fourth attempt for remote controlled airplanes project
Calvin College mechanical and electrical engineering students spent about 120 hours each working on remote controlled airplanes capable of aerial photography.
It was their fourth attempt at the project for Calvin College’s Senior Design Banquet.
There were four students involved in the project, Tom Kok, Christian Swenson, Ian Hoffbeck and Brett Pennings, all 22 years old.
“The other three remote controlled airplanes died grisly deaths,” said Tom Kok,
One of the aircraft took a nose dive in January from 40 feet.
Keeping a straight course has proved especially challenging, Kok said.
“We’ve hit numerous trees,” he said. “It has a strong tendency to fly in circles in one place.”
There was 15 research projects and designs exhibited at the event. Other projects included a small scale rice dryer operable with a motorcycle or diesel generator, a robot that can store, transfer, organize and retrieve stocked items in a factory or warehouse and a rainwater-recycling system.
The aircraft team originally had a $300 budget but was able to invest an additional $1,000 after winning Calvin’s BizPlan competition in November for product marketing.
The team’s members said their airplanes might appeal to farmers for crop tracking and to nature buffs looking to monitor plant life.
They said they’re considering handing the project to the college’s biology department so it can map the campus nature preserve.
“We wanted something that was applicable and practical, not just something that would be tossed away at the end,” Swenson said.
The foam remote controlled airplanes, featured plastic propellers and tail fins. Are about 30 inches long, weigh about 2 pounds and are equipped with a $70 General Electric 8-megapixel camera.
Two AA batteries power the camera, and nickel metal hydrite batteries give it 8 to 10 minutes of air time.
It was originally intended to fly itself to programmed Global Positioning System locations with an on-board micro-controller, but “we have a few bugs to work out of the navigation system,” Kok said.