Ideas Taking Flight with Drones at ECSU

Elizabeth City, North Carolina (November 29, 2021) — Introducing Develop Air to Elizabeth City State University, iVue Robotics delivered Elizabeth City State University’s first of three Develop Air drones this past Monday, November the 22nd.
With this and the additional two Develop Air drones coming the first week of ECSU’s Spring 2022 Semester, students at ECSU enrolled in the UAS 250: Sensors and Payloads class will be creating and modifying payloads to take flight on Develop Air drone, thanks to its bottom mounted quick release payload rail capable of carrying payloads up to three pounds.

As the fall semester at Elizabeth City State University is coming to a close, Professor Elton Stone is already preparing for the next semester’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems curriculum, looking to have students take flight with new ideas for drone payloads. While drones are widely being used and thought of as flying cameras for photography and videography, Professor Stone is encouraging students to explore how drones can be used for deliveries, wireless networking, and other applications too.

Stone said, “In addition to giving my students hands-on experience flying drones with GPS positioning and autonomous flight like a DJI or Skydio drone provides, Develop Air (an American made product) builds on those capabilities by also serving as a great tool to help my students learn how to repair, build, and modify drones.” and continued this sentiment by saying, “This will make my students employable not just as drone operators, but as technicians and developers as well.”

Jonathon Huber, a student enrolled in ECSU’s UAS 100 Unmanned Aircraft Systems class, stated “I am looking forward to building payloads in class so we can take flight with them using Develop Air. This is a great opportunity for other students and I to learn about drones beyond their basic flight operations.” Jonathon is amongst several students in the UAS classes keen to start 3D printing their own parts to modify Develop Air. Throughout the next set of classes such as UAS 250: Sensors/Payloads course and UAS 350L: UAS Applications Lab (Design and Construction), students in these classes will use, design, and 3D print side plates for housing power and data connectors, collision avoidance sensors, and FPV cameras for the Develop Air. Acting totally independently from Develop Air’s bottom mounted payload, the side plates with power and data connectors on Develop Air also play a crucial role for enabling students to provide their payloads with power and data connectivity. 

Complementing its use to teach students how to fly and modify drones, Develop Air will also be used for teaching students how to repair drones when damage has occurred. With Develop Air, students will be able to easily swap out damaged parts by purchasing readily available production quality replacement parts, 3D print their own replacement parts subject to the quality of their 3D printer and its printing material using freely available files coming to the iVue Robotics website by January 1, 2022, and conduct in-the-field repairs as needed for the parts most susceptible to breaking during a crash, like the landing gear. 
After demonstrating the Develop Air drone and presenting to a couple of Professor Stone’s classes, Jacob Andrews recounted the experience by saying, “I am excited to see what the minds of these students come up with and hope the iVue Robotics team projects I showcased for Develop Air during my presentations lead to many more exciting and creative hardware and software projects taking flight.” Jacob added to this by mentioning, “While there is only a small group of developers in the drone community now, drone and related STEM development programs are becoming ever more common, and we on the iVue Robotics team would like to see many Develop Air projects help build the foundation of this community for creating the future of drones in the home and office to come.”

Now that Develop Air drones have taken flight at ECSU, discussions are now underway to make Develop Air, the drone that many high schools throughout the state of North Carolina will use to prepare their students for operating, building, and repairing drones, before they enroll in any college courses. This dynamic partnership between ECSU and iVue Robotics is focused in preparing ECSU UAS and North Carolina high school students for careers in today’s fast-paced drone industry. 

Additionally, ECSU and iVue Robotics are creating a “Payload Development” challenge to students wishing to receive recognition and the chance of commercializing their payload design as an iVue Robotics affiliate. Starting with the first challenge in the 2022 – 2023 school year, Mr. Stone and Mr. Andrews are working to kickstart the interest and careers of many young students ready to shape and change the future world of drones.