Students are encouraged to join the new drone club on campus.
Ohio University students who take a second to look up while walking to class might notice something unordinary: a drone flying above the landscape, capturing a panoramic view of Athens with its high-quality camera.
Electrical engineering graduate students recently launched a new club on campus called the Aerial Robotics and Photography Association, in which any OU student is welcome to learn how to maneuver and fly an unmanned aerial system, also known as a drone.
"We have nothing to go off of, so it’s going to be a learning experience,” Adam Schultz, the president and co-founder, said.
The Aerial Robotics and Photography Association plans to offer a few services to OU students, such as drone workshops where students can become certified to fly drones, as well as learn to fly or build them.
The group also wants to form a drone racing competition. Students have the option to rent a DJI Phantom Drone from the club — which can cost up to $1,500 retail — for only $10 a day. The drone is easy to maneuver, Schultz said.
The Aerial Robotics and Photography Association also plans to offer repair services for students who break their own drones.
Russell Gilabert, co-founder of the group and a graduate student studying electrical engineering, said drones are becoming increasingly popular.
“Everyone’s getting them for Christmas gifts,” Gilabert said. “You see these news articles all the time about them, and we realize they’ve got great potential for engineering purposes. … In the next couple years these are going to be used pretty widely in a lot of industries.”
The club also wants professionals to discuss and teach students more about drones in specific areas, such as cinematography, engineering and photojournalism.
“The idea is that this technology is really empowering, but we need to be careful with it because it is so new,” Schultz said. “We’re still learning.”
The Aerial Robotics and Photography Association plans to go on field trips to capture scenery, as well.
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“(For) our first major flight, we’re going to map the land lab (at The Ridges),” Tim Grubb, Office of Information and Technology support specialist, said. “(The lab), I believe, is a couple hundred acres, and we’re going to do a four-season land map at The Ridges, fly as close to the treetops as we can safely because we’re going to find a way to stitch it all together.”
Schultz said that right now there is not much regulation on unmanned aerial systems. The Federal Aviation Administration passed new policies on unmanned aircraft systems in December. Owners of drones must register them, and the aircrafts have limitations of flying up to 400 feet in the air.
“This club’s a really good way if students have any interest in doing film or robotics to get involved … and be able to master their skills,” Schultz said.
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