UAVs@Berkeley Spring 2024 Crowdfunding

We are a team of UC Berkeley undergraduates designing and assembling an autonomous, payload-dropping drone to compete in the international Student Unmanned Aerial Systems Competition (SUAS) hosted by Robonation. Our team is comprised of students pursuing all fields of study and provides them the opportunity to apply knowledge from the classroom to real-world challenges. We are passionate about introducing students to the newest aerospace technologies and preparing them for a future at the cutting edge of STEM fields. We are preparing to compete this summer in Maryland and rely on generous donors to help us succeed as a representative of Berkeley’s growing aerospace community!

What's New

Since last year's crowdfunding, our team has significantly increased outreach and onboarding for new members, which has resulted in an even more cohesive team. Once again, we have brought in a new cohort of young engineers who have led even more ambitious projects such as custom designing some circuit boards. Additionally, our team has been spreading our efforts to the community by hosting a booth at 2023 Maker Faire to introduce people of all ages to the world of UAVs. We are super excited to host a booth at Open Sauce and Maker Faire this year as well!

Each subteam has taken the year to iterate on their respective projects. As a result of everyone’s dedication, our aircraft is more reliable than ever, achieving multiple flights of up to 7 miles, in both autonomous and manual mode. Our drone has also doubled its battery capacity, surpassing our previous 30-minute flight time.

Where Your Donation Will Go

Electrical: $1000

The powertrain team is currently designing custom, in-house printed circuit boards to improve upon the off-the-shelf circuit boards of last year's prototype. Our powertrain relies on a 6-motor propulsion system. Along with these motors, we need 6 29-inch propellers to provide sufficient lift at low RPMs and a motor controller for each motor. Our powertrain uses Lithium-Ion batteries with high capacity and power density to ensure our drone is light enough to fly for 30 minutes with a range of 10 miles.

Airframe: $1000

Our competition drone is manufactured out of carbon fiber and additively manufactured components to ensure a light but sturdy frame. Most of our drone is custom made due to our niche design requirements, although certain components which cannot be manufactured to a satisfactory quality at Berkeley are bought off-the-shelf. Our airframe team is also performing simulations with industry-grade software to see how composites will fail under extreme stresses, thus improving structural rigidity and reducing damage in the event of catastrophic crashes.

Software: $500

Our software team is focusing on improving our drone's autonomous features and upgrading the hardware that run our machine learning algorithms for identifying payload delivery points. Competition judges will be evaluating how quickly our drone is able to autonomously maneuver the competition course and identify payload drop points.

Competition + Travel Funds: $1000

This year will be the team's first in-person participation in the RoboNation SUAS competition. Having a competition in Maryland means we have to transport the drone, flight crew, and equipment across the country. Our team will also rent out transportation and housing in Maryland, so our flight team can do their best work to produce the best flight for the judges.