Optical measurements organization of helicopter blade configuration in operation

Аuthors

Prokhorov P. D.

Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), 4, Volokolamskoe shosse, Moscow, А-80, GSP-3, 125993, Russia

e-mail: prokhorov_pd@mail.ru

Abstract

There is a probability of blades approach up to their collision and following crashing during some flight modes connected with dynamic maneuvering on coaxial rotor-type helicopters. Safety of such helicopters can be increased by blades’ real-time control with account for their attained pose.

The task of helicopter blades configuration measurements at real-time is considered to research effectiveness and safety of helicopter coaxial rotors operation.

An optical measurement system is proposed. It is based on image processing from a high- speed camera to indicate blade tip’s position in helicopter coordinates. The measurement equipment and its position are fixed. The problem of shooting frequency count on the assumption of measurement-system specification was considered.

Two things have negative influence on estimation of the helicopter blade tip position: low contrast between the blade and the background, and background texture, which makes difficult to detect blade’s edges. The first problem is thought to compensate with the help of blade’s LED-highlighting, the second by using a contrast display towards the blade.

One of the key moments of blades behavior on different modes research is blade identification, because they don’t have visual differences. However, the unique motion trajectories may differ critically. It is proposed to lay-of a contrast highlighter towards blade face.

Developed an optical method of measuring the blade tip position of the helicopter including the structure of the experimental measurement setup, a set of algorithms and associated software for allocation, determine the position and identification of blades. The used algorithms for blade’s detection and identification are described. The research results confirm the operability of suggested approach.

Keywords:

helicopter blades, optical measurements, high-speed camera, image processing

References

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3. Vizil’ter Yu.V., Zheltov S.Yu., Bondarenko A.V., Ososkov, M.V., Morzhin A.V. Obrabotka i analiz izobrazhenii v zadachakh mashinnogo zreniya (Image processing and analysis tasks in machine vision), Moscow, Fizmatkniga, 2010, 672 p.

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