Project number
16083
Organization
UA Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
Academic year
2016-2017
The goal of this project is to design a control system for micro air vehicles using microelectromechanical system, or MEMS, sensors. The design incorporates an analog-sensing circuit with an Arduino microcontroller embedded in a NACA 4412 airfoil wing section constructed from balsa wood and monokote film.
The circuit senses velocity and angle of attack using MEMS thermal flow sensors embedded in the outer surface of the wing section and uses a closed-loop feedback controller that changes the deflection angle of the wing’s elevon to control the pitch of the wing section.
The feedback controller is run using a control system designed in the Simulink interface of MATLAB. The wing section was mounted in a subsonic wind tunnel with flow speeds that do not exceed 20 meters per second to collect aerodynamic data.
The circuit senses velocity and angle of attack using MEMS thermal flow sensors embedded in the outer surface of the wing section and uses a closed-loop feedback controller that changes the deflection angle of the wing’s elevon to control the pitch of the wing section.
The feedback controller is run using a control system designed in the Simulink interface of MATLAB. The wing section was mounted in a subsonic wind tunnel with flow speeds that do not exceed 20 meters per second to collect aerodynamic data.