What we've done, and what we are doing next

So far we have created two prototypes for the spray can brace. The first one held the solenoid above a spray can. The errors with the first model was that the solenoid was too high and did not reach the spray can, the spray can was also not stable enough, and the holder for the solenoid was to loose. The second model had sides that kept the can in place and the structure was more stable. The solenoid reached the cap but the spray can needs to be better fit to the model. We also need to reduce weight of the brace so that it does not hinder the drone. For the solenoid to press down strong enough on the spray can it must be 16 volts or higher. We now plan on taking with Ryan from Pittsburgh Techshop.

Spray paint Update

Our current model of the brace and solenoid does not have enough power to steadily fire the paint. After talking to our Mr Nasear and Dr Beamer, we decided the best way to solve the issue was to increase the voltage. When testing the solenoid and can on a 30 volt charge it fired much faster and was able to create a continous spray for the can and had more than enough force. Our next challenge is to find a 30 volt battery light enough for us to put on our drone.

We will be working on an avalanche rescue drone. This drone would be important because finding avalanche victims as soon as possible is critical if they are to be saved, and this drone will optimize search time. Chances of surviving an avalanche burial if located under fifteen minutes are 92%, while chances are diminished to 30% at thirty five minutes as victims begin to succumb to acute asphyxiation. The goal of our drone is to be able to locate people as fast as possible to increase the chances of the victim's survival. The drone will be able to roughly locate the victim by receiving the signal from their emergency beacon if it is on the skier/hiker’s person. Then with an attached avalanche probe, the drone will exactly locate the victim.  The versatility of the drone would also really cut down on location time as the terrain is very difficult to traverse and could save a lot of time that is spent climbing through snow, up hills, over rocks, etc. in an effort to locate the victim. This method could make the rather inefficient method of human probing alone (14% success rate) into a strategy that could alter the future of avalanche rescue. We could also really improve upon the probe we attach to the drone by perhaps creating a mechanism that would attach to it that would assist in the process of digging out the victim or increasing their chances for survival until human help can reach them. This will speed up the recovery progress significantly because finding the victim is the longest stage of recovering the victim.  Creating an improvement on avalanche rescue techniques is feasible as the research we conducted has highlighted several shortcomings in strategies in place today that can be fixed with the use of drones. This project is also feasible because the immense potential drones have in this world has not yet been tapped into in fields such as avalanche rescue.