Assessing the Acceleration Sensing in the Flight of a Micro Aerial Vehicle

Abstract

There has been consistent aspiration and considerable efforts in the development of flapping wing micro aerial vehicles to increase its application and utilization. For their miniature sizes and aerodynamics, the motion of the flapping vehicle in air highly dynamic and unsteady. To cope with this, the vehicle is designed with an inertial motion unit with WiFi transmission onboard that can be monitored remotely via IPv4 protocol. Based on the previous test results, the unit is installed onboard for flight tests. The acceleration during the flights are analyzed, and the inflight transmission performances are assessed. An analysis shows that, at high transmission setting of >20 Hz it is able to reflect high accelerations of >20m/s2. At lower transmission rate of <20 Hz, the acceleration signatures are considerably reduced. This suggests transmission rate for accurate inertial motion reading of the vehicle in flight.