Zoom your way through this Studio by building your own aerial flying machine! Aerial drones, or unmanned robots, are all around us in the form of delivery devices, aerial photography/videography machines, monitoring robots, and crowd control drones. What other innovative flying machines can you imagine? Medical aerial drones that bring much-needed supplies to victims in disaster areas? Storm-chasing aerial machines that help meteorologists understand environmental forces better? Flying machines that monitor and inspect bridges and other structures while offering support to builders on construction sites? What about a flying robotic waiter that delivers food straight to your table? Learn about all the components that make your flyingbot go zoom: motors, batteries, engines, radio signals, wings and propellers, and robotic intelligence!

In this Studio, students will be constructing an electric flying robot. Students will ride the waves of radio frequency and modulation, and will gain an understanding of how transmitters and receivers communicate. Students will also learn about flight, design, engineering, and robotic intelligence (automaton, remote control, teleoperation, full autonomy). Students will experience the hands-on joy of soldering, programming, building circuits, laser cutting, and 3D printing before applying a custom paint job for the finishing touch. Then it’s off to the final exhibition where the flyingbots will zoom away to save the world!

Focus Skills/Subjects/Technologies:

  Design

  Physics (Electricity, Magnetism)

  Engineering

  Programming

  Electronics

  Robotics (Arduino)

  Sensors & Actuators

  Digital Fabrication (Laser-cutting, 3d Printing)

  3d Modeling

Prerequisites:

• Enrolling students must be between the ages of 11 to 18 (middle and high school students)