"Minus K" Passive Vibration Isolation

To build a platform that could isolate vibrations my group used a compressed-spring system enspired by commercially available technology. The linearized model of these springs, for motion perpendicular to their axis, is just like a standard spring but with a negative spring constant. Using a combination of standard tension springs and horizontally mounted compression springs, we were able to support a platform while minimizing its resonant frequency. It took some time to tune it just right without causing instability but we found the results to be pretty impressive!

Quadcopter Control System

For the final project our group chose to write and tune control loops to stablize and manuever a quadcopter using a Kinect to provide 3D positional feedback. Here you can see it flying along a Lissajous curve: