As a student completing my final year, I vividly remember the insatiable desire to just complete the degree, graduate and kiss university life goodbye! Even though I actually enjoyed my course and the fact this had been my dream since my second year of high school, I felt I had enough. At that point, the thought of pursuing a postgraduate degree was the further thing from my mind. Such psychological damage was based on the opinions (albeit biased) that academics, the professors and full-time researchers that taught us, seemed detached from reality and their expectations from the feeble and vulnerable students, were beyond unreasonable. I vividly remember the insatiable desire to just complete my course, graduate and kiss university life goodbye! Even though I saw myself pursuing a postgraduate degree, the notion of having to face the same ordeal of my last few months as an undergraduate, was enough to convince me otherwise. I just didn't see myself having to deal with t...

So the notion of upgrading my already awesome (if I can say so myself) looking drone to aerial videography using a 3-axis gimbal has been bugging me for a while now. I mean, why not? At least that will get me to fly the drone alot more and use it for other purposes. The fact that I only need a gimbal and a landing gear (given that I already have the awesome Gopro hero 4 silver), should be providential enough to just spend the dollars required to make this happen. But then one get's to think, why I am doing it for? I mean does my research of intelligent flight control ACTUALLY need aerial capability? One could argue that testing your software with a drone representative of an actual commercial drone could only enhance the validation/justification of the research.  But the ultimate question is, how MUCH distraction will this capability introduce to the essence of what the doctoral research is trying to achieve? Will I gain more information given that I've got now no...

So the notion that in order for me to proceed scientifically (and practically) towards the design of rotor dynamics identification algorithms that will run in real-time, I first need to model the effects of the rotor failure through experimentation. The two best ways of the doing this are (1) Buy a +R2k Tachometer and record (probably by  recording the display) the speed of the propeller with a pre-determined PWM value. (2) Use the high speed capability of an action cam (such as GoPro) and some clever algorithms to compute the propeller RPM. The latter is the cheaper (and the geekier) option of the two. The setup was such that contrast was created through the use of a black mat cloth on the setup table and painting the opposing blade of the propeller black and white (see below). A RGB (red-green-blue) adaptive algorithm was developed which would mitigate the occurrence of glares on the blade which would in turn give a false reading with the algorithm. Each frame was analyze...

"The best of innovations happens when certainty is no longer certain" ~ myself My undertaking of my Ph.D (part-time I might add) was on the premise that I would acquire enough research funding for not only tuition but especially hardware. I didn't think for one minute that I would struggle to get money from my sponsor DENEL, but after what has been coming on the news regarding the company being cash-less , its quite clear that I would have to re-think my strategy on how what I'm going to execute this research with maximum exposure. And by exposure I mean the fact that a Ph.D should propel one to a possible career in academia or research institutes, IF done correctly. That's a BIG IF given that aerospace engineering Ph.D in Africa is not well sought after or even recognized by the rest of the aerospace community, let alone in the field of intelligent flight control .  This is where innovation kicks in. In a big way!!! When you realize it's eit...

So I've had to think hard about which route I wanted to take for my research. On one hand, I could go full customized process with every bit of code written by yours truly (including the the hardware design, soldering, testing and integration). This will mean a serious divergence from the primary focus of my research but the high risk could yield immense entrepreneurial satisfaction. I calculated that this route would probably add another 6 months to PhD research. On the other hand, as I've posted before , buy an off-the-shelf flight controller, focus on integrating the peripherals, up-ramp knowledge on the tested code suite and start working on integrating my research algorithms almost immediately. This route is substantially more expensive (Initial capital), but you then have a large community of users to inquire from. I've estimated about 2 month of extra work towards my PhD research. So the decision is now obvious. I've chosen to buy the Pixhawk 2.4.8 first....

It's amazing how a continuous search at possibilities eventually leads to finding a "needle in a haystack". Introducing the Teensy 3.6 development. It a 32-bit Cortex M4 ARM core with (FPU) at a 1/6th of the price of the Pixhawk (The Pixhawk runs the same chip although has double the Flash memory). Granted, it doesn't have any sensors but man, that's find. Did I also mention that it works straight with arduino code. This means that I've upgraded to the most powerful MCU in the market at the same price as an Arduino Due . Wow! I overcame my shock by going to Robotics in Centurion and getting my hands on this dynamite. It can even run X-plane flight simulation controls in real-time communicating through the USB port! Ok enough ranting and raving! The point is now I can test the embedded algorithms on a similar ARM-based microcontroller as the Pixhawk and conclude the testing and validation up to HILS level with the sensors in the loop (while emulating th...

When will I fly again? I've been asking that question for a while now. After that expensive and silly mistake of loosing my Blade 300 CFX to some uncalibrated mass balancing, the wind of excitement was whiffed out of my spirit. I must say, this has allowed me to refocus my energies on the helicopter simulation model and how it should be modeled such that the research of the neural network algorithms could be easily prototyped and embedded into an autopilot software suite for HILS and flight testing. I must say, I feel like I've made quite a bit of progress on this front. Even though my spirit is itching to get something flying in the sky, the notion that I'm getting closer to creating a simulation environment where these algorithms can be tested, explored and refined for flight testing. I'm also grateful that during this time, my company has agreed to fund my research and I now the ability to procure the items that I need to properly get this research off the grou...

It was time to decide. Playing small robots and chiefs with the likes of Arduino and the soldering iron was a nice learning curve but it had to come to an end. The bigger objective of this research was to integrate intelligent algorithm on a platform that was accepted by most engineers and hobbyists. The learning pain will be great, but the support community will be there to help. The need to do things properly and start from a good foundation given the experimental nature of this research is key. It's clear there will be limitations, but what's obvious is that whatever software I build will be implemented on an architecture that's continously changing and being upgraded due to the fast changing nature of current drone industry. So the sooner I get into this game properly, the better it will be for future algorithms. Given the function of software in the loop, implementing a whole range of algorithm will now become a breeze. The prospect of using cheaper materials to...

This post is definitely not a DIY answer the question itself full stop but rather food for thought for one who has started the journey on discovering their research tentacles and discover the topic on which day will spend at least 5000 hours all their lives. No one would tell you that academically you should think of a topic that will be based on some form of literature review. But it's very difficult to even fathom what that even means, does it mean that based on the literature you now somehow have an expert helicopter view on everybody's research and can completely and utterly decimate their rationale for doing that particular research hence justifying your existence on why you should pursue your particular research, or does it mean that you now have complete and utter disregard for other people's work hence justifying yours once again. So one can now ask the following questions. Can I prove that my research add to the core values that I'm trying to live by or even...

So as some of you may know I've decided to bite the bullet and study for my doctor of philosophy degree. Now one may think that as a married man, and a father of a 2 year old crazy son, married to a compulsive and completely unreasonable spouse common man not even attempt to do any further studies. Yet here we are, I've managed to go over the hurdle of producing the draft of 100+ citation literature review and come with a five year plan on how I'm going to execute this monster. In the last few months, it's been evident that this is not gonna be an easy Road. The pressures of work havent subsided, Life As a Christian has taken on a few responsibilities, my sister has emigrated to Portugal leaving me to take care of my lovely mother, and my dad is obviously still requiring my help when it comes to his to his business. So given all that's it's clear that a five-year plan is very optimistic. What doesn't hurt you makes you stronger or you just Die Trying... H...