Processes in the Project & Critical Path Method

Activity Predecessor Duration

A R&D - 18
B Hardware Design G,H,I 30
C Software Development H,I 28
D Controller Development A 8
E PCB Design D 17
F Motor/Battery Selection B 3
G Propeller Development A 12
H Camera Development A 9
I Sensor Development A 11
J Prototype C,F 37
Testing and Trouble
K Shooting J 24
L Design Iteration K 15
M Redesign Software L 12
N Assembly K,M 17
Activity:

There are altogether 14 engineering, scientific, technological or technical process in this project
to be described.

Research and development (R & D)

The aim of research and development (R&D) is to improve the current technologies offered by
an organization or to develop innovations that strengthen the organization’s position in the
marketplace. Before the new product of drone is developed, a research and development
department conduct a thorough study to support the project. The research phase includes
determining drone specifications, production costs and a production time line. The research also
is likely to include an evaluation of the need for the product before the design begins to ensure it
is a functional product that customers want to use. The research paves the way for the
development phase. This is the time when the new drone is actually developed based on the
requirements and ideas created during the research phase. The developed product must meet the
product guidelines and any regulatory specifications. The research and development team aid the
company in staying competitive with others in the industry. The department is able to research
and analyze the products other businesses are creating, as well as the new trends within the
industry. This research aids the department in developing and updating the products created by
the company. The team helps direct the future of the company based on the information it
provides and products it creates. The duration take for this activity in this project is around 18
days.

Development of drone component used

The development of component in this project consists of 4 parts which are, controller
development, propeller development, camera development, and the last one is sensor
development.
First let discussed about the controller development. A flight controller is a circuit board that
manages the drone's flight. Put simply, the flight controller’s job is to control the power, or RPM
(Revolutions Per Minute), for each individual motor on the drone in response to the information
received from the drone controller. When a drone pilot shifts the joystick to the right on the
drone controller, the drone flight controller is what actually makes the drone move to the right. In
the other word, it can say that he flights controller is basically the nervous system of the drone. It
receives raw information from the drone controller, transmitted via the receiver, and then makes
the corresponding movement to the drone’s rotors that will produce the desired outcome. The
flight controller’s job is much more complex than simply feeding power to the drone’s motors.
Since drones have multiple rotors, the flight controller’s job is to take the information sent by the
drone controller and then act on it so that each individual rotor receives the appropriate amount
of power to execute the requested movement. When a flight controller is set up well, the drone
pilot’s commands sent via the drone controller should correspond exactly to how the drone
moves in the air. Some flight controllers can be configured and programmed by the pilot but
doing so requires a fairly in-depth level of knowledge.
The development of sensor and camera is very important in this drone project. These sensor and
camera in the drone are used to detect obstacle and avoid collision during operation. These use
obstacle detection sensors to scan the surroundings, while software algorithms technology
produces the images into 3D maps allowing the drone to sense and avoid. These obstacle
detection sensors can do more than just detect objects and navigate around them or to stop from
crashing into the obstacle. All of the drones listed above use their vision sensors together with
advanced image recognition algorithms to allow the quadcopter to recognize and tracks objects.
These obstacle detection sensors and algorithms can detect people, vehicles, animals and many
other objects to follow.
Next, the development also applies on propeller of the drone. One of the most important parts of
your drone are the propellers. These spinning blades are the wings to the craft, the very part that
creates the airflow that lifts machine into the air. Drone propellers come in many different shapes
and sizes – they all serve the same overall purpose, but the flight characteristics of each can be
dramatically different. In this phase, the number and size of propellers are considered to create
balance during operation.

PCB design
The PCB board is used to design the circuit board of drone. The reason why the PCB used is
because PCB includes a large number of electronic components. On a Printed circuit board, the
interconnection between the components is made through copper tracks instead of using a
number of currents carrying wires. It makes the interconnections less bulky. A typically printed
circuit board offers a simple platform to arrange the electronic components in a compressed and
efficient way. This compactness allows the creation of big and complicated electronic circuits in
small form factors. This, in turn, takes less space in devices. As the connections are made
automatically through copper tracks, there is no chance of loose connections or short circuit. If in
case of any damage, it’s very easy to check and replace the particular failure components. The
electronic components and their polarities on a properly designed, printed circuit boards are
clearly labeled on the board. This allows convenience during the installation process as well as
repair process. Signal paths are often traced during diagnostics.
Hardware and software design
Drones are a complex amalgamation of mechanics, hardware and software. For the hardware
parts of drone, it consists of the supporting structure of the drone, plane wings, tail rotor and
canopy, multi-rotor frame and arms. Theses hardware are the essential for a drone to operate.
Hence, in this phase the investigation and comparison were carried out to find the most suitable
hardware for this drone project.
In the other hand, as drone software is the brain of the drone, we have to explain how it works.
Drone´s software is designed to tell the drone where to go and what to do while flying from A to
B. In order to understand and connect all necessary information of the drone, the software part
becomes a very complex system. The software installed in the drone operates in a layer like
system. Furthermore, the layers are divided into tiers which perform in various time slots. The
layers have to be combined properly to control the flight patterns, altitude and other important
information for drone to work and act accurately. This combination of layers is called the flight
stack or autopilot. The received information has to be analyzed during the flight. In order to
achieve unified component’s communication a generic architecture must be designed and
promoted. The software layer is divided into 3, which are firmware, middleware, and operating
system. Firmware operates from machine code to processor and afterward to memory access.
Whereas for the middleware, it conducts flight control, navigation and telecommunication. For
the operating system, it monitors optic flow, avoids interference while SLAM searches for the
solution and decides what the action according to received information would be.

Protype, testing and troubleshooting

Before the launch of new drone, a prototype is generated to test and troubleshooting the product.
The purpose of doing this is to determine if, or verify that, the requirements or a specification of
the drone are meet. Beside that, the root cause finding was applied in this phase. Which the root
cause is an initiating cause of either a condition or a causal chain that leads to an outcome or
effect of interest. The term denotes the earliest, most basic, 'deepest', cause for a given behavior;
most often a fault.

Design Iteration, Software Redesign, and Assembly

If there is root cause in the design, the design iteration and software redesign is performed which
used to encounter the root cause and solving the problem. After performing this task, the final
assembly of drone is done.