Assignment Principles and Practices

• Plan and sketch a potential final project

Assignment Project Management

• Work through a git tutorial
• Build a personal site in the class archive describing you and your final project

1. Draw first concepts with hand sketches
2. Learn how to use .html and .css for Fab Academy website and to generate pages for the final project website
3. Use “About Me Page” to give link for other websites

1. Done
2. Done
3. Pending

Assignment Computer-Aided Design

• raster,
• vector,
• 2D, 3D,
• render,
• animate,
• simulate, a possible final project,
• compress your images and videos,
• and post it on your class page

1. Use CAD programs to design first concepts of a drone
2. Animate a fixed wing drone in Blender
3. Simulate a fixed wing drone using ROS
4. Images of CAD for final project
5. Video of CAD for final project
6. Push to Gitlab

1. Pending
2. To do
3. To do
4. Pending
5. To do
6. Pending

Assignment Computer-Controlled Cutting

Group

• characterize your laser cutter's focus, power, speed, rate, kerf, and joint clearance

Individual

• cut something on the vinylcutter
• Design, lasercut, and document a parametric construction kit, accounting for the lasercutter kerf, which can be assembled in multiple ways, and for extra credit include elements that aren't flat

1. Cut and assemble Fuselage module part 1 & 2
2. Cut and assemble Wing module
3. Test assembling module with carbon tube
4. Cut and assemble End Fuselage module
5. Cut and assemble End Wing module

1. To do
2. To do
3. To do
4. To do
5. To do

Assignment Electronics Production

group assignment:

• characterize the design rules for your PCB production process

individual assignment:

• make an in-circuit programmer by milling and stuffing the PCB,
• test it,
• then optionally try other PCB processes

1. In-circuit Programmer for Signalization lights for the drone

Assignment 3D Scanning and Printing

group assignment:

• test the design rules for your 3D printer(s)

individual assignment:

• design and 3D print an object (small, few $cm³$, limited by printer time) that could not be made subtractively
• 3D scan an object
• (and optionally print it)

1. Print Nose and Rear Module for the Fuselage
2. Print Left and Right Module for the wing
3. Scan a propeller
4. Print a propeller

Assignment Electronics Design

group project:

• Use the test equipment in your lab to observe the operation of a microcontroller circuit board

individual project:

• Redraw an echo hello-world board,
• add (at least) a button and LED (with current-limiting resistor)
• check the design rules,
• make it,
• and test it
• extra credit: simulate its operation

1. Lights for the drone

Assignment Embdded Programming

individual assignment:

• read a microcontroller data sheet
• program your board to do something, with as many different programming languages and programming environments as possible

group assignment:

• compare the performance and development workflows for other architectures

1. Lights for the drone
2. Retracting landing gear

Assignment Computer-Controlled Machining

group assignment

• test runout, alignment, speeds, feeds, and toolpaths for your machine

individual assignment

• make (design+mill+assemble) something big

1. Design leading and trailing edges
2. Design edges for the fuselage
3. Mill the designs
4. Add new parts in fuselage and wing modules
5. Assemble an almost ready to fly drone

Assignment Input Devices

individual assignment:

• measure something: add a sensor to a microcontroller board that you have designed and read it

group assignment:

• probe an input device's analog levels and digital signals

1. Use a laser to mesure altitude

Assignment Applications and Implications

• Propose a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered,

• What will it do?
• Who's done what beforehand?
• What will you design?
• What materials and components will be used?
• Where will come from?
• How much will they cost?
• What parts and systems will be made?
• What processes will be used? What questions need to be answered?
• How will it be evaluated?

• 2D and 3D design,
• additive and subtractive fabrication processes,
• electronics design and production,
• embedded microcontroller interfacing and programming,
• system integration and packaging

• individual mastery of the skills,
• and be independently operable

1. Website to teach how to design a small fixed-wing drone for conservation mission
2. See LINK for the answers to the question lists

Assignment Output Devices

individual assignment:

• add an output device to a microcontroller board you've designed,
• and program it to do something

group assignment:

• measure the power consumption of an output device

1. Program a servomotor to control landing gear
2. For landing on earth
3. For landing on snow
4. For landing on water

Assignment Molding and Casting

group assignment:

• review the safety data sheets for each of your molding and casting materials,
• then make and compare test casts with each of them

individual assignment:

• design a mold around the stock and tooling that you'll be using,
• mill it (rough cut + (at least) three-axis finish cut),
• and use it to cast parts

1. Design a mold for Nose/Rear Fuselage Modules
2. Design a mold for Left/Right Wing Modules
3. Mill the designs
4. Cast Nose Rear Fuselage Modules and Left/Right Wing Modules

Assignment Networking and Communications

individual assignment:

• design,
• build,
• and connect wired or wireless node(s) with network or bus addresses

group assignment:

• send a message between two projects

1. Wireless node from Fuselage telecommunication module to Ground Station
2. Send Message between Ground Station to the drone (i.e. turn on the lights)

Assignment Interfaces and Application Programming

individual assignment:

• write an application that interfaces a user with an input &/or output device that you made

group assignment:

• compare as many tool options as possible

1. Application that interfaces a user with the laser and the light of the drone

Assignment Mechanical Design

group assignment

Assignment Machine Design

group assignment

1. Build a machine to automatically cover modules with modeling tape.

Assignment Wildcard Week

• Design and produce something with a digital fabrication process (incorporating computer-aided design and manufacturing) not covered in another assignment, documenting the requirements that your assignment meets, and including everything necessary to reproduce it.
• Possibilities include (but are not limited to) composites, textiles, biotechnology, robotics, folding, and cooking.

Assignment Invention, Intellectuel Property, and Income

• develop a plan for dissemination of your final project
• prepare drafts of your summary slide (presentation.png, 1920x1080) and video clip (presentation.mp4, 1080p HTML5, < ~minute, < ~10 MB) and put them in your root directory

1. Address computation hosting: Cloud based or locally on a user personal computer
2. Dissemination is done with the website
3. Plan communication on Instructables, DIY Drones,...
4. Slide using Overleaf
5. Video using Overleaf and SimpleScreen

Assignment Project Development

• What tasks have been completed
• What tasks remain?
• What's working?
• What's not?
• What questions need to be resolved?
• What will happen when?
• What have you learned?

Assignment Project Presentation

• What does it do?
• Who's done what beforehand?
• What did you design?
• What materials and components were used?
• Where did they come from?
• How much did they cost?
• What parts and systems were made?
• What processes were used?
• What questions were answered?
• What worked?
• What didn't?
• How was it evaluated?
• What are the implications?

• conception,
• construction,
• and operation.

• 2D and 3D design,
• additive and subtractive fabrication processes,
• electronics design and production,
• embedded microcontroller interfacing and programming,
• system integration and packaging.

• individual mastery of the skills,
• and be independently operable