Floating Lights

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  Mathematics and Computation

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  Expansion Testing

Inspiration

Around the world, people use weather balloons to track and predict the weather. This allows people to plan ahead for anything from natural disasters to excellent weather. However, it might be hard for people in certain areas to attain. So, we decided to market our own prototype of weather balloons: Floating Lights. 

What it does

Floating Lights are an affordable, efficient, and reliable way to collect weather data. By using affordable materials such as thin wood, copper wire, tissue paper, and an Arduino Uno, Lights are estimated to cost less than 50$. In action, a Floating Light will be tethered to the ground, float up to the desired altitude, and collect data. The user can then pull it back in, read the data, and use it another day.

How we built it

The first step was to research and use formulas to calculate how big the balloon needed to be to hold the Arduino. This done we built our prototype Floating Light by twisting together some electrical wire to use as the skeleton of the balloon and then supporting it with thin wood pieces to keep its shape. Next, we used tissue paper and scotch tape to make the balloon portion. Due to doubts about our first design, we also simultaneously built a smaller prototype of our first one as a backup plan.

Challenges we ran into

As we went through our construction phase we found that multiple design changes were needed, such as switching out the initially intended cardboard for wood and abandoning the idea of using our electrical wire to further enhance the shape of the balloon. We decided to make these changes because both the cardboard and extra wire were too flimsy to provide any true support to the build. However, this led us to make a backup balloon as an even smaller prototype. Time also proved to be an obstacle. Our original idea was for it to be able to fly and collect data by the due date, but the construction took longer than expected and we were unable to find a sufficient fuel source in time so our initial design became no longer feasible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Of everything we did, we are very proud of ourselves for doing so much in so little time. Yes, this meant a few breaks and lots of hard work, but we can safely walk away from the project knowing that we did something important. I also think that we did a very good job at taking everything into account and having a complete design even if it wasn't a complete build.

What we learned

Throughout this project, we learned to look at all the different aspects of a project, whether it be design, computation, fabrication, or coding, everything needs to be looked at with equal importance. Otherwise, nothing gets done. With only two members on the team, we each had to contribute a lot to make any progress, something that helped us understand that focus and preparation mattered a lot!

What's Next for Sky Is The Limit

Given more time, the first thing we would do would be to complete the ballon and then add a basket. This basket would hold an Arduino and breadboard. This would allow us to take measurements and collect data. In the end, Floating Lights will be the world's leading weather balloon.

Built With

• hardware