Hardsoft Microprocessor Systems (Poland)

The knowledge of the movements and the deformation of rotor blades is of great importance for the performance and the safe operation of a rotor system, especially for blades with a high aspect ratio like on helicopters or wind turbines. To measure these parameters in the rotating system is not easy, because the number of sensors is limited due to their impact on the aerodynamics and the modification of the structure. Strain gauge measurements can furthermore directly be affected e.g. by the choice of the sensor location and temperature effects. To avoid those problems and in addition enable direct shape measurements contactless optical methods have still been applied to rotor and propeller deformation measurements in the past. These attempts have been done out of the rotating frame observing either only small rotors or the blade passing within the field of view. DLR and Hardsoft developed a rotating 3D image acquisition system for helicopter rotors and performed first tests on the whirltower of Airbus Helicopters in Donauworth (GER). The system is mounted on the hub and co-rotates with the rotor. It is able to record images of the whole blade at each azimuth angle. Those images later are processed with an IPCT software tool and deliver the continuous 3D surface shape and location of the observed blade. From the comparison of the 3D surfaces for different recordings, the bending and torsion of the blade can be obtained. The paper will briefly describe the rotating camera system itself, the non-intrusive deformation measurement method IPCT and the measuring setup. The presentation of the recorded images, the obtained data and a discussion of the measurement results will conclude the paper. The lessons learned from the presented campaign will be helpful for manufacturers in the design and measurement of their future rotor systems.

Knowledge of propeller or rotor blade behaviour under real operating conditions is crucial for optimizing the performance of a propeller or rotor system. A team of researchers, technicians and engineers from Avia Propeller, DLR, EVEKTOR and HARDsoft developed a rotating stereo camera system dedicated to in-flight blade deformation measurements. The whole system, co-rotating with the propeller at its full speed and hence exposed to high centrifugal forces and strong vibration, had been successfully tested on an EVEKTOR VUT 100 COBRA aeroplane in Kunovice (CZ) within the project AIM2—advanced in-flight measurement techniques funded by the European Commission (contract no. 266107). This paper will describe the work, starting from drawing the first sketch of the system up to performing the successful flight test. Apart from a description of the measurement hardware and the applied IPCT method, the paper will give some impressions of the flight test activities and discuss the results obtained from the measurements.

The paper is concerned with practical studies of illuminator role in the process of acquisition of spatial information with use of laser photography device. The laser photography device working according to the time-spatial framing method needs both acquisition and illumination process to happen in a very short-time. Ful llment of both conditions is necessary for proper operation of this device. Using a specialized laser illuminator determines the growth of information potential of the laser photography device and allows reducing parasitic impact of daylight. The presented solution not only improves typical vision systems parameters but it introduces new quality for imaging devices.