Far too many drone companies have been involved in a journey that has been characterised by a short honeymoon. From an African standpoint, the journey was always delayed.  Most African drone companies have been involved in training initiatives , environmental initiatives and consumer journalism .  But the bulk of the drone development was performed in Asia , USA and Europe .   So it's no surprise that Venture capitalist invested mainly in Asian and American companies.  But given the recent reports and the foreclosure of big startups last year , the drone landscape has changed.  So a question needs to be asked, what would happen to up-coming drone manufacturing companies based in Africa? Below are three key aspects that we believe drone manufacturers need to take into consideration going to the next 3 to 5 years. Focus on Functionality One of the biggest elements when it comes to drone development is the ability to focus not just on the e...

We stumbled on the organization that's making head waves around the globe called Drones for Good Award . Although the coveted prize money is not openly advertised, various companies have participated over the past few years such as: PrecisionHawk , LoonCopter , Drones against Tsetse and many more. We were pretty impressed especially with LoonCopter. This is drone which is capable of air, surface and underwater navigation. The aim is mainly for search and rescue and the proof of concept was demonstrated at the award. But what's more fascinating is the culture and ethos this organization promotes. The idea that drones CAN be used for good and SHOULD be used for good. This is something we at Uav4africa believe immensely . The notion that you can use technology, whether in the air or under the sea, to uplift, educate and empower underprivileged communities is beyond a nice gesture, it's calling all of us should respond to. One of our projects is to investigate...

If you want to use my graphic outside Wikipedia, and its resolution or license doesn't satisfy you, write to me: 100px (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The radian glider took a real beating at the last crash. Although it had a 'soft' landing eventually, going through the trees was not pleasant the foamy airframe . since it wasn't covered, indentations can be seen all over the aircraft.

The Dx4e transmitter (currently that's what I'm using) creates alot of noise when used with arduino. It's quite clear that the receiver has a tuned low pass filter that needed to be emulated for the code. A low pass filter was implemented with a stategy of using a the gradient of 3 values to determine whether allow input to the servo signal stream or not. Here's the pseudo code below:

The inevitable had to come... Introducing the Radian Glider. This will be used as the ultimate airframe to put my autopilot to the test... But for now, I will have to get my flight skills up with a self made trainer ( with foldable prop). I will have to make use of a public park for now until I'm ready to join a flying club. Let the games begin!

Over the last few days I took the bold step of putting my entire autopilot concept on a single board . Leaving the convenient use of Arduino shields behind and heading towards developing a full blown flight controller comprising of: - 3.3V additional regulator for sensor power supply. - 6DOF IMU - accelerometer and gyroscope - Magnetometer board - Logging capabilities (with OpenLog board) - 4 servo inputs (can be extended to 5 in the future) - Female headers for quick sketch modification and upload - LED light for testing purposes - Provision for a barometric altimeter and GPS sensor - Total board weight: 30g (as compared to the previous board or 90g) I've tested the logging of IMU and servo inputs and the board is ready for it's first Test bench logging test. I would have taken this straight up in the air but having learned that everything is in moderation, I realised that 'baby' steps is your ONLY friend . Complete Autopilot board bar Altimeter and...

So After making my hot wire cutter , I realised that I still needed a portable devices to make grooves, channels and enclosures in the fuselage body. So came a brilliant idea. Replace the tip of a soldering iron with a solid 2mm diameter copper wire. The wire is ductile so it can be shaped in any form desired. I found out though that the length of wire is important as that determines cutting temperature. Too long and the wire is too cold to melt foam. Too short and the wire "over-melt" the foam instead. With this device, foam has become the next best thing when it comes to airplane design and build. The complexity of the design is only left up to the imagination of the designer! Below are some examples of what this awesome tool can do.

So I've finally arrived at a time all aircraft engineers hope to get... Maiden flight. But I've had too many experiences where the maiden flight is all but over in a matter of seconds becauseI was too eager to "free the bird". The end result... A disgruntled soul wishing it had been more patient. I've learnt my lesson (with my wife's mentoring) to be more methodical and pragmatic about my approach to the maiden flight. Since I don't have the luxury of wind tunnel testing of the wing and the airframe, the only reliable weapon in my arsenal was... Calculations. To be more specific, weight and balance calculations and measurements. After using AutoCAD, a weight balance spreadsheet to calculate the estimated (emphasis on "estimated") center of gravity in relation to the wing mac (mean aerodynamic chord), measuring the actual cg will all electronics included was the next (and hopefully) final step. It must be said that prior to this step I reali...

Like most engineering processes, the ability to perform concurrent processes always lead to a more efficient and flexible product. Having said that, It is often prudent to not "eat more than you can chew" referring to developing electronics and an UAV airframe concurrently. Throwing caution out the wind and the fact that building 'foamies' is one of the easiest and quickest way to get an airplane concept in the air, the objective was clear... Build my own hot wire cutter. This little piece of magic hardware, will save you hours of foam sanding and cutting ( Or countless hours of balsa cutting and gluing). So after some research (quite a bit actually) a came across this piece of document that helped spec my power supply, and wire. I added a motor speed controller (which I had to assemble/solder myself - nerve-wrecking!) to easily regulate the temperature of the hot wire in between cuts. I know it's popular to use light dimmers but the motor controller seemed...