Knowledge Bank

As uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS) become more prominent, it is more important to understand how different conditions affect flight stability and performance. One area of research that is currently being studied is the influence of partial boundaries and variable wind conditions on the vehicle. Anemometers such as the Trisonica Mini Ultrasonic Anemometers can be used to measure flight conditions such as 3-dimensional wind velocity to characterize vortical structures around a partial boundary. Using multiple anemometers can help to measure flight conditions at different areas near the partial boundary; however, collecting data from each anemometer individually would take up a lot of work and time. Software and hardware were integrated into a compact and user-friendly design to allow for wireless communication of data from multiple Trisonica Mini ultrasonic anemometers. The design made use of ESP32 microcontrollers to send data from up to 10 anemometers at a rate of 10 Hz to a single laptop that displayed the live anemometer data in real time with timestamps accurate to 10 ms and saved all the data to a comma-separated values (CSV) file. The design was used to verify the anemometer data in a wind tunnel at 10 m/s and 15 m/s while varying the azimuth and pitch angle. From the verification testing, it was determined that the anemometer accurately measured horizontal wind velocity vectors but failed to measure vertical velocity components. In future testing, the Trisonica LI-560 Sphere anemometer will be used to capture vertical velocity with more accuracy and range, and a new anemometer will be developed to capture velocities with full 360- degree measurements in all three dimensions.