MSBS-SPR Integrated System Allowing Wider Controllable Range for Effective Wind Tunnel Test

This paper introduces an experimental device which can measure accurate aerodynamic forces without support interference in wide experimental region for wind tunnel test of micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). A stereo pattern recognition (SPR) method was introduced to a magnetic suspension and balance system (MSBS), which can eliminate support interference by levitating the experimental model, to establish wider experimental region; thereby MSBS-SPR integrated system was developed. The SPR method is non-contact, highly accurate three-dimensional position measurement method providing wide measurement range. To evaluate the system performance, a series of performance evaluations including SPR system measurement accuracy and 6 degrees of freedom (DOFs) position/attitude control of the MAV model were conducted. This newly developed system could control the MAV model rapidly and accurately within almost 60mm for translational DOFs and 40deg for rotational DOFs inside of $300{\times}300mm$ test section. In addition, a static wind tunnel test was conducted to verify the aerodynamic force measurement capability. It turned out that this system could accurately measure the aerodynamic forces in low Reynolds number, even for the weak forces which were hard to measure using typical balance system, without making any mechanical contact with the MAV model.