Propeller dynamometer for small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This paper details the design and development of a small scale air propeller dynamometer based on thin beam strain gauge load cells. The dynamometer will be used to characterize the performances of small propellers for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in order to obtain an accurate system model and design an appropriate controller for hovering and smooth flight. A brief description of the design concept and calibration procedure along with test results is presented here. A static calibration was performed to determine thrust/torque measurement sensitivity as well as cross-sensitivity. Measurement data was captured and processed using a sigma-delta data acquisition board. Test results confirm that the dynamometer can be used to reliably measure thrust and torque produced by UAV propellers up to 10 inch in diameter with an accuracy of ±1% of full scale.