ESTIMATION OF HELICOPTER BLADE POSITION BY MEANS OF TWO-CHANNEL MEASURING SYSTEM

Abstract

The main difficulty is that blade is a highly dynamic moving object.This work suggests two-channel measuring system of helicopter blades position. This measuring system consists of strain-gauge and optical measuring channels. The optical measuring system is based on high-speed camera and computer unit, which processes received video frames with blade image. The strain-gauge measuring system consists of strain sensors (located on the blade face) and of strain-gauge station, which records measurements and transmits them to the computer unit via radio channel for further analysis. The two-channel system concept was designed and device-algorithmic part of optical and strain-gauge channels was developed.Problems of the optical measuring channel, connected with low image contrast between blade and image background, blades identification and their position estimation were solved. For the strain-gauge measuring channel, a model of measurement translation from intrinsic frame of reference into helicopter frame of reference was suggested and measurement transmission system via radio channel to the computer unit was developed.The operational integrity and physical realizability of suggested two-channel system on research facility unit were inquired. The optical channel made measurements of two blades location, the strain-gauge channel made measurements only of that blade which had been equipped with sensors. The results of the research validated physical realizability of sug-gested two-channel measuring system.

Keywords

• helicopter blades
• measuring system
• high-speed camera
• image processing