// LUC DESAUTELS · ENGINEERING PORTFOLIO

Engineering
portfolio.

The engineering work of Luc Desautels.

Twenty sub-projects across three programs. Hover to preview, click to lock a project, open any image for the full write-up. Filter by discipline.

Currently

Engineering

Based in

Toronto, Ontario

Focus

Robotics & Aerospace

Total

20 sub-projects

// SCROLL — PROJECT GRID ↓

// 01 — PROJECT GRID

All twenty.

Hover to preview · click a tile to lock it as selected.

// 01 / 20

Fuselage VTX stack

Sailfish · 2024

VTX + camera stack, nose cone open

Heat-sink seated in the airflow channel

CG balance check on the bench

5.8 GHz video transmitter + analog camera + DC-DC packed into the nose cone, balanced for CG.

An iteration of three nose layouts. The final design buries the VTX heat-sink in the airflow channel, keeps the antenna two wavelengths from the carbon spar, and lets the camera tilt 22° forward without recutting the fuselage.

ElectricalMechanicalAero

// 02 / 20

Tilt-rotor controller

Sailfish · 2024

Teensy mixer board, bench harness

Transition tuning run, logged

4-axis PWM mixer that smooths the transition between hover and forward flight thrust vectoring.

Built on top of a Teensy reading the Pixhawk's PWM bus, the mixer applies a sigmoid blend between hover and forward modes so the pilot never sees a hard mode-switch. Tuned over twelve bench tests before it ever flew.

ElectricalSoftware

// 03 / 20

Wing carry-through CAD

Sailfish · 2024

Parametric carry-through, design table open

Regenerated CNC fixture from the same model

Parametric Solidworks model of the carbon spar carry-through — every dimension is driven by airfoil + payload.

A single design table swaps payload mass, wing span, and root chord and regenerates the carry-through, layup schedule, and CNC fixture in one shot. Saved me roughly two weeks across Gen.2 → Gen.3.

CADMechanicalMaterials

// 04 / 20

CNC chassis plate

FTC · 2024

Finished 6061 chassis plate

Workholding + op planning on the mill

Two scrapped first attempts

First time taking a part all the way from CAD into fixturing, ops planning, and post-process.

6061 plate, 4mm thick, with weight-relief pockets and dowel holes for stack-up alignment. I learned more from the two scrapped first attempts than the successful third — and wrote the team's first "how we manufacture a chassis plate" doc.

ManufacturingMechanicalCAD

// 05 / 20

Arm transfer system

FTC · 2024

Two-stage transfer assembly

Compliant urethane deadband finger

Two-stage handoff between intake and arm with a passive deadband to absorb mis-timed cycles.

The deadband is a compliant urethane finger that absorbs roughly ±8° of timing slop. Made our autonomous block-cycle reliable enough to ship into competition without a brittle vision-based handshake.

MechanicalManufacturing

// 06 / 20

Auto routine pathing

FTC · 2024

Visual path editor, spline control points

Exported routine running on the field

Spline-based autonomous path planner — drag points in a tool, get a deployable routine.

A Kotlin tool that lets the drive team author paths visually, exports them as a serialized routine the robot reads at startup. Cut autonomous iteration time from ~30 min per change to ~2 min.

Software

// 07 / 20

Foam-core flotation

Sailfish · 2023

Shaped EPP flotation blocks

Heat-shrink seal before a water test

Belly-landing test, Lake Ontario

Closed-cell EPP flotation rated to keep the airframe nose-up after a soft water landing.

Two iterations of foam blocks shaped to match the fuselage's lower mold-line, sealed under heat-shrink. Survived five intentional belly-landings on Lake Ontario without water ingress.

MaterialsMechanicalField test

// 08 / 20

Ground-station UI

Sailfish · 2024

Ground-station dashboard in flight

Operator running it from the shoreline

Mavlink telemetry dashboard with a flight-tape, payload state, and a one-click "return to launch".

Tauri + Svelte app that swallows the Mavlink stream and exposes the bits a SAR operator actually wants in one screen. The big red RTL button is wired to a confirmation dialog because I learned that lesson early.

Software

// 09 / 20

5.8 GHz over open water

Sailfish · 2024

Antenna test rig on the water

Logged fade vs. range, three patterns

Research: characterising 5.8 GHz analog video transmission across multipath-heavy water surface.

Bench-and-field study of multipath fade, antenna polarization, and range with three antenna patterns. Findings shaped the Gen.3 antenna placement and inform the next paper draft.

ResearchElectricalField test

// 10 / 20

Optimized SAR spiral

Sailfish · 2024

Optimised spiral vs. naive search pattern

Mission Planner script generating the path

Parametric optimised spiral flight path for search-and-rescue, with wind drift + ocean current built in.

Closed-form spiral parameters as a function of search radius, wind vector, and a moving search-object. Implemented as a Mission Planner script the autopilot consumes directly.

ResearchSoftware

// 11 / 20

Motor + prop efficiency stand

Sailfish · 2023

Load-cell thrust stand, full rig

INA226 current sensing + Arduino logger

Efficiency lookup table, plotted

Custom load-cell rig characterising thrust, current, and efficiency across motor/prop combos.

An Arduino + INA226 + load cell rig logs thrust, current, and RPM into a CSV. Output is a usable lookup table the team consults when sizing propulsion — no more guessing from spec sheets.

ResearchElectricalMechanical

// 12 / 20

Spot-welded 6S Li-ion pack

Sailfish · 2024

Spot-welded 6S2P pack, fused taps

BMS wiring + XT60 outlet mounted

Custom 6S2P Li-ion pack with BMS, fused taps, and a hard-mounted XT60 outlet inside the fuselage.

Designed for the Gen.3 endurance flight envelope. The pack runs through a 30A BMS with low-voltage cutoff matched to the autopilot's failsafe threshold, so the bird returns home before cells sag.

ElectricalManufacturing

// 13 / 20

Wing CFD + tuft test

Sailfish · 2024

OpenFOAM pressure field on the wing

Tuft test in a borrowed wind tunnel

Sim vs. tuft separation, overlaid

OpenFOAM run on the Gen.3 wing followed by a tuft test in a borrowed wind tunnel for validation.

Simulation predicted a separation bubble at 12° AOA at our cruise Re. The tuft test confirmed it to within ~1.5°, which was enough trust to set the autopilot's pitch limits with confidence.

AeroResearchMechanical

// 14 / 20

Open-source release

Sailfish · 2024

Public repository — CAD, firmware, build notes

Full Sailfish CAD, firmware, build notes, and lessons published on a permissive license.

Three generations of work, packaged so a volunteer SAR unit or university lab can fork it without re-deriving the basics. Mirrored across multiple Coast Guard auxiliary servers and university labs.

Open sourceSoftware

// 15 / 20

EL-wire light suit

Standalone · 2023

EL-wire suit lit up on the hill

Custom 12V boost board + battery pocket

Wearable EL-wire ski suit with onboard inverter + battery sized for a full evening on the bunny hill.

150ft of EL wire stitched into a ski suit, driven by a custom 12V boost board. Built mostly to make other skiers smile, but it taught me a surprising amount about power budgeting and waterproofing flexible electronics.

ElectricalManufacturing

// 16 / 20

Community library box

Standalone · 2022

Finished library box, installed

Cedar carcass during assembly

Poured foundation, kept level

Outdoor weatherised book-share box built for the Chief Scout's Award community project.

CAD'd, cut, assembled and stained from scratch. Cedar exterior, polycarbonate door, magnetic latch, and a foundation poured to keep it level through a Toronto winter. Still standing two years later.

MechanicalCADManufacturing

// 17 / 20

Rookie onboarding docs

FTC · 2024

Onboarding deck — CAD + machining workflow

Three-deck onboarding pack covering CAD workflow, machining workflow, and design review etiquette.

Started after our Inspire run because skills kept walking out the door at graduation. The docs cut a new builder's time-to-first-shipped-part from ~6 weeks to ~2.

Open source

// 18 / 20

Bilingual STEM resource map

Standalone · 2024

Bilingual STEM resource map, by age + subject

Curated bilingual EN/FR self-study STEM resources for families and outreach attendees.

A Notion site organising freely-available STEM material in EN and FR by age and subject. Hands out at Girl Guide STEM seminars and 3D-printer workshops; quietly used by a few francophone teachers I know.

Open source

// 19 / 20

Drone photography rig

Standalone · 2024

Vibration-damped CF camera mount

Mirrorless body fitted to the rig

Fog over Algonquin, RAW capture

Ridgeline at golden hour

Coastline, low pass

Modified consumer drone payload mount for stable RAW capture on landscape shoots.

Replaced the stock camera tray with a vibration-damped CF mount holding a small mirrorless. Used for the landscape work in the photography portion of the site.

MechanicalCAD

// 20 / 20

Violin contact pickup

Standalone · 2023

Piezo + JFET buffer, built up

Pickup fitted to the fiddle bridge

Hand-wound piezo + buffered preamp built to amplify a folk fiddle without ruining the tone.

A piezo disc mounted on the bridge feeds a JFET buffer running on a 9V tucked into the chinrest. Sounds dramatically better than the cheap commercial pickup it replaced. Used at three folk jams.

Electrical

Engineering portfolio.

All twenty.

Fuselage VTX stack

Tilt-rotor controller

Wing carry-through CAD

CNC chassis plate

Arm transfer system

Auto routine pathing

Foam-core flotation

Ground-station UI

5.8 GHz over open water

Optimized SAR spiral

Motor + prop efficiency stand

Spot-welded 6S Li-ion pack

Wing CFD + tuft test

Open-source release

EL-wire light suit

Community library box

Rookie onboarding docs

Bilingual STEM resource map

Drone photography rig

Violin contact pickup

Engineering
portfolio.