Volent Autonomy

When the drones are in flight, control commands are sent to them remotely. To ensure a drone avoids obstacles, real-time data must be gathered from various external sources. I worked in the Safety-Critical Software Team to write a Python adapter. This adapter takes data about things in the airspace from a supplier called "altitude angel" and converts it into a standardized format that Traject understands. Traject uses the data from this and other sources to control the drones.

To complete this project, I learned how to work with Protocol Buffers, handle unit conversions, and implement robust error handling for invalid input data. I also wrote manual unit tests to verify that the code produced the correct outputs.

I thoroughly enjoyed my week at Volant Autonomy, everyone was welcoming and helpful. Speaking with team members about their roles and career paths gave was very interesting. The company had a great atmosphere and at lunchtime, the team would grab meal deals together to eat and play games in the park. Overall, I gained a better understanding of how software projects are managed and how a team of people can work to create something very complex.