Minor Experimentations

Examined possible grabbing mechanisms. Potential actuator systems include microservo motors or ‘biowire.’ Another key consideration is designing the system to deposit one item and picking up another. This will undoubtedly require the Quadrotor to maintain a stable hover without X-Y movement. In addition, a nonscientific experiment was conducted on the effect of smoke on ultrasonic sensors. The smoke particles and the change in temperature does not affect the sensor in relation to the resolution of the output (approximately +/- 1.25 cm). Another unscientific experiment was performed to evaluate the effect of the rotor thrust on a stack of papers with a flash drive on top. The results of this experiment suggests that a helicopter cannot approach the stack of papers without disturbing it unless it flies above the stack at least 1 m. However, once directly above the stack of papers, it may descend to landing without disturbing the papers. This behavior will be incorporated into the flight path design during the depositing and acquisition of the flash drives.