Flight Testing Small UAVs for Aerodynamic Parameter Estimation

<p>A flight data acquisition system was developed to aid unmanned vehicle designers in verifying the vehicle's design performance. The system is reconfigurable and allows the designer to choose the correct combination of complexity, risk, and cost for a given flight test. The designer can also reconfigure the system to meet packaging and integration requirements. System functionality, repeatbility, and accuracy was validated by collecting data during multiple flights of a radio-controlled aircraft. Future work includes sensor fusion, thrust prediction methods, stability and control derivative estimation, and growing Cal Poly's small-scale component aerodynamic database.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

MS in Aerospace Engineering

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Chase, Adam Thomas

Contributors dc:contributor

• Robert McDonald

• UAV
• performance
• design
• testing
• drag polar
• system identification
• Aeronautical Vehicles

Identifier

10.15368/theses.2014.38

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.calpoly.edu:theses-2268