Autonomous Bullet Detection Drone (In Progress)

As part of the Mechatronics and Robotics final year capstone our group 'ShotSense' sponsored by Lockheed Martin Skunkworks is designing and developing a manufacturable, cost-effective drone built from domestically sourced materials to support Canadian Armed Forces marksmanship training.

This proposed project that is currently underway is focused on designing an autonomous fixed-wing (flying wing) platform that can autonmously detect and localize nearby gunfire using an onboard microphone array with the aim of providing a real time report card back to the shooter with their accuracy. Alongside the sensing and autonomy work, the airframe is being engineered to be lightweight, durable, and cost-effective, with iterative CAD/FEA-driven structural design and fabrication using accessible, domestically sourced materials. The result will be a validated end-to-end prototype that integrates the sensing payload, onboard computation, and flight platform into a single field-testable system. 

As the Structural/Mechanical Lead for ShotSense, I own the airframe design from requirements to flight-ready fabrication. I translate mission and payload needs into structural targets (mass, stiffness, strength and manufacturability), then drive iterative CAD and FEA to converge on a lightweight, robust flying wing structure. I lead material and construction decisions focused on domestic sourcing and low-cost manufacturing, and I define the build process, print strategy, reinforcements, fasteners/adhesives, and assembly so the design can be produced reliably by the team. I also plan and execute structural validation (static checks, fit-up tests, and revision tracking) to ensure each design iteration is backed by measurable performance improvements.