The SBA drone study is a collaboration with the Aviation and Computing Deparments. We are trying to understand the role of this new disruptive autonomous technology and how it affects business operations, aviation, and society. As a medium of learning and teaching we are deploying hands-on courses covering flight, maintenance, and societial impacts.
In our process of learning how this emerging technologies affect operations, our students and faculty are engaged in all hand-ons project tackling real world problems: remote emergency medical supply/pickup logistics, autonomous and targeted pesticide delivery, and injured hiker/mtb biker in the Andrews University trail system.
We believe that innovation is solving a problem creatively while understanding constrains and limitations of end-user operations, technology, and mission goals. We go beyond the technology and aviation laws, but understand who and how these innovative products will be deployed in the field.
Aerial scouting to identify invasive Honeysuckle ( Lonicera spp ) on managed young oak forest near Cassopolis, Michigan. Normally, it would take 2-3 teams and several days to identify Honeysuckle in managed oak growth, but with the use of drones it reduced this to 2-3 hours and one drone.
FALL Class - INFS397: Topics in Drone Flight, Data Gathering, Analysis, and Certification Support. This class is a 50/50 hands-on course will cover the drone flight basics, operations applications in agriculture (NDVI analysis), game development/architecture/Virtual Reality (3D rendering), and utility inspection/insurance/realty/cinematography flight training. In classroom topics will cover the FAA Part 107 in preparation for the professoinal drone pilot license.
Spring Class - INFS397 Topics in Drone Maintenance & Management. This class is a 100% hands-on where we take students into the drone electronics by building a drone from the ground up. Students learn about working with different materials like carbon fiber, aluminum, PLA, and new emerging materials like Lightwieght PLA (LW PLA). Most of the semester students work on the flight controller electronics and be able to configure all the installed hardware into an autonomous drone using ArduPilot, BetaFlight, and iNav. Exposure to DJI, PX4, and other commercial flight controllers.