From the Test Benches to the First Prototype of the muFly Micro Helicopter

Dario Schafroth (), Samir Bouabdallah (), Christian Bermes () and Roland Siegwart ()
Additional contact information
Dario Schafroth: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Autonomous System Lab
Samir Bouabdallah: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Autonomous System Lab
Christian Bermes: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Autonomous System Lab
Roland Siegwart: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Autonomous System Lab

A chapter in Unmanned Aircraft Systems, 2008, pp 245-260 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The goal of the European project muFly is to build a fully autonomous micro helicopter, which is comparable to a small bird in size and mass. The rigorous size and mass constraints infer various problems related to energy efficiency, flight stability and overall system design. In this research, aerodynamics and flight dynamics are investigated experimentally to gather information for the design of the helicopter’s propulsion group and steering system. Several test benches are designed and built for these investigations. A coaxial rotor test bench is used to measure the thrust and drag torque of different rotor blade designs. The effects of cyclic pitching of the swash plate and the passive stabilizer bar are studied on a test bench measuring rotor forces and moments with a 6–axis force sensor. The gathered knowledge is used to design a first prototype of the muFly helicopter. The prototype is described in terms of rotor configuration, structure, actuator and sensor selection according to the project demands, and a first version of the helicopter is shown. As a safety measure for the flight tests and to analyze the helicopter dynamics, a 6DoF vehicle test bench for tethered helicopter flight is used.

Keywords: MAV; Test bench; Coaxial; Aerodynamics; Stability; Design; Flight test (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4020-9137-7_14

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9781402091377

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9137-7_14

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().