Phoenix Y6 Drone (Undergrad Senior Design)

A semi autonomous drone for emergency response scouting and firefighting surveillance purposes in collaboration with the Palo Alto Fire Department while at Santa Clara University.

Drone featured a unique coaxial 6 motor tricopter design, with the two front rotor sets on a rotation mechanism. This mechanism allowed those motors to point forwards, the drone transforming mid flight to allow for flight in the traditional style of airplanes.

I took a lead technical role in this project, and was responsible for:
- most of the mechanical design including strength and materials, weight budgeting, and manufacturing. CAD and CFD analysis to determine optimal body shape/wing profile/wing angle of attack/estimate lift and drag coefficients for control systems,
- Eletro-mechanical systems design including propulsion, control, power, safety, and networking. Later, for bring up, integration testing, and testing for design validation.


Researched the electronics of an autonomous drone, assembled and tested all sensors, controllers, and actuators. Integrated flight controller with ground control computer allowing GPS tracking of the plane. Eventually this platform would have allowed for autonomous flight control.