Wind Measurement and Simulation Techniques in Multi-Rotor Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Pramod Abichandani,Donald Bucci,Deepan Lobo,Gabriel Ford,Moshe Kam

doi:10.1109/access.2020.2977693

Abstract

Wind disturbance presents a formidable challenge to the flight performance of multi-rotor small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs). This paper presents a comprehensive review of techniques for measuring wind speed and airspeed for multi-rotor sUAVs. Three categories of sensing techniques are reviewed: flow sensors, anemometers, and tilt-angle based approaches. We also review techniques for generating wind disturbances in simulation. Wind simulation techniques that use power spectral density (PSD) functions, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), and probabilistic models are examined. Finally, we provide an open-source Python implementation of the Dryden wind turbulence model and embedded code to interface with an ultrasonic anemometer.

Highlights

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are classified into two broad categories: fixed-wing UAVs and multi-rotor UAVs
This study presents a comprehensive review of wind measurement and simulations for multi-rotor small UAVs
A Young 81000 ultrasonic anemometer mounted on a tower at the height of approximately 2 meters provided a reference to the measurements from the quadrotor

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are classified into two broad categories: fixed-wing UAVs and multi-rotor UAVs. For each of these techniques, we provide a list of representative studies and detail the sensors used, primary applications, experimental results, and description of the multi-rotor platforms. Representative studies on wind speed and direction measurements using ultrasonic anemometers mounted on multi-rotor sUAVs. The triangular orientation of the transducers enables the resolution of the wind vector components along the lines adjoining the transducer pairs A - B and B - C. If the heading direction is within the interval quad−ground + 180◦, quad−ground the angle is positive (+β), otherwise it is negative (−β)

4) EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF THE TILT ANGLE APPROACH

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS MODELLING

CONCLUSION