Amjad Yaghi

Aerodesign Payload ·

First general meeting!

First SAE Aerodesign general meeting. Got oriented on team structure and the payload subteam mission: capture and release on the DLZ. Summer focus is research and derisking.

What I’m trying to achieve

Get a clear picture of the team structure, understand what the payload capture subteam owns, learn about existing work, and leave with a list of things to read before the next meeting.

Notes from the meeting

Attendees: Full team (very small in the summer), all subteams present.

Team overview

Everyone is currently in prelim: a research and development phase with less pressure to build. This includes the Fuselage, Airfoils, Adv Fuselage, Adv Airfoils, and Avionics subteams. I’m in Avionics, on the Payload subteam.

Payload capture & release

Tighter team (for now): Isaac, Aurora, me. More people joining in September.

The mission:

  1. Deliver a payload to the designated landing zone (DLZ).
  2. Capture the payload from the DLZ and release another one.

We get to build the DLZ, but rules restrict how much we can configure it. For example, no electronics on the zone itself.

End-of-summer deliverable: an ENPH 459-style proposal to Ella. In other words: research the space, derisk the approach, produce a solid plan.

Avionics stack (overview)

  • Flight controller: Cube Orange
  • Firmware: ArduPilot (open source, STM32 family)
  • Ground station: Mission Planner

We’re trying to move away from off-the-shelf solutions as much as possible. The more we do, the cooler we are.

Competition scoring (SAE, approx. April 2027)

Scoring revolves around three pillars: design report, readiness presentation (which is about derisking), flight points. An important note was that lighter plane = significant scoring bonuses & heavier payload = even more bonuses. Good to keep this in mind moving forward.

Driving questions

  • What is the payload weight budget? “Heavier is better” is not a spec.
  • What is RTK and can it fit a capture use case?
  • Has a previous payload team tackled capture before? What did they build and what broke?

Next

  • Read the 2026 ruleset.
  • Read about ArduPilot architecture and Cube Orange.
  • Check the avionics Miro board.
  • Set up first subteam meeting with Isaac and Aurora.
  • Start RTK research.
  • Admin: GitHub to Ella, Altium sign-up, student email.