Fixed-wing micro aerial vehicles experience attitude control difficulties as they operate in highly turbulent environments. Previous research has identified pressure-based control as a potential approach for augmenting the performance of, or replacing, autopilots reliant on inertial sensors. However, implementation requires an in-depth understanding of the correlation that exists between oncoming gusts and wing surface-pressure variations. This paper investigates the variation of correlation along a representative micro aerial vehicle wing chord and wingspan between upstream flow pitch angle variation and wing surface-pressure variation. Atmospheric turbulence was replicated within the controlled environment of a wind tunnel using planar grids that generated a turbulence intensity of 12.6%. Despite the unsteady nature of the pressure field, it was discovered that high correlation is evident in the vicinity of the leading edge. Thus, a few optimally placed sensors can be used for a pressure-based attitude control system for micro aerial vehicles.
Bioinspired Wing-Surface Pressure Sensing for Attitude Control of Micro Air Vehicles
Journal of Aircraft ; 52 , 3 ; 827-838
2015-03-06
12 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Bioinspired Wing-Surface Pressure Sensing for Attitude Control of Micro Air Vehicles
Online Contents | 2015
|British Library Conference Proceedings | 2010
|AIAA | 2010
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