I got to go to Disaster City twice this week! So awesome! Disaster City is a rescue training facility and I didn't know it was literally just off of Welborn near some trailer park. Disaster City is full of all sorts of awesome wrecked stuff, like rusted-out traincars, collapsed buildings, and giant piles of rubble. I got to go with Brittany and Josh to practice flying the AirRobot and take pictures of the rubble!
The UAV team is piloted by Brittany, and Josh is the mission specialist, and I am an undergrad so I am the "just stand there and try not to break something," aka the safety officer. In a real emergency the safety officer would make sure no one stands under the AirRobot and the pilot doesn't fall backwards into a manhole or something, but there's not a lot of danger of that happening in Disaster City.
If you can't tell from the picture, we also had to stay covered up in baggy clothes to protect ourselves from potential rubble-related injuries, and it was a million billion degrees outside and we all baked like potatoes. Next week we get to fly inside!
In research news, I made a little screencapture of my code so far, and I read some more papers. Also DISASTER CITY IS AWESOME
- Jill