this was done with a DJI Matrice 600 Pro but this was swapped out for a C-Astral Bramore ppX for its faster data collection and extended range. Additionally modifications were done with the checklist to create a more fluid workflow effectively taking one third of the time originally need to set up and half the time to teardown the equipment. Crew resource management (CRM) skills were developed and documented for a multi crew team on the C-Astral Bramor to increase safety, overall competency, and stream line operations. I had modified/created three additional fixed-wing small UAS during this time with colleagues. One aircraft was a Hobby King Bix 3 developed to stress test a PixHawk Cube with 4 racing quad engines, additional servos, censors, and body modifications. Another aircraft was a XUAV Mini Tallon EPO with Eagle Tree Vector electronics to view and test the air frame and system operations. There are currently future plans for this air frame. Finally, an air frame was modified extensively (Figure 2) to specification of the Atmospheric and Chemistry departments for on board sensors.  This air frame is still undergoing modification and development. All three drones use costume 3D printed parts that I had made specifically for the vehicles independent and quite unique missions. 

Figure 2: Atmospheric and Chemistry Department Build

Finally, in these same 16 weeks, along side classes and recreational activities, the Purdue University football stadium was mapped and a 3D model was made. A blog covering this and some limitations of the 3D model is published on this same blog, so be sure to check that out.   

After graduation, I have a few clear cut routs and a third unknown path available. I love and will without a doubt do something with aircraft either UAS or manned aviation, as I am a commercially certified pilot and in the Purdue Professional Flight Degree program. I enjoy designing, modifying, CADing, test flying and everything else that come with UAS development  I do not know what path I will take but there is a possibility that I can do both. 

Summary

After reviewing blogs from students who have taken this course previously, I feel like I have a clear understanding of what I need to do for this class. Keeping a clean and well organized blog that keeps the view involved and entertained without over loading them will be my goal. with my work and experience in UAS thus far it would be reasonable to say that I have an appropriate base for continuing on in this course and future works. 

I intend to have a post covering the work done on the three air frames above along with the importance of mission specific airframes in a future post