DroneWorx flies to greater heights
Utah State University’s DroneWorx club showcased their aviation skills on Oct. 7’s Drone Day on the Quad. DroneWorx allowed participants to fly drones through a roped-off course with a remote control and had a separate computer simulation.
The event had a range of 50–100 participants, according to Kevin Plaizier, USU student and drone engineer.
Peter Porter, DroneWorx president, said COVID-19 made club meetings difficult—but now, he has more opportunities to show AggieAir’s drones to the public.
“When people see a drone racing around 80 miles an hour, they’re going to stop and watch,” Porter said.
Porter allowed newer participants to fly the Matrice Minis, which he said were simpler drones to operate. Others flew camera-equipped, First-Person View (FPV) drones, the flyers wearing goggles to see the world from the drone’s perspective.
DroneWorx displayed a DJI Matrice drone and Aeroscout plane. These, according to Plaizier, were expensive and difficult to fly.
Computers also sat on a table, where participants could fly drones and planes through a simulation. According to Porter, even a homeschooling group of 8-year-olds stopped by to fly with the simulations.
Flying drones, however, is no simple task, according to Trystin Flanigan, a new member to DroneWorx.
“You have to account for basically everything down to the vibrations the motors make,” Flanigan said.
Oli Snow, another USU student who attended the event, said the hardest part of flying fixed wing drones was “knowing what’s forward.”
However, Plaizier said the aviation management major has grown significantly.
“When I started out here, (the aviation drone program) was quite small; there was only the drone minor. Now, they’ve expanded it into a major,” Plaizier said. “I’ve been hearing every year that this is the quickest growing program at the school.”
There are about 30 students in the aviation management major with an emphasis in UAS—and a couple hundred students enrolled in the drone minor.
High enrollment isn’t the only success to celebrate. Plaizier said that drones provide impactful job opportunities — One involves helping farmers with their crops.
“We go to the biggest almond farm in California every year, and we end up flying over it, giving (the farmers) data, and other things to help them with their farm,” Plaizier said.
According to Plaizier, others could get jobs at the Kennecott Copper Mine as drone inspectors, or could even work with drones at Amazon.
Porter plans on “building systems that will be able to carry cameras and other sensors, so that whether it be farmers that need to understand their crops, or people who are maintaining infrastructure like hydroelectric dams.”
Plaizier said he wants to use his software engineering skills to build drones, having won a drone-designing contest in 2021.
According to Flanigan, drones have helped him follow his passion. Flanigan said he had poor eyesight, making it difficult to become a pilot. FPV drones were a perfect compromise for him.
“There’s a lot of people looking for those skills. It’s a niche that’s growing quite quickly,” Plaizier said.
-Jenny.Carpenter@usu.edu
Featured photo courtesy of Trystin Flanigan