Content area

Abstract

The widespread adoption of quadrotors for diverse applications, from agriculture to public safety, necessitates an understanding of the aerodynamic disturbances they create. This paper introduces a computationally lightweight model for estimating the time-averaged magnitude of the induced flow below quadrotors in hover. Unlike related approaches that rely on expensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations or drone specific time-consuming empirical measurements, our method leverages classical theory from turbulent flows. By analyzing over 16 hours of flight data from drones of varying sizes within a large motion capture system, we show for the first time that the combined flow from all drone propellers is well-approximated by a turbulent jet after 2.5 drone-diameters below the vehicle. Using a novel normalization and scaling, we experimentally identify model parameters that describe a unified mean velocity field below differently sized quadrotors. The model, which requires only the drone's mass, propeller size, and drone size for calculations, accurately describes the far-field airflow over a long-range in a very large volume which is impractical to simulate using CFD. Our model offers a practical tool for ensuring safer operations near humans, optimizing sensor placements and drone control in multi-agent scenarios. We demonstrate the latter by designing a controller that compensates for the downwash of another drone, leading to a four times lower altitude deviation when passing below.

Details

1009240
Identifier / keyword
Title
Robotics meets Fluid Dynamics: A Characterization of the Induced Airflow below a Quadrotor as a Turbulent Jet
Publication title
arXiv.org; Ithaca
Publication year
2024
Publication date
Dec 12, 2024
Section
Computer Science
Publisher
Cornell University Library, arXiv.org
Source
arXiv.org
Place of publication
Ithaca
Country of publication
United States
University/institution
Cornell University Library arXiv.org
e-ISSN
2331-8422
Source type
Working Paper
Language of publication
English
Document type
Working Paper
Publication history
 
 
Online publication date
2024-12-13
Milestone dates
2024-03-20 (Submission v1); 2024-10-31 (Submission v2); 2024-12-12 (Submission v3)
Publication history
 
 
   First posting date
13 Dec 2024
ProQuest document ID
2972955937
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/working-papers/robotics-meets-fluid-dynamics-characterization/docview/2972955937/se-2?accountid=208611
Full text outside of ProQuest
Copyright
© 2024. This work is published under http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.
Last updated
2024-12-14
Database
2 databases
  • ProQuest One Academic
  • ProQuest One Academic