Zhi Ern Teoh
  • Projects
    • Harvard University: Insect-Scale Flapping-Wing Robots
    • Harvard University: 2D to 3D by synchronized folding
    • Harvard University: 3 DOF spherical mechanism
    • Stanford University: Jumping Plane
    • Stanford University: Design, Construction, and Testing of Autonomous Aircraft
    • Data Storage Institute, Singapore: Autonomous Indoor Flying Vehicle
    • Cornell University: Passively Stable Flapping Machine
  • Publications

Design and Implementation of an Autonomous Indoor Flying Vehicle for Cooperative Surveillance Using the DaVinci Server

Quadrotor Version 1

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After graduating from Cornell, I began a 6 month internship at Data Storage Institute, Singapore. The project was to demonstrate multi robot collaboration. I proposed to build a flying robot to complement the existing suite of ground based robots. Quadrotors have always intrigued me, so I decided to build one from scratch. 

The quadrotor was built with a spherical like cage. The idea was to fly in the air and roll on the ground. Prior to this project I had limited experience with embedded programming. Therefore, after doing some research, I decided to use the Arduino environment as my "brains" for the quadrotor. 

I tried to get the quadrotor flying without an RC controller by using my keyboard and 2 Xbee radios. I thought the PID controller would be enough for me to do simple commands. Bad idea my craft kept on crashing. Thinking I had bitten off more than I could chew, I decided to build a more conventional quadrotor. And yes. I bought an RC controller.

Quadrotor version 2

I designed the second version with aluminum. Sent that out for manufacturing. The wait was tedious, so I built a test version out of pink and blue foam. The craft was too heavy and seemed to be able to fly only in ground effect.
I named the quadrotor flamingo. After its maiden flight it never flew again because one of it corners broke after its crash and my new parts for quadrotor version 2 arrived.
Learning to fly the quadrotor proved to be a challenge. Even though I had one of the arms of the quadrotor anodized red, I was still confused. but soon I got used to it.
An ultrasonic sensor was incorporated in "Quadrotor flight 1". Its role was to measure its height from the ground to allow a height hold function for the quadrotor.
 
Building the quadrotor from the ground up was an immensely satisfying task and 6 months flew by. During that time I delivered a quadrotor capable of RC flight which can be incorporated into future robotic microcosms.

Much thanks to my supervisor Mr Vikas Reddy for his support and guidance.
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  • Projects
    • Harvard University: Insect-Scale Flapping-Wing Robots
    • Harvard University: 2D to 3D by synchronized folding
    • Harvard University: 3 DOF spherical mechanism
    • Stanford University: Jumping Plane
    • Stanford University: Design, Construction, and Testing of Autonomous Aircraft
    • Data Storage Institute, Singapore: Autonomous Indoor Flying Vehicle
    • Cornell University: Passively Stable Flapping Machine
  • Publications