ECE.13 – Wallcopter

• Tien Dao
• Hardik Goel
• Sarthak Hans
• Jaden Mossman
• Anand Pudi

High rise buildings and the undersides of bridges are important structures that need to be examined for safety purposes, but this is often a difficult task as they are hard to reach places and typically experience high wind. Even when reached, the unstable environment often causes the resulting images used for inspections to be blurry and difficult to analyze. The aim of the project was to identify an accessible drone platform, modify it for inspections, and maintain control to collect data with the drone at typical heights and environmental conditions. The drone has an additional attachment that includes a camera and sensors that will assist the drone in taking pictures. Additionally, there are slide attachments overtop the drone, which allow it to make contact with the upper surface and remain stable. All of these factors together allow us to obtain a stable image used for inspections. The captured images will be sent to a receiver computer, where an image-detecting algorithm will detect any cracks or damages. We have used the DJI Tello and ESP 32 microcontroller for the project and have included a prop guard to allow the drone to touch ceilings periodically. Our accomplishments include successfully designing and building the drone prototype, incorporating the necessary components, and testing its functionality in stable flight. After inspecting some nearby structures we were able to test the range and image quality of the pictures providing a cost-effective solution to structural engineers and those responsible for ensuring the safety of these structures. This inspection run can be found within the video that we recorded.