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By Bill Sterling
The hydraulic drone team pictured with some of their products include, left to right, Joslyn Herold, Dad Walker, David Jesse “DJ” McCaleb, Lucas Antunes and frontman Joe Betit. Nathaniel Long recently joined the team.
A team of local students working on a hydropower drone project led by retired land surveyor and engineering instructor Joe Betit have had a busy summer setting up camps and exhibiting their system both on the east coast and in Norfolk.
Meet at Pungoteague, the student team that started with Lucas Antunes, Joslyn Herold,
Dade Walker and David Jesse “DJ” McCaleb recently added Nandua sophomore Nathaniel Long to the group.
The team held a week-long summer camp at the Eastern Shore Yacht & Country Club to teach campers how to build and use the drone, then spent several days at the Chincoteague Market to demonstrate the system. The team also made a presentation at the ESVA Maritime Summer Camp.
The highlight of the summer for the hydropower drone team was being invited to the Unmanned Systems UxS summit in Norfolk.
Betit said many summit attendees were amazed that the freshmen were able to perform at this level of design and field operations, especially when they learned that the students were from the east coast. not Hampton Roads.
The hydroelectric drone will have the ability to measure the flow, salinity and temperatures of the rivers it covers and would be useful to environmental scientists, aquaculturists and marine engineers.
“We have developed our own design of hydro drone technology with good performance of GPS and sonar mapping as well as 360 degree cameras, but at a cost level to the consumer,” Betit said. “The Summitt was made up of vendors marketing extremely high-priced systems to the Department of Defense and other agencies. We can produce a hydroelectric drone for $ 4,000 compared to typical prices like $ 120,000 for others. “
Betit adds, “We were the only producer there with a design that can provide profitable swarms for data collection after natural disasters. They are also practical in terms of cost for on-site abandonment after use in a serious hazardous environmental event such as a release of radioactivity.
As some of the team leave for college after a year of e-learning due to COVID-19, the group will stay in touch online while also being interested in starting drone projects or groups. hydropower in their schools.
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