RC Planes and Drones
Overview
Built and flew custom radio-controlled (RC) fixed-wing aircraft and drones as a foundation in airframes, propulsion, control surfaces, and flight behavior. That hardware background later informed research that used an RC drone as a carrying platform for air-quality sensing.
Flight demos
Short clips of real flights:
- Multirotor (drone): Flying my drone
- Fixed-wing (airplane): Flying my airplane
- RC hovercraft: Hovercraft demo
Research connection: aerial air-quality monitoring
The low-cost air pollution monitoring work (Low-Cost Air Pollution Monitoring Device Based on Air Quality Index, IEEE ASPCON 2020) used an RC drone as part of the approach to environmental monitoring—carrying sensing hardware into the air so measurements could be taken from an aerial platform, not only from ground-based nodes. That project connects embedded sensing and signal-processing work (see Sensor Systems and Data Acquisition) with practical RC flight experience.
Hardware and systems experience
- Airframe selection, assembly, and trimming for stable flight
- Motors, electronic speed controllers (ESCs), propellers, and power systems
- Servos, linkages, and control surfaces on fixed-wing models
- Multirotor configuration, flight controllers, and basic tuning for safe operation
- Radio control, preflight checks, and flying in real outdoor conditions
Skills demonstrated
- Mechanical assembly and airframe integration
- Electrical wiring and power distribution for RC systems
- Operational testing and flight validation
- Linking physical platforms to sensing and research goals