Mechatronics & Hardware
360° Thermal-Imaging Drone for Crack Detection
A custom, government-compliant autonomous drone reaching 55 mph, with electronics and structure I designed and FEA-validated.
Geolabs needed a programmable, compliant alternative to DJI for geotechnical mapping and crack detection. I built one: an iFlight XL7 Evo carbon-fiber frame with low-KV motors on 7-inch props, ArduPilot + ExpressLRS, 55 mph, 15–20 min flight, carrying an FPV camera and an Insta360 5.6K for spherical documentation on programmable waypoint missions.
I designed custom motor-control hardware — field-oriented control, back-EMF detection, thermal management. When PLA camera mounts failed under vibration, I confirmed it in FEA and redesigned them in waterjet-cut carbon fiber with TPU bumpers, plus ArduPilot FFT harmonic notch filtering. Structure, aero, and cooling were validated with ANSYS FEA/CFD/thermal.
