SFCC Students Collaborate to Produce Better Drone Lighting for SPD

Several SFCC students and their instructor were recognized Monday night at the start of a regular Sedalia City Council meeting.

Sedalia Police Chief David Woolery detailed a story that involves the department's DJI Avata drones, which assess the interior of a residence to determine if it is safe for officers to enter during the execution of a search warrant.

Det. Nicholas Camirand noticed a problem with the direction of the light being emitted by the drone. The light shined straight ahead, which left the floor in relative darkness and not showing potential obstacles.

Afterwards, Det. Camirand reached out to SFCC instructor Madison Hercules, who is in charge of the college's EDT program.

Hercules and her class accepted the challenge of fixing the lighting problem, using 3-D printing technology in SFCC's Collaborative Lab.

The solution was to produce a new custom-designed light mount. The new and improved mount directs one of the drone's light downward at a 20-degree angle, making those obstacles visible to the drone operator.

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Chief Woolery said the project was a great example of what can happen when education, technology and public service come together to solve a real-world problem.

Hercules and her students Parker Brown, Diego Canto Carreiras, Conner Finke, McKinley Leibold, Logan Pinkham, Dawson Rettke, Elijah Stultz and Adric Williams, as well as SFCC Collaborative Lab representative Ben McKeehan, were recognized Monday night by Mayor Dawson and the Council.