A Test-Bed For Measuring UAS Servo Reliability

Abdelrahman Elsaid,Fatima El Jamiy,Daniel Adjekum,John Nordlie

doi:10.3390/aerospace6090096

Abdelrahman Elsaid, Fatima El Jamiy + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace6090096

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Abstract

Extant literature suggests minimal research on the reliability of Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components used in fabricating non-military Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). Stochastic failures of components during operational cycles over time poses a safety hazard to flight operations. The purpose of the study was to critically assess the operational performance standards (reliability) of a laboratory designed UAS component test-bed operated using real-world data collected from a Boeing Scan Eagle® UAS aileron servo unit via a flight data recorder. The study hypothesized that the test-bed’s reliability, in terms of a measured encoder output of commanded servo positions, will not be significantly different after double and triple periods of time for continuous operations compared to a base-line mean position. Results suggested that test-bed operated within reliability criteria for a baseline period but there were significant differences in the mean of the reliability after the operational cycles were doubled and tripled in time. This study adds to paucity of extant research on UAS COTS reliability and recommends further studies on reliability of other small UAS components within periods of time.

Highlights

The seemingly rapid evolution of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), known as UnmannedAir Vehicles (UAV), in contemporary times have shifted the operational paradigms in aviation and has brought contemporary challenges related to the development of safer and efficient UAS withinNational Airspaces (NAS) globally
The Greenhouse-Geisser e value of 0.677 was not close to 1.00, and correction was made to the degrees of freedom used to evaluate the significance of the F ratio
After stable individual differences in various commanded servo positions are considered, about 37% of the variance in encoder position recorded was related to time

Summary

Introduction

The seemingly rapid evolution of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), known as UnmannedAir Vehicles (UAV), in contemporary times have shifted the operational paradigms in aviation and has brought contemporary challenges related to the development of safer and efficient UAS withinNational Airspaces (NAS) globally. Despite the obvious proliferation in the use of UAS in various operational activities both civil and military, one of the numerous challenges faced in the design and fabrication of UAS has been a means of assessing the reliability of systems components over varying operational cycles to determine critical failure characteristics with time. One of the pillars of the success of UAS technology is the availability and cost-effectiveness of its components or sub-systems; most UAS systems and components are within the reach of any interested organization or individual. This means that most of Aerospace 2019, 6, 96; doi:10.3390/aerospace6090096 www.mdpi.com/journal/aerospace

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