Avionics Projects
AV1: Antennas
The antennas subteam takes care of any hardware allowing signal transmission between the ground station and the rocket. The more advanced our rocket, the more vital telemetry becomes. It is crucial for antennas to transmit signals with enough power and efficiency for radios to function, and subsequently the rest of the rocket.
Working with antennas means you will get experience designing PCBs for GPS, matching circuits, LNAs or other filter circuits. It is a great way to understand conceptually signal transmission and treatment while also getting hands-on experience by designing and soldering PCBs. There is also a key part of R&D, required to make research on and test new ideas to improve our antennas.
AV2: Radios
The radio system is responsible for the communication between the rocket and the ground station. To monitor the rocket’s status and control its behavior, information is sent and received through the various radios linking the rocket and the ground station. With our rocket now going higher than we’ve ever launched one, a more robust radio system must be implemented to ensure constant communication between the ground and the rocket. Range testing conditions must also be adapted to account for the greater range, and we will need to ensure everything works to near perfection as this subsystem is flight critical.
Members on this project will be able to work both on hardware and software with our two main projects: a software revamp of the current radios system and a student research and designed (SRAD) radio. The software revamp involves rewriting the entirety of the radios’ code, implementing new drivers, and installing a more robust message queue system to handle messages to and from the GUI. The SRAD radio deals with circuit and PCB design around a LoRa module. Members will have the chance to create and debug hardware, software, as well as participate in a number of validation and integration tests to evaluate the radio performance.
AV3: Flight Computer Software
In combination with Flight Computer (FC) hardware, the FC Software project forms the basis of the central command center of the rocket. The system collects data from various sensors and controls actions in the propulsion, ejection, and ground station systems. The FC Software project architects and implements the computer code that goes on the FC. This year, our focus is on re-architecting the system for concurrent programming and improved efficiency. We're also implementing robust dev-ops practices, including unit testing, code formatting, and comprehensive documentation. This initiative provides an excellent opportunity to learn industry-standard practices in a collaborative environment.
As a member of the FC Software project, you'll be writing real, flight-critical code using C/C++ and possibly Assembly. You'll develop low-level device drivers and interrupt handlers, implement efficient algorithms for real-time data processing, and work on a real-time operating system (RTOS) for precise timing control. Joining our project offers unique experiences you won't come across in most university classes!
AV4: Flight Computer Hardware
The Flight Computer (FC) system is analogous to the human nervous system: a central command center that controls actions and gathers data through a network of peripheral devices and sensors. The FC Hardware project designs the electronic hardware that controls, monitors, and integrates the other subsystems of the rocket. For this design cycle, the goal is to develop the 8th generation of the FC system. The to-do and R&D lists are extensive, so now is a great time to join the FC Hardware project!
As a member of this project, you will help develop the hardware for the FC system through extensive prototyping and designing of various printed circuit boards (PCB). These tasks will involve theoretical research and development with practical testing and debugging. You will develop skills in research, circuit design and simulation, PCB manufacturing, and hardware debugging! These skills will make you stand out as a candidate for research opportunities, internships, and jobs.
AV5: Flight Computer Simulator
The Flight Computer (FC) simulator project is essential to thoroughly test the flight computers and their interactions with other flight-critical rocket systems. The most thorough way to test the full avionics system is to fly it on multiple rockets with varying flight profiles and flight conditions, but this is impractical and expensive! The ultimate goal of FC simulator is to develop a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing setup that simulates everything, from pre-flight procedures and launch to apogee and landing, allowing the team to simulate flights and perform extensive testing on the ground.
As a member of this project, you will help develop our HIL tester to run and analyze flight simulations. You will also design hardware and software to emulate various sensors, develop a user-friendly interface for the HIL tester, and participate in system integration tests.
AV6: Ground Station Controls
The Ground control station is a system that provides a user-friendly way for operators to interface with our rocket systems. This project is responsible for maintaining both the hardware and software that team members use to test and fly the rocket. The biggest component of this project is the Ground Station Graphical User Interface (GUI), which is a full-stack software application that communicates with every system on the rocket and on the ground. It’s responsible for collecting telemetry, sending commands, and displaying all data in real time. It’s also responsible for saving the data for post-flight review. As a member of this comprehensive software project, you’ll get hands-on experience with real-world software development practices and be able to see your code used to launch a real rocket! You’ll learn things such as:
- The creation of new, data-driven UI elements using React.js
- Implementing new data/signal processing algorithms
- Creating new REST APIs to communicate between different parts of GS GUI
- Important OOP design decisions
- Adding support for new communication protocols and devices
A secondary responsibility of this project is also maintaining the physical computer and control box, hardware which are deployed at the test site and in the field. Any member is free to work on whichever side they would like, whether it be hardware or software.
AV7: Payload Software
Payload runs experiments relevant to space travel on the human body, and as part of the scientific process (as you may recall from intro biology), we need to collect data!
In this project, you will program the 32-bit STM32 microcontroller based off of ARM Cortex-M processor cores using C. Payload has its own flight computer which works in coordination with AV via canbus to log data and send commands to and from the payload hub. Integration with AV FC is a major focus this year to ensure seamless communication early on and we will work far more closely with them than any other year. Such data include temperature and the frequency in which the bones are vibrating inside of our structure which are integral to PL1 (Experiment). We will gain experience of using peripheral devices connected to our microcontroller to gather data, process and parse the raw output via Fourier, and also use PID/control theory to regulate the payload environment. Additionally, we will work in coordination with AE6 (Payload Structure) and AV8 (Payload IEPE Hardware) to fully integrate software and hardware inside of our rocket.
This is the perfect place if you enjoy designing software and collaborating with a team on programming challenges to see your ideas come to life in action!
AV8: Payload Hardware
The AV Payload Hardware team creates the electronics that enable scientific experiments in the payload. We collect all required experiment data, actively monitor experiment conditions, and dynamically adjust them if they change during a rocket launch.
As a member of this project, you will gain valuable experience by helping us develop the electronics that bring our experiments to life. Your tasks will include designing and simulating circuits using industry-standard tools like Altium and LTSpice, implementing various sensors and control structures, and applying filtering techniques to ensure accurate data collection. In addition, you will gain valuable hands-on experience assembling and extensively debugging PCBs. You will also have the opportunity to collaborate closely with mechanical and software teams, giving you a well-rounded understanding of system design. This experience will strengthen both your technical and teamwork skills while preparing you for real-world engineering challenges.