Investigation of Rotor–Airframe Interaction Noise Associated with Small-Scale Rotary-Wing Unmanned Aircraft Systems

A Small Semi-Autonomous Rotary-Wing Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV)

Small radio controlled (R/C) rotary-wing UAVs have many potential military and civilian applications, but can be very difficult to fly. Small and lightweight sensors and computers can be used to implement a control system to make these vehicles easier to fly. To develop a control system for a small UAV, an 8-bit microcontroller has been interfaced with MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) gy...

Avionics Systems Development for Small Unmanned Aircraft

The avionics systems for two small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are considered from the point of view of hardware selection, navigation and control algorithm design, and software development. Some common challenges for many small UAV systems are addressed, including gust disturbance rejection at low speeds, control power, and systems integration. A rapid prototyping simulation framework whic...

DOCTORAL PROGRAM IN ROTARy WING AIRCRAfT

Research with Collaborative Unmanned Aircraft Systems

We provide an overview of ongoing research which targets development of a principled framework for mixed-initiative interaction with unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). UASs are now becoming technologically mature enough to be integrated into civil society. Principled interaction between UASs and human resources is an essential component in their future uses in complex emergency services or blueli...

Diagnosis of Wing Icing Through Lift and Drag Coefficient Change Detection for Small Unmanned Aircraft

This paper address the issue of structural change, caused by ice accretion, on UAVs by utilising a Neyman Pearson (NP) based statistical change detection approach, for the identification of structural changes of fixed wing UAV airfoils. A structural analysis is performed on the nonlinear aircraft system and residuals are generated, where a generalised likelihood ratio test is applied to detect ...