Clement Tong, Michael Li, and Miriam Sellick was one of 4 out of 100+ teams in this year's Y1 Engineering cohort to win a prize in a 12-hour* open ended project with the Lego Mindstorm kit, where the team decided to build a hovering model helicopter. It includes implementing a Proportional-Derivative Gain Controller to autonomously maintain the user's defined altitude, set through a Graphical User Interface.

Official Website (@cam.ac.uk Login Required): http://mi.eng.cam.ac.uk/raven/ahg/2024_gallery.html

The model replicates how a real helicopter works by varying blade pitch to control vertical speed. To enable advanced software control, the team first built a reliable hardware platform that produces measurable lift. They refined the blade's pitch control mechanism, and selected the blade size based on calculations using the lift equation in potential flow theory and real-world tests.

The team developed a graphical user interface (GUI) that enables real-time configuration changes, and displays live sensor data to streamline testing. They implemented a proportional gain controller to adjust blade pitch based on the difference between current and target altitudes. After further tuning, the helicopter can autonomously hover (1-axis) at a wide range of altitudes, adjustable in real time through the GUI.

Post-award judging, the team successfully incorporated the Derivative component of the Proportional-Derivative (P-D) Gain Controller, allowing the helicopter to stabilise quickly at its target altitude.

Notes: *12 hours worth of lab-sessions were allocated in our timetables. We also made progress outside timetabled lab sessions.