Urban Air Mobility Research Project

The UAM project was conducted with joint support from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Honeywell Aerospace and was led by our professor, Dr. Johann Dorfling. The goal of the project was to characterize flight performance of an electric air taxi based on ascent and descent speeds and climb angles. My role on the team was the flight team lead. In this role, I oversaw our test flights and ensured we were following all of our set procedures to ensure safe and successful flights. One of these flight tests is shown below:

I also assisted on the construction and maintenance of the vehicle. The UAM project experienced its fair share of issues over the year I was on the team. This included numerous failed test flights, components catching on fire, and a malfunctioning telemetry system. Even though each of these things was a big setback, it has taught me very important lessons in troubleshooting, communication between teams, and proper documentation to ensure finding issues is as easy as possible. By the end of the project, we were able to overcome many of these troubling issues and conduct three successful autonomous flights and use the collected data to present at National Conference on Undergraduate Research.