Day 2: Delivery Day

• Propellers spin fast enough to cut. Hands away whenever the props are spinning.
• Never grab a drone out of the air. Tell it to land, then wait.
• Eyes on your own drone. If you are not the pilot, you are the spotter.
• One drone in the delivery lane at a time. Shout "Drone flying!" before you launch.
• When you hear "PROPS DOWN," every drone lands. No exceptions.

Take off, hold a steady hover at waist height for five seconds, fly a slow box (forward, right, back, left), and land gently. Swap pilot and spotter and repeat until both of you feel calm on the sticks.

See the target mat on the floor. That is your delivery zone later today. Practice landing on it: take off, fly over, hover, and set down inside the circle. Land on it three clean times before you move on. The last six inches are the whole game.

Engineer a carrier out of simple materials, attach it to your drone, fly a piece of fun-sized candy to the target, and release it in the zone. This round is your baseline. You will redesign it into a printed tool right after.

On top, or hanging below? Hanging below is easy to release but it swings, it can tangle in the props, and it may block the camera and the sensors on the underside that help the drone hold steady. On top keeps the bottom clear but makes the drop trickier. Pick one and be ready to defend it.

Weight off to one side makes the drone fight to stay level and drains the battery fast. Center your carrier over the middle of the drone. Test it by hand before you fly: does it sit level when you hold the drone flat?

Delivery means the candy has to come out over the target, not fall out on takeoff. A tip-out cup, a flip, a hook that lets go when you tilt: this is the real engineering. Design the release on purpose.

Your drone can lift only about 20 grams before it stops climbing, and the candy counts. Weigh your carrier plus candy on the gram scale before you fly. If it is over, strip it down. Start with the lightest candy you have and add only if it flies well.

Build your carrier, load the candy, and do a low test hover one foot off the ground. Does it lift? Does it stay level? Fix problems here, on the ground, before the real run.

One drone in the lane at a time. Take off, fly to the target, and release your candy in the zone. You get three drops. Score your best one:

• 3 points: candy lands inside the inner circle
• 2 points: candy lands inside the outer circle
• 1 point: candy released in the air but landed outside the target
• 0 points: candy never released, or drone crashed

Log your best score and one sentence: what would you change about your carrier?

Your cup-and-tape carrier got the job done, but it is bulky, heavy, and it does not really fit your drone. Real delivery companies design parts that fit their aircraft exactly. That is what you do next.

Watch this scanner tutorial first so you know how to hold and move the Einstar. Then, at the scan station, scan only the underside of the drone where your tool will mount. Skip the arms, props, and prop guards. They scan badly and you don't need them. Move the scanner slow and even for about 60 to 90 seconds until the mount area looks complete.

A raw scan is far too big for Tinkercad. In the scan software, use the simplify tool to reduce it, then export as an STL. Your facilitator will show you the button and the target size on the scan computer. Save it with your team name in the filename.

Open a new design in Tinkercad (in Chrome). Then:

1. Top right, click Import.
2. Click Choose a File and pick your STL.
3. Set units to Millimeters.
4. Click Import. Your drone belly drops onto the workplane. Jump to "Build your tool" below.

You only need the width, length, and height of the flat area under the drone where your tool attaches. If your tool clips onto a bar or a landing leg instead, measure that bar's length and its diameter.

Close the jaws first, and if the caliper is digital press ZERO. Open the jaws around the part, close them snug, and read the number in millimeters. Write each one down. For anything wider than the caliper opens, use the measuring tape.

Open a new design in Tinkercad. Then:

1. Drag a Box from the shape panel onto the workplane.
2. Click the box. The dimension numbers appear on its edges.
3. Click each number and type your measured value in mm: length, then width, then height.
4. Now you have an exact stand-in for your drone's mount. Continue below.

Click your imported scan (or your measured box). In the shape menu that pops up, choose Hole. It turns striped. This is the exact space the drone fills, so anything you build around it will fit the real drone.

Add solid shapes around your hole to make the actual tool: a cradle, a clip, a hook, a small basket. This is where your candy rides. Design your release from the challenge into it, keep the walls thin, and keep the whole thing small.

Select everything (drag a box around it all) and press Group (or Ctrl+G on Windows, Cmd+G on Mac). The hole carves itself out, leaving a tool shaped to snap right onto your drone.

Same 20-gram ceiling as before, and now it is printed plastic, which adds up fast. Hollow out whatever you can, keep the walls thin, and print small. A tool that is too heavy never leaves the ground tomorrow.

A 3D scan and a set of caliper measurements are two answers to the same question: what is the exact shape I am building for? Real product designers use both every day. A scan captures organic curves fast, calipers nail down precise flat dimensions. You just picked the right tool for your part, which is the whole job.

In Tinkercad, click Share, turn on the view link, and copy it. Post that shareable link, not the STL file, to the Future Makers Lab board below with your team name in the subject. Your facilitator opens each link, reviews it, and starts the overnight print.

Post two things to the Future Makers Lab board: a clip of your best delivery run, and a screenshot of your Tinkercad tool. In the subject line put your team name. One sentence: what will your printed tool do better than the cup?