DRONE Summer Camp 2020 – Build. Program. Fly.

We were excited to host our second week-long drone camp last week, July 12-17.  The camp, which is open to Boston Public Schools (BPS) students is sponsored by Amazon Robotics.

The program was originally designed by Brown University, modified by MassRobotics staff, and taught in modules where students were introduced to basic robotics – building, safety, a little programming, and flying – AND, they were able to take home the drone that they built. The camp used off the shelf hobby grade components, a Raspberry Pi 3 for easy on-board Linux, and a downward facing camera and infrared distance sensor to build the campers drones.

This year we had to put in a number of safeguards, such as wearing masks, dedicated work areas and limited the class size to allow us to hold on-site hands on work. Participants included students from The Joseph Lee School, New Mission High and a student from Burke High and part of the Becoming a Man (BAM) Program.  The students each had their own lab bench at MassRobotics and tool kit to work with.  They learned to solder and assemble their kits and will return to MassRobotics at a later date to fly their drones.

While at MassRobotics, the students got to see robotics startup companies and entrepreneurs in action.  The students discussed commercial drone applications in fields from agriculture to inspection. Included in the camp was a trip upstairs to GreenSightAG, an industrial drone company, where they saw the prototyping and drone assembly area as well as their operations and flying control center.

Returning alum, AJ a recent graduate from The English High School,  helped this year’s students!

A special thank you to Amazon Robotics, one of our founding and annual partners. They provided us the financial means to enable us to host this camp.  We look forward to hosting more of these types of events in the future.