Radio-controlled Model Aircraft Research Articles

Air-to-Ground Transmission and Near Real-Time Visualization of FBG Sensor Data via Cloud Database

During the last decades, innovative aircraft health management systems have been receiving increasing interest from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and aircraft operators. Their implementation could lead to substantial benefits: drastic cuts in turnaround time, operation costs, and life cycle costs (LCCs) as well as sharp increases in system availability, safety, and reliability. An interconnectivity step-up is, hence, needed to guarantee a seamless data transfer. In this article, an integrated open-source solution for reliable data transmission and near real-time graphical visualization is proposed. After a comprehensive calibration and verification campaign performed on a test stand, the overall system has been successfully validated on structural data measured using a network of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) mounted on a radio-controlled model aircraft. The result is an effective and robust system able to monitor near real-time critical parameters and health status of structures. With this system, the temperature and displacements of the structure can be displayed on a heat map arranged on a 3-D model and visualized through a computer application on the ground. The proposed methodology can be applied to heterogeneous scenarios, ranging from maintenance planning activities to performance checks, providing an all-in-one solution for flight data management as well as other applications in the structural monitoring domain.

Building international experiences into an engineering curriculum – a design project-based approach

This paper is a descriptive account of how short-term international and multicultural experiences can be integrated into early design experiences in an aerospace engineering curriculum. Such approaches are considered as important not only in fostering a student's interest in the engineering curriculum, but also exposing them to a multicultural setting that they are likely to encounter in their professional careers. In the broader sense, this programme is described as a model that can be duplicated in other engineering disciplines as a first-year experience. In this study, undergraduate students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Universidad del Turabo (UT) in Puerto Rico collaborated on a substantial design project consisting of designing, fabricating, and flight-testing radio-controlled model aircraft as a capstone experience in a semester-long course on Fundamentals of Flight. The two-week long experience in Puerto Rico was organised into academic and cultural components designed with the following objectives: (i) to integrate students in a multicultural team-based academic and social environment, (ii) to practise team-building skills and develop students’ critical thinking and analytical skills, and finally (iii) to excite students about their engineering major through practical applications of aeronautics and help them decide if it is a right fit for them.

Validation of endurance estimates for battery powered UAVs

AbstractAn experimental investigation is presented to validate endurance estimates for a battery powered flight vehicle. In this study a radio controlled model aircraft was ‘flown’ inside a wind tunnel. Various Lithium Ion batteries were used to power the model. Battery electrical characteristics were recorded during each run to assess battery discharge behaviour. Theoretical estimates based upon battery characteristics yielded endurance estimates within 3% of that measured experimentally. The discharge characteristics of the batteries were found to be the largest source of uncertainty for endurance estimates.

Video analysis of the flight of a model aircraft

A video-analysis software tool has been employed in order to measure the steady-state values of the kinematics variables describing the longitudinal behaviour of a radio-controlled model aircraft during take-off, climbing and gliding. These experimental results have been compared with the theoretical steady-state configurations predicted by the phugoid model for longitudinal flight. A comparison with the parameters and performance of the full-size aircraft has also been outlined.

Evaluation of Digital Photography from Model Aircraft for Remote Sensing of Crop Biomass and Nitrogen Status

Remote sensing is a key technology for precision agriculture to assess actual crop conditions. Commercial, high-spatial-resolution imagery from aircraft and satellites are expensive so the costs may outweigh the benefits of the information. Hobbyists have been acquiring aerial photography from radio-controlled model aircraft; we evaluated these very-low-cost, very high-resolution digital photography for use in estimating nutrient status of corn and crop biomass of corn, alfalfa, and soybeans. Based on conclusions from previous work, we optimized an aerobatic model aircraft for acquiring pictures using a consumer-oriented digital camera. Colored tarpaulins were used to calibrate the images; there were large differences in digital number (DN) for the same reflectance because of differences in the exposure settings selected by the digital camera. To account for differences in exposure a Normalized Green–Red Difference Index [(NGRDI = (Green DN − Red DN)/(Green DN + Red DN)] was used; this index was linearly related to the normalized difference of the green and red reflectances, respectively. For soybeans, alfalfa and corn, dry biomass from zero to 120 g m−2 was linearly correlated to NGRDI, but for biomass greater than 150 g m−2 in corn and soybean, NGRDI did not increase further. In a fertilization experiment with corn, NGRDI did not show differences in nitrogen status, even though areas of low nitrogen status were clearly visible on late-season digital photographs. Simulations from the SAIL (Scattering of Arbitrarily Inclined Leaves) canopy radiative transfer model verified that NGRDI would be sensitive to biomass before canopy closure and that variations in leaf chlorophyll concentration would not be detectable. There are many advantages of model aircraft platforms for precision agriculture; currently, the imagery is best visually interpreted. Automated analysis of within-field variability requires more work on sensors that can be used with model aircraft platforms.

Case for aircraft with outboard horizontal stabilizers

A description is given of what is believed to be an innovative aircraft configuration in which the horizontal stabilizing surfaces are mounted outboard, and downwind, of the tips of the mainplane. It was shown theoretically that the pitch-control effectiveness of such tail surfaces is, due to their location in the mainplane-generated upwash, greater than that of a corresponding conventional horizontal stabilizer subjected to the mainplane downwash. Wind-tunnel and flow visualization tests were carried out that showed that the divided horizontal stabilizer was also usable as an effective lifting surface to augment the lift of the mainplane. It was found experimentally that the liftidrag ratio of the new configuration can be up to about 30% greater than that of an otherwise comparable conventional configuration. The results of flight tests are reported of large, powered, radio-controlled model aircraft featuring the new configuration. These did not reveal any significant problems with flying qualities. A simplified analysis of structural loading showed that provided the design parameters are chosen correctly, wing bending and torsional loads are fairly comparable with those of conventional aircraft.

Use of Radio-Controlled Model Aircraft to Catch Worker and Drone Honeybees

(1983). Use of Radio-Controlled Model Aircraft to Catch Worker and Drone Honeybees. Bee World: Vol. 64, No. 4, pp. 150-157.