Wireless sensor essential for keeping drones going on long flights

01 July 2019

High performance drones that can stay aloft for extended periods need super-reliable controls or risk being lost mid-flight. A test rig for developing the next generation of long-mission drones uses a wireless torque sensor that allows rapid set up and rapid testing.

Drone technology is continuing to develop rapidly to meet the new and evermore demanding applications. Traffic monitoring, topographic surveying and military surveillance all demand drones that can fly for hours and even days at a time. Such drones are based on fixed wing aircraft designs with high levels of powerless glide potential so that the battery pack is not constantly driving lift rotors, allowing long duration flights to be completed. Instead power is conserved for positioning flight control surfaces and running the propeller when required.

A test rig for putting the drives of their control surfaces through demanding proving regimes has being developed by Deva Technologies in Wrexham. The testing programme is based on amalgamating the results from a great many individual tests, so the rig had to be designed for ease of set-up thus minimising time and effort between actual tests. To this end it is based upon a wireless TorqSense from Sensor Technology Ltd so that the test pieces can be swapped in and out in a matter of minutes.

Read the full article in the July issue of DPA