PolyUAS builds the airframe, autonomy, and payload. This is the layer underneath: the power and thermal systems that decide whether the aircraft finishes its mission or quietly fails mid-flight. Owned end to end, built from the ground up.
A high-value, tightly-integrated aircraft. Every subsystem below is a fixed electrical interface the power and avionics design has to serve.
| Flight ctrl | Cube Orange · ArduPilot / PX4 |
| Companion | Jetson Orin Nano Super · edge-AI CV |
| Gimbal | SIYI A8 mini · 4K, UART + Ethernet |
| Video + ctrl | Herelink 2.4 GHz HD · + Nomad ELRS |
| Power dist. | SmartAP PDB · custom 21700 pack |
| Propulsion | SIYI E6 / T-Motor U7 280KV |
| Nav | Here3 + Here+ RTK · Cube ID (Remote ID) |
| Payload | Robotic arm + package drop |
Turn it into reliability the software team can't get on its own. One thesis, two deliverables. Both sit where the electronics meet the physics, which is exactly the seam a software or autonomy team can't reach.
The Orin thermal-throttles under sustained vision inference in a hot canopy: clock drops, detection frame-rate drops, targets get missed. That is not a vision problem, so the CV team can't fix it. It's a power and thermal problem.
The custom 21700 pack deserves a proper battery management system. Today it has no per-cell monitoring, balancing, or health telemetry. Adding a smart BMS is high-value, safety-critical EE, and squarely the EE side's to own.
Isolated compute power (kills brownout under motor transients) with every peripheral broken out on one board, plus onboard power + thermal instrumentation.
Our own board around proven RF silicon (SX1280 2.4 GHz + SX126x 900 MHz). Herelink keeps HD video; this owns the control link. Link budget: ~22 dB margin at 3 km.
Purpose-built breakouts (power/thermal sense, payload interfacing). Also the right first real board for new EE members to own under review.
The single most important power decision on the aircraft. Motor switching dumps noise on any rail it shares; the number-one way a companion computer reboots mid-flight is by drinking from the same supply as the ESCs. So the compute gets its own clean, regulated, isolated rails.
The aircraft must fly without any of the custom boards, so a season is never hostage to a board respin. Milestone-driven, anchored to AUVSI SUAS 2027. Every board clears a review gate before it costs money or flies.
Architecture, standards, component selection. Fly on commercial PDB + ELRS.
Organ 01. Software-only characterization + detector on the Orin.
Isolated compute power + integration. First custom board.PDR → CDR
Organ 02. The safety-critical build.PDR → CDR
Custom control link + instrumentation boards.bring-up
Integration, flight test, competition.flight-ready
PolyUAS had no prior EE material. So this is a sub-team being built from the ground up: structured so it works with one person today and scales cleanly as members join, with the review discipline that separates a board that flies from a board that never leaves the bench.
No EE experience required to join. A ramp takes a beginner from "never opened KiCad" to owning a bounded, real piece under review.
Nothing goes to fabrication without clearing a gate. This is the discipline that makes a beginner team actually ship.