Design and Development of a Thrust and Moment Meter for Small UAV Propellers
Singgih Satrio Wibowo, Maria Fransisca Soetanto, Muhammad Rizki Zuhri, Citra Asti Rosalia, Ratu Fenny Muldiani, Hashri Hayati

Politeknik Negeri Bandung

Abstract

Thrust and Moment Meter (TMM) is a tool or an instrument for measuring thrust and moment (or torque) produced by a small electric propulsion system, which is usually used on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and/or Small size Radio Control (RC) aircraft. This tool is designed with low cost materials and simple process, namely Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic using 3D printing technology. The main component of this device is an Arduino Nano microcontroller, equipped with three Load Cell sensors and one LCD screen. The results of this research are that the TMM tool has been successfully created and tested for accuracy in several cases, and very good results were obtained where the force measurement accuracy was more than 99% (error < 1%)

Keywords: Thrust, Moment, Propeller, Arduino, Load Cell

Topic: Energy engineering