Projects — Jonah Menzies

2025–2026 Ongoing

Cooperative Multi-UAV Formation Control

Honours Capstone (EGH490) — Supervised by Dr Felipe Gonzalez

My Honours capstone project investigating cooperative differential game theory for multi-UAV formation control. The research focuses on developing strategies for autonomous agents to maintain formation under adversarial conditions, modelling both cooperative and competitive interactions between multiple UAVs in dynamic environments.

I'm implementing and simulating control strategies in MATLAB and Python, analysing stability, convergence, and robustness of formation control algorithms. The lab setup uses six Crazyflie nano-drones with a Lighthouse positioning system.

Differential Game Theory MATLAB Python Control Systems Crazyflie Multi-Agent Systems

Project media coming soon

2025 High Distinction

Search and Rescue Drone System

Project Engineer / PM — EGB349/EGH450 Advanced UAS

Overview

Led an eight-person multidisciplinary team through the full systems engineering lifecycle to design, build, and test an autonomous UAS capable of waypoint navigation, real-time image detection and transmission, and autonomous landing.

My Role

As Project Manager, I coordinated integration across five sub-teams: autopilot, image processing, ground control station, payload deployment, and airframe. I managed all systems engineering documentation including the PMP, interface control documents, test plans, risk assessments, and project design documents.

Beyond management, I wrote the majority of the Python-based drone guidance code, including autonomous survey pattern generation, obstacle avoidance, camera-to-world coordinate transformation, image-based target detection, servo-actuated payload deployment, and autonomous precision landing on an ArUco marker.

Results

Zero false positives in target detection testing
Successful precision landing on specified ArUco marker
Full area survey scan completed autonomously
Low battery safety landing protocol operational

Python ROS ArduPilot Computer Vision MAVLink Systems Engineering Project Management

Build & Development

Search and rescue drone team photo — The team — eight engineers across five sub-teams

First drone build from Holybro X500 V2 kit — First build from the Holybro X500 V2 kit

3D printed battery case prototype — First 3D-printed battery case designed by our airframe lead

Full printed cowl and drone design in testing area — Full printed cowl and final drone design in the testing area

Drone ready for Week 12 demo — Drone staged for the Week 12 Semester 1 demonstration

Flight Testing

First manual flight — Week 6, Semester 1

First autonomous area scan — side-on view, Week 7 Semester 2

First waypoint area scan with target detection — Week 7 Semester 1

Subsystem Testing

First ArUco marker image detection tests

First payload deployment mechanism test — GPIO-triggered servo activation

Learning from Failure

Uncontrolled descent during an autonomous-to-manual flight mode transition. The handover between control modes failed mid-flight, causing the drone to lose control and fall. The root cause was never definitively identified, but the incident reinforced the importance of robust failsafe logic and thorough mode transition testing in safety-critical systems.

2025 Distinction

Mealy — Software Development Project

Project Manager & UI Developer — CAB302

Managed sprint planning and task allocation using Agile methodology and GitHub Projects across a five-person team. Developed front-end features in Java/FXML including navigation controls, interactive UI elements, and layout optimisation.

Java FXML Agile GitHub Projects UI Development

Application Screenshots

Mealy application login page — Login page

Mealy home page dashboard — Home page dashboard

Mealy recipe browsing page — Recipe browsing page

Mealy custom recipe creation — Custom recipe creation

Mealy meal plan generation page — Meal plan generation

Mealy meal generation loading screen — Meal generation loading screen

Mealy pantry ingredient management — Pantry ingredient management