𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐌𝐔
We successfully designed, built, and flew the largest drone ever built at Carnegie Mellon University. As part of the Large Air Vehicle Development Course (Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute), we achieved this accomplishment alongside an incredible team of classmates [Arnav kharbanda, Trevor Stack, Elena Behzadi, Qiaoan Shen, Oluwatooni Joel Adebayo, Nan An, Bashar Albakri, Cindy Hou, Haichuan(Jack) Wang, and Aidan Lincke]
Our platform is a 𝐝𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 featuring a custom carbon fiber airframe, weighing ~140 𝐥𝐛𝐬 and delivering ~600 𝐥𝐛𝐬 of thrust. Achieving stable flight required rigorous system-level analysis and an intense team commitment, often 5–6 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐛 to meet our critical September 30th first-flight deadline. It was worth it. Seeing it fly (and getting free pizza 🙂) made all the effort pay off.
The project provided hands-on experience across the 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤:
𝐌𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 & 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥: Hands-on design and fabrication of a large-scale carbon fiber airframe, paired with detailed structural analysis to validate load-bearing components, and quality wire soldering.
𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬: Engineering a high-power propulsion system utilizing twelve 6S LiPo batteries, alongside the integration of high-current ESCs and motor controllers to safely deliver ~600 lbs of total thrust.
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐬: ArduPilot integration with a dual-GPS setup for redundancy, including systematic PID tuning to achieve stable control for a multirotor of this scale and inertia.
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Laying the groundwork for autonomy by developing a vehicle model in AirLab’s AirStack within NVIDIA Isaac Sim, with a focus on sim-to-real transfer, system safety, and robust flight operations.
The successful flights reflect extensive subsystem debugging, validation, and teamwork. This project is far from complete as we continue to work on 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 and 𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲.
Finally, a thank you to our instructors [Steven Willits and Sebastian Scherer] for their guidance and trust in tackling a project of this magnitude. The lessons learned here—from power electronics and composite design to control theory and autonomy—are foundational to work in autonomous systems.
Excited to see this fly autonomously next!
See the drone in action:
https://lnkd.in/esP5TXx7