FURI | Spring 2020

Propulsion Data Acquisition

The research team’s interest in this project is prompted by the lack of knowledge on electric aircraft performance. Research is conducted via the development of instruments onboard a miniature electric aircraft platform. Instruments equipped measure thrust, angle of attack, orientation, altitude, airspeed, battery current/voltage, motor RPM/torque, and internal temperature. The functional suite of sensors onboard the aircraft logs performance characteristics onto a custom flight controller for post-flight analysis. As a result, electric aircrafts can be effectively tuned in throttling power which could be used to maximize an aircraft’s range or other aircraft performance features.