When the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was established in 1861 it adopted the Latin phrase “Mens et Manus” as it’s motto.  Translated to English this means “Mind and Hand”, a principle that the institution continues to uphold.  The private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts holds the ranking of 7th most prestigious school in the United States of America and has become famous for encouraging some of the greatest minds in the fields of science, mathematics, and engineering.  In the fall of 2015 MIT began offering a course known as 16.30 Feedback Control Systems that uses drones small enough to fit in the palm of your hand to complete lab assignments.

A feedback control system, according to TheFreeDictionary.com, is “A system in which the value of some output quantity’s controlled by feeding back the value of the controlled quantity and using it to manipulate an input quantity so as to bring the value of the controlled quantity closer to a desired value. Also known as closed-loop control system.”  They give the example of how a toilet works, when you flush it the water in the bowl is removed.  Once the bowl is empty the loop continues by filling the bowl with the water from the tank, and so forth.  For a drone this feedback control system comes from the commands delivered to a drone from a remote controller based off of specific software designs.

For MIT’s 16.30 class each enrolled student gets their own drone to work with both in the classroom and back at home.  The drone being used for this course is the Rolling Spider by French drone manufacturer Parrot.  The Rolling Spider is a perfect fit for a classroom as it is safe, reliable, does not require FAA registration, is customizable, and inexpensive.  They retail on Amazon for around $30-$40, though it is safe to assume that MIT and Parrot set up some king of purchasing plan to get their students an even better price.  The Rolling Spider measures 7.6″X2.6″X8.1″, weighs only 3.52oz, and uses a rechargeable lithium polymer battery.  It can be used to fly indoor or outdoor, can rotate, flip, fly forwards and backwards, and even has attachable wheels that will enable a user to have it crawl up walls or across a ceiling.  The wheels also prevent any users or bystanders from coming in contact with the moving blades as the drone flies and gives the drone cushioning if it does crash.

In collaboration with Parrot, MIT has created a software platform for their students to run experiments with their drones.  As explained in the course description, “Parrot LLC provided a custom firmware that allows programming computer-vision-in-the-loop control systems into the drone. At MIT, we built a Matlab/Simulink toolbox around this firmware. Using our toolbox, students can design state estimation and control systems in Simulink, automatically generate embedded C code, and download their code to the drone for experimentation. They can also analyze flight data, which they download seamlessly.”

Some of the labs and projects the students have done include programing the drone to complete a series of flips, line jumping to quantify altitude, maintaining a designated flight path even when obstacles are introduced, and completing precision landings.  What is particularly unique about this course isn’t so much the equipment being used, but the structure in how the class is taught.  Rather than working in a classroom setting the students are encouraged to work in real world environments.  The course description goes on to state, “The students can complete laboratory exercises at home. They work in teams to do projects, most which they develop at school with the instructors. We believe that this new ‘inverted laboratory’ experience with lab exercises at home and projects in class improves learning experience and leads to high quality projects inspired by real engineering problems.”

The course instructors Sertac Karaman and Fabian Riether released a video showcasing only a third of all the projects submitted that first fall semester.  Throughout the short video you can see examples of students having programed their drones to complete feedback control systems.  Many of the projects seem simple, but they serve as building block to tackle larger engineering problems.  The main commonality between all of the selected projects in the ten minute video is that the teams are not simply using a tool to learn.  They are taking that tool and using it in new ways and having fun.  The students, under the guidance of their professors, are fulfilling Mens et Manus, Mind and Hand with a drone that literally fits into the palms of their hands.