Final Project Of AT219 - Anti Collision Strobe On Mavic 2 Pro

According to the latest regulation, in order to operate the UAS at night, The UAS must be equipped with anti-collision lighting that is visible for at least three statute miles. This lighting must be operational and functioning properly at all times during the flight. To legally fly our Mavic 2 Pro fleet at night, our goal is to design, program and test the strobe, and finally fly it at night.

There are two mandatory requirements for the strobe light:

1. Visible from 3 statute miles away

2. Frequency at 40 - 100 times per minute.

1. Built the simple parts layout on a breadboard and Arduino Uno.

After the first step, we were able to illuminate the LED with no problem.

2. After the running test on the breadboard success, we start to integrate all the parts onto the Arduino Protoshield and the bottom base Arduino Uno. This includes some soldering and wiring work. All the parts have to fit into a relatively small area to keep the propellers running safely during the flight.

The Final product looks like this.

3. Attach it to the Mavic 2 Pro. We decided to use Velcro, since this is a very easy Put on and Remove mechanism. We could easily switch to a new Mavic battery once the battery gets low. Here is what it looks like when attached to the Mavic 2 Pro.

4. We went to test the strobe. To see if it is enough brightness from 3 SM away.

For the brightness test, we were two groups of students who went to two locations on the north and south of US 231, 600 N and 900 N, Team one on the South was utilizing a Matric 300, with a strobe attached to it, and Team two on the North utilizing a Mavic 2 Pro. The test was a great success.

Photo Credit: Professor. Rose

Photo Credit: Professor. Rose

5. At last, to finally make it works, we have to actually test it on the flying Mavic. As we know that the strobe is visible for 3sm, so we make the test happen at the turf farm. 

Pre-flight

Test flight of the Mavic 2 - So bright!

Long exposure of Purdue Campus - Water tower visible on the left

Creative photography! Another team, Dutch Byrd and Jack Pavy.

Overall, In my opinion, Completing this project gives me a sense of accomplishment, from the early stage of design to the final flight, we took action to protect the safety of shared manned and unmanned aviation sky!