Week 06 · overview

Week 06: Sensors, Calibration, and Payload Readiness

This week, you will build sensor readiness checklist for a bounded Drone Engineering scenario. The work stays in classroom-safe analysis, supplied evidence, simulation, planning, and documentation. It does not authorize real flight or unsupervised hardware work.

The engineering problem

A mapping payload produces tilted images even though the aircraft appears stable.

The core idea is that sensor data is not automatically truth. It is a measurement made by a device with limits. Students will connect that idea to IMUs, magnetometers, barometers, GPS receivers, cameras, and payload sensors each measure one slice of the environment.

Evidence you keep

SequenceEvidence artifact
Lesson 1Mechanism explanation and first evidence table
Lesson 2Boundary note and no-go or revision condition
Lesson 3Review-ready decision table
Flight LogSensor readiness checklist with limitation statement

Vocabulary and decision lens

Important language this week includes: system boundary, evidence, limitation, no-go condition, revision rule, and sensors, calibration, and payload readiness.

Decision lens: reject data products when the sensor state, mounting, or reference check cannot support the claim.

Approximate time: 3 to 4 class periods, about 160 to 200 minutes of reading, analysis, evidence writing, and review.