Date
August 2022 - Present
Location
Morgantown, WV
Undergraduate Researcher
As an undergraduate researcher, I've worked under the tutelage of Dr. Christopher Griffin at West Virginia University where I designed and fabricated custom UAS platforms for DoD research. I incorporated a Vicon motion tracking system with ROS to accurately test custom UAS platform performance in wind tunnel conditions.
The IMAGRS project sought to develop a platform with advanced autonomy capabilities. I came in during the second phase of this project, where I worked with another undergraduate student and a team at NextGen Federal Systems to further develop the platform and integrate hardware and software changes as well as conduct test flights with the platform.
The Reedsville Proving Grounds are a collection of sites on WVU's JW Ruby Research Farm. One of these sights hosts a dilapidated 75ft-long wind tunnel with a 12ftx15ft cross section. The tunnel was converted into a large Vicon motion tracking room equipped with 40 cameras. I learned Robot Operating System (ROS) as well as how to use the Vicon system in order to combine the two to produce a program which could very accurately control the position and velocity of a multirotor platform. This program was used to test the endurance of a multirotor platform in order to test it against an analytical model developed by a graduate student at the university. Overall, I developed 5 customized multirotor platforms and extensively documented my procedures and techniques for future researchers to use.