Micro-Aerial Vehicle Flight in Turbulent Environments: Use of an Indoor Flight Facility for Rapid Design a nd Evaluation

One of the most significant challenges facing Micro-Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) is flight within the turbulent environments they typically encounter. Their small size makes them particularly sensitive to the gusty wind environment around buildings and in close proximity to the ground. The turbulent flight environment also presents an opportunity for designs that are able to extract energy from the turbulent environment. Recent studies have shown the feasibility of energy extraction for vehicles larger than typical MAVs. Further, the potential benefit increases as the size of the vehicles becomes smaller, indicating MAVs may even further benefit. The wide range of MAV configurations that have been explored and are possible indicates the need for an environment where designs can be rapidly developed and evaluated. A further challenge with developing both the MAVs and the associated energy extraction algorithms is repeatability in the stochastic turbulent environment. This paper describes the use of an indoor flight facility that can address these needs. The facility provides an opportunity to quickly evaluate a variety of vehicle designs and control algorithms in a controlled, repeatable environment. This environment can then be modified to include more stochastic elements as added realism is required. The basic facility capabilities, as well as several aspects of the vehicles themselves, are described. Initial results are shown for two classes of MAVs.