Explorer

A monitoring aircraft consumes energy simply staying in the air. Explorer investigates a different operating cycle: travel to a useful location, attach to a branch, stop propulsion and continue collecting environmental information.

The wider vision is a distributed monitoring network. The major project focused on its first practical unit: one aircraft that could fly, retain its own mass on a perch, sense its surroundings and record data.

The carbon frame carries flight loads; custom printed parts locate the actuator, power hardware, electronics and battery around it. The packaging had to respect the centre of gravity, propeller sweep, cable routes and access for assembly.

Repeated fits exposed details that looked acceptable in CAD: blocked screws, weak snap features, battery straps, connector clearance and wiring space. I developed the prototype around parts that could actually be assembled and serviced, then consolidated the bench wiring into the aircraft.

Reliable Dynamixel communication and repeatable position control came first. That feedback loop let me change hook geometry and recalibrate movement without redesigning the electronics each time.

The ESP32-S3 acquired frames from the VL53L8CX 8 × 8 Time-of-Flight sensor. Live visualisation helped interpret depth data during development; onboard logging allowed sessions to be replayed after testing. The experimental solar architecture was integrated as a separate energy-recovery investigation.