Amazon Robotics recently sponsored our first week-long drone camp, July 8-12, open to Boston Public Schools (BPS) rising juniors and seniors.

The program was originally designed by Brown University, modified by MassRobotics staff, and taught in modules where students were introduction to basic robotics – building, safety, a little programming, and flying – AND, they were able to take home the drone that they built. The camp used off the shelf hobby grade components, a Raspberry Pi3 for easy on-board Linux, and a downward facing camera and infrared distance sensor to build the campers drones.

(The Teachers. The Students. The Drones.)

Participating students Included rising juniors and seniors from the O’Bryant School, The Boston Charter School, The English School, and Prep High School. The camp was administered at the Dearborn STEM Academy , the first dedicated 6-12 STEM school in Boston and is designed to prepare students for the modern technological era.

Included in the camp was a field trip to MassRobotics to see robotics startup companies and entrepreneurs in action. The students discussed commercial drone applications in fields from agriculture to inspection. They also visited GreenSightAG, an industrial drone company, and saw their prototyping and drone assembly as well as their operations and flying control center.

We look forward to hosting many more similar events in the future.

Thank you to Amazon Robotics, one of our founding and annual partners. They provided us the means to enable us to host this camp. They have also donated several robotic arms which are terrific resources for our startups!