University of Twente Student Theses
Design, fabrication and evaluation of a 3D printed thrust sensor for application in drones
Shenoy, Nikhil Tonse (2021) Design, fabrication and evaluation of a 3D printed thrust sensor for application in drones.
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| Abstract: | Recently, additive manufacturing, best known from 3D printing, has become a common method for fabricating a wide range of sensors. With 3D printing, sensors can now be fabricated with sucient surface nish and accuracy. Furthermore, it is now possible to fabricate entire sensors or by embedding the sensor into printed structures. This master thesis assignment deals with the design and fabrication of a 3D printed thrust sensor to be implemented on drones. Amongst other things, this approach of integrated sensors in standard structures of the drone by the use of 3D printing provides the exibility to upgrade sensor designs easily so as to meet varying and customised requirements. In this assignment, the lift force of a rotating propeller was rst analysed considering two scenarios: blade apping and drone arm deection. The two scenarios were analysed using Finite Element Method(FEM)simulations and several factors were taken into account: implementation of the sensor, eect of additional weight, ease of 3D printing and so on. Based on the comparison between the two, it was deemed suitable to compute thrust by measuring the deection of the drone arm. The rst part of the assignment deals with the design and fabrication of the sensor using two materials: Polylactic Acid (PLA) and Conductive PLA. With the help of FEM analysis, stress and strain distribution is analyzed on the drone arm to nd an optimal position for sensor placement. Using a linear actuator, the sensor is then characterised to determine non-linearity, drift , hysteresis and repeatability. The results from characterisation are then validated using a motor setup. The second part of the assignment incorporates the estimated deection to develop a control architecture made of a sensor-based feedback channel, taking into account several factors such as hysteresis, drift, and non-linearity as exhibited by the sensor. The controller is then tested under the inuence of ground eect. It was observed that the controller is able to compensate for the extra thrust generated due to the ground eect. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | EEMCS: Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science |
| Programme: | Systems and Control MSc (60359) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/85902 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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