What is TJUAV?
Last updated
Last updated
Hey there! If you're looking at this documentation, then you're either an existing member who's reviewing a certain part, a new member who just joined, or someone who's interested in TJUAV. Whoever you are, I hope you learn something new here.
So what is TJUAV? For starters, TJUAV stands for the Thomas Jefferson Unmanned Aerial Vehicle team. Every year we work on designing, building, and programming a variety of RC and autonomous planes that are exhilarating to fly. TJUAV is a place where you can explore your aerodynamic and programming passions. Want to design your own plane completely from scratch? Want to code an epic ground station that controls the plane? Want to implement autopilot algorithms that follow waypoints while dodging obstacles? You've come to the right place!
Hopefully, this guide will help you get started and working on the fun stuff ASAP. Also feel free to scroll through GitBook to get yourself familiar with all the software, hardware, and procedures that we use, as well as documentation for anything you struggle with. Don't forget to add documentation on any problems you solve!
Throughout the year, we partake in a variety of fun RC activities, but our main goal is the annual, international, collegiate AUVSI SUAS ("aoovsi sewass") competition. The competition involves developing a plane capable of autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, detecting / classifying ground targets, and dropping a UGV! More in-depth documentation of the details can be found here.
When working on the competition, the team is mostly split into two subsystems, Mechanical and Programming. If you're unsure what you want to do, think about what you want to go into when you grow up, and what your passion is. Also, you can do both mechanical and programming tasks, it's up to you, just let someone (an officer or a lead) know what subsystem you want to work on and they'll properly assign you a task.
