The Design Process

The most important part of any project is not the final result, but rather the design process. The design process is what shapes the overall experience and success of a project. For our project, we took many steps in our design process. While brainstorming, we drew out our designs to help illustrate our ideas. After this, we took our design ideas to the next level and began prototyping with cardboard and construction paper. From here, we chose one design and began working to design it on TinkerCAD. Then we began to print and modify designs. Though these were the basic steps we followed, they did not happen in exactly this order. We spent a lot of time going back to drawn designs or making additional prototypes as our design changed. Although some things did not go as planned, our design was still successful. This page is an outline of our design process from our first brainstorming sessions to our drone's first successful flight.

Brainstorming

The first step to any design is brainstorming. After the kickoff, we had the weekend to think about all the different ideas we had, and to decide on one. When we came together, everyone had different ideas about what we should do. We felt that it would be best if our idea encompassed everyone's applications, so we started thinking about what we could make that could do it all. Since a majority of the ideas were about increasing efficiency, we decided that a drone would be the best option. This drone would have attachments that would do all the things we wanted. We also thought it would be important for users to be able to adapt the design, so we wanted to make the drone modular, so it could easily be taken apart. We had many designs, but we managed to narrow them down to two final designs: four large rings with propellors inside or an cross shape with propellors on each end. We compared the two designs and made a pros and cons list. We realized that while the ring design would be very simple and easier to design, it would be very hard to print with our printer size limit. It would also make it very difficult for users to make it modular and there would be little room for attachments. The cross shaped drone allowed for the possibility of a modular design. The wings could be as long or as short as the user wanted. It would also allow more room for attachments. Below are the two designs: ring on the left, cross on the right.

Above is the ring design. Note that we used TinkerCAD not only as a tool to print materials, but as a tool to draw and communicate ideas. Since not everyone is able to draw their ideas as easily, TinkerCAD was a good alternative that improved team communication.

Here was our final cross design. We calculated the length of the cross necessary for the 10 inch propellors to not hit each other. The circles represent the area the propellors would cover. The center is designed to be modular so pieces could snap in and out making an adaptable design for the user.

Prototypes

After brainstorming and selecting the cross design, our next step was to make prototypes. Prototypes were really important in our design because it allowed us to test our ideas and finalize our plans before printing. This meant that we would not have to reprint as much, making the project more efficient. We decided that since we had all agreed on one drawing, we would make one large prototype of the drone that was the actual size and another smaller one that would focus on the modular design. Because we had already decided on measurements, it was not difficult to put all our ideas into one big prototype. In our original design, the propellers were underneath the wings facing downward. After making the prototype, we realized that putting the propellers above the wings, would not only allow them to actually lift the drone, but would make more space for the attachments and other pieces we needed. The modular design shows how pieces would fit together and where screws would go in. It was very helpful when trying to design in TinkerCAD.

Here was our prototype after we moved the propellers to the top. The small square in the centerpiece is the flight controller, the white circles are the size of the motors, and the black pieces are the propellors. All the pieces are the exact lengths from our design, however later, we realized that the wings did not have to be as large and we ended up reducing their width by 50%. This prototype also does not include the modular aspect of our final design.

This is a model which demonstrates how our pieces fit together. The two top pieces are wing pieces, and the 3rd is an end piece. The wing pieces have both places to attach to other pieces and spaces for the pieces to attach to them. The end pieces just have spaces. We used this model to figure out exactly what we were going to design and print.

Wing Pieces

Wing pieces were a very important part of our project. Because we already had a prototype and it seemed easier to design in TinkerCAD, we decided to start with these. Originally we were going to print them with holes, but we decided that we would drill the holes ourselves for three reasons: it was harder for the printer to print when there were holes, we did not know how big we wanted the holes, and we weren't sure if this was our final design. We wanted to make sure that the end pieces and wing would fit together before positioning holes. This was a good thing because when we decided to cut the pieces in half, the holes could have been problematic.

Here was our wing piece prototype. It also helped us to plan out the modular part of our design and to see how they would fit into end pieces.

Here was our design in TinkerCAD. It was fairly easy to design after making the prototype. These were printed sideways so the printer would not have to print holes, which can often ruin a print.

Here was our final product before we cut it in half and drilled holes in it. It was successful on the first print, which was good because this piece used a lot of filament. After cutting this piece in half, it served as two wing pieces.

End Pieces

After designing the wing pieces, we decided to design end pieces to go with them. The idea is that after the consumer adds as many wing pieces as they want, they would put an end piece on the end with a motor and propeller on it. The end pieces were not very difficult to design because we already had a prototype and the design was very similar to the wing piece designs. Like the wing pieces, we did not print the end pieces with holes, but we drilled them later. This was beneficial because we could drill holes through both at the same time, ensuring that the holes lined up.H

Here is the prototype for our end piece. It fit into the wing pieces. This was a great way for us to experiment with our modular design without printing all the pieces first.

Here is the end piece design in TinkerCAD. It was not difficult to design because we were able to copy and paste the wing piece design and just take away the extension.

Here is the end pieces that printed. When we printed them, we had already decided to cut the wing pieces in half. Before we printed them, we modified the design, so we did not have to cut these in half.

Centerpiece

The centerpiece was one of the hardest pieces to design. First, we had to make sure it was big enough to hold all of the electronic equipment necessary for our drone to fly. Then we had to find a way to incorporate it into our modular design. This was difficult because we were originally going to have the wing pieces fit into the centerpiece. This was impractical because it would mean that the centerpiece would be hollow and support too much weight. We decided to flip the wing pieces so the centerpiece fit into them. When printing the centerpiece, we realized it was far larger than the printer's plate. Our solution to this was to print the centerpiece in four different parts. Dividing it in quarters was good because the centerpiece is completely symmetrical and we could print the same quarter four times. When we printed it, we made sure that the pieces that would connect to the wing pieces, were the right size so we would not have to cut them.

Here is our centerpiece design in TinkerCAD before we cut it into quarters. Since it was perfectly symmetrical, we were able to divide it into four identical parts. We were also able to copy and paste some parts of the wing and pieces to help speed up designing and to make sure it would fit with other pieces.

Here is our attachment piece drying after it was glued together. The strategy of printing it in four parts was a success. In addition to glue, there were also wing pieces that would ensure that the pieces would stay together. After gluing the pieces together, we drilled holes in them so we could put the drone together.

Attachment piece

Attachments

Top Piece

Propeller Guard