Today's Meet the Developers is Sandro Benigno, who displays the amazing range of talent we have here. I first realized the scope of his abilities when he took the APM design files and, on his own, created the photorealistic renders of them that we still use in the manual:
Since then Sandro had designed and rendered countless other images and diagrams for the manual and other pages. Now he's working, with Max Levine and Samantha Nelson, on an overall rebranding of the product pages. Plus he's part of the team leading the camera control features that will be in the next version of APM, which means he's coding, too!
He's a warm and genuinely nice person, and it's always a pleasure to work with him. And he stays up to 2:00 am Brazil time for our Sunday night Dev Calls. See what I mean about him? Amazing--we're luck to have him on the dev team.
Over to Sandro:
Name: Sandro de Freitas Benigno
Home: I live in Brazil. Currently in Belo Horizonte. Now moving to Rio de Janeiro.
Day job: I am member of a business group called "DMB Mídia". Our business is about digital signage projects.My work there is to take care of the technology involved as well as coordinate the content production.
DIY Drones role: I joined the dev group by creating 3D objects from every hardware used on ArduCopter.
It allow us to test and improve the quad frame assembling carefully before make it real. My greatest pride during that time was the creation of first version of ArduCopter motor mount and also bring the idea of attaching a LED there.
Currently it carries all the improvements from master Jani who turned it into a truly art piece. I still work on those 3D objects and renderings for the documentation with my buddy Max Levine. Now we joined to Samantha Nelson to work around some nice designs that you'll see soon.
Last year I started a project called "ArduCam OSD" to achieve OSD telemetry from APM as well as remote control of digital cameras aboard. The project is a challenge that I pushed myself into. I have no programming super-skills like other guys on the dev team. So, I'm going forward with their help and my self determination. We are now integrating it with APM using MAVLink as the protocol.
Background
I'm an electronic technician and a bachelor in Social Communication. The electronics learning started in 1989. I became a technician in 93. However, I didn't follow a career in electronics.
I got my Amiga Computer in the end of 1993, when I started to learn and work on computer graphics. From that year onwards, I was hired to work in many things: 3D modeling, illustration, animation, web-development, project management, consulting and other things. After finishing the bachelor in Social Communication in 2006, I started to work on digital signage at my own business.
Curiosity or something like this...
I use to say that I reborn in December of 92. A tragic accident pushed me to deal with limitations on my hands and eyes. It was need to relearn a lot of things (including how to use a pencil, how to tying shoelaces, etc). Unfortunately some things were too hard to deal with. I used to play classic guitar and had great skills with my hands. So, after unsuccessful attempts to work with tiny electronic components, I became bored with that and I started to learn other things. That's why I started using a mouse and a keyboard as my tools and I discovered the pleasure of 3D modeling.
When I found the DIY Drones community and saw the work from Jordi, Jose Julio and from many others of you, I felt the desire of kicking out those limitations and decided to make peace with the electronics. So, now you can imagine what DIYD means to me. Because of that motivation (and years of adaptation), I created my own ways to handle and solder tiny components, as well as attach bolts and nuts and all the sort of things needed. All this without third help, which is important to me. When I'm flying the ArduCopter which was assembled entirely by myself... it makes me very proud and happy. =)
Interests
I love all the sort of gadgets. Everything looks like Lego to me. So, usually my interest is on how to mix them to find a solution to something else. I'm also interested in 3D scanning, 3D printing and Aerial Photography. I like jazz, rock and blues and I'm learning to play harmonica.
Comments
hi,my name is shawngu,i work for a agriculture automation agency in china. basically,we provide automation solutions for billions of chinese farmers to improve their farming efficiency. see,china is a big agricultural nation,so the profit in this area is really big.currently,our major interest is spraying crops by UAVs.and a lot of local government agencies are very intersted in our idea.however,there is no company in china currently capable of providing this kind of UAVs. lately,i came across the arducopter website and downloaded the source code.i figured the your copter has great potential to become the solution to our goal. we would like to invite you to be the product supplier and we want to act as an agent of your copter in china. if you are interested in this idea,please contact me .i'm really looking forward to hearing from you!
8hz I wrote based on some theories by ananda bosman.
When you are going to be in rio next time let me know!
@F11music: That's a beautiful place too. I've played "Nonagram" and "Deck Vision". Very nice!
"8Hz Seduction" reminds me "Angel" from Massive Attack and I do enjoy that kind of bass line.
That's cool, because I love the mental trip over a modal system.
Yes seems like Petrópolis but is the tijuca forest. 3sq km of open forest but good luck if you lose your craft :) I'm here all the time so pm me and I will send you the gps.
@F11music, sorry man i didn't see your post. By your description of the place... it sounds like Petrópolis. Though Rio has also other nice places that would also fit. Hehe... =)
It would be a pleasure to meet you up. I just added you as friend here. Cheers!
Hi Sandro, I live in Rio also. Have you moved here already? If you want a great place to fly in the mountain area with nobody to crash on, come visit me. My front yard is a big valley with 1000M mountain in front. Great for FPV! I have several quads and planes.
@Owen, I also think this it's a great idea. When reading each one it seems to be tracing kind of a profile of the team.
This was a great idea to introduce the team, there're a few names out there that our community see, who put so much effort into the constantly improving products. Fantastic move, going more in-depth about the core team, well done!
@Mark Colwell: The OSD is already working fine with MAVLink! =)
It uses the common structures from APM telemport.
Now we are prototyping structures for camera pointing and triggering.
I will appreciate your help on the generator when I get in trouble there. :P
Good to know that you are getting better.
Cheers!
Many thanks for the kind words from all of you guys, especially from you Chris! =)
@Martin: There are isometric illustrations on wiki and printable manual (render from 3D to outline by Max Levine).
@Leonardo Lisboa: Great! It would be a pleasure to join you there!
@Theo: I use LightWave3D for that renders. That Dino is a real sculpture.
Cheers!
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