Onboard Flow Sensing for Downwash Detection and Avoidance with a Small Quadrotor Helicopter
نویسندگان
چکیده
Small rotary-wing UAVs are susceptible to gusts and other environmental disturbances that affect inflow at their rotors. Inflow variations cause unexpected aerodynamic forces through changes in thrust conditions and unmodeled blade-flapping dynamics. This paper introduces an onboard, pressure-based flow measurement system developed for a small quadrotor helicopter. The probe-based instrumentation package provides spatially distributed airspeed measurements along each of the aircraft-fixed axes. Lateral and vertical windspeed estimates enable the development of disturbance-tolerant flight control strategies. The focus of this paper is vertical flow disturbances such as those caused by the downwash of a second vehicle. Real-time velocity measurements are incorporated into a recursive Bayesian estimator to localize a nearby rotorcraft using its downwash. A path planner developed for proximity flight is demonstrated through indoor flight testing with multiple vehicles to safely guide an instrumented quadrotor towards a goal point while avoiding another quadrotor.
منابع مشابه
Onboard Flow Sensing For Downwash Detection and Avoidance On Small Quadrotor Helicopters
Small rotary-wing UAVs are susceptible to gusts and other environmental disturbances that affect inflow at their rotors. Inflow variations cause unexpected aerodynamic forces through changes in thrust conditions and unmodeled blade flapping dynamics. This paper introduces an onboard, pressure-based flow measurement system developed for a small quadrotor helicopter. The probe-based instrumentati...
متن کاملDownwash Detection and Avoidance with Small Quadrotor Helicopters
By using four independent rotors to provide lift and control moments, the quadrotor helicopter provides researchers with a small, mechanically simple and e↵ective vertical-flight platform. Typically, the lift and resultant torque due to each rotor can be approximated with simple aerodynamic models. Although these models have proven to be adequate in low advance-ratio flight conditions [1], they...
متن کاملQuadrotor control using dual camera visual feedback
In this paper, a vision-based stabilization and output tracking control method for a four-rotor helicopter has been proposed. A novel 2 camera method has been described for estimating the full 6 DOF pose of the helicopter. This two camera system is consisting of a pan-tilt ground camera and an onboard camera. The pose estimation algorithm is compared in simulation to other methods (such as four...
متن کاملLow Cost UAV-based Remote Sensing for Autonomous Wildlife Monitoring
In recent years, developments in unmanned aerial vehicles, lightweight on-board computers, and low-cost thermal imaging sensors offer a new opportunity for wildlife monitoring. In contrast with traditional methods now surveying endangered species to obtain population and location has become more cost-effective and least time-consuming. In this paper, a low-cost UAV-based remote sensing platform...
متن کاملAggressive Quadrotor Flight through Narrow Gaps with Onboard Sensing and Computing
In this paper, we address one of the main challenges towards autonomous quadrotor flight in complex environments, which is flight through narrow gaps. We present a method that allows a quadrotor to autonomously and safely pass through a narrow, inclined gap using only its onboard visualinertial sensors and computer. Previous works have addressed quadrotor flight through gaps using external moti...
متن کامل