Design and development of UAV launcher for use in motion capturing experiment

Abstract

The purpose of the launcher design is made to launch a UAV for the motion capture system experiment to track the position and velocity for analysis during perching. The launcher to provide the speed to the UAV to give the results of the perching during the takeoff as the perching could be observe through using the motion capture system. The concept of this design of the launcher which consists of the metal base platform connected to the linear guide as the movement, the main power mechanism was using the springs and using the linear guide as to achieve linear motion. On the linear guide block was attached to a wooden platform with support to guide the plane. The advantage of the launcher design was that there is not attachment to the UAV which will not cause any additional weight. The design was different from others (bungees) which used the elastic band as it would be able to repeat it launch than the elastic band for using springs as the actuator.

The launcher was launch at full compression of the springs during the experiment. The motion capture for this project was using the optical camera to capture the position using the markers. The result was taken by the Vicon Nexus and there were 24 runs had been made. The experiment was made 3 runs per deflection of the angle of the elevator of the UAV. The launcher has the 10% accuracy and 5% consistency during the experiment. The accuracy was based the 3.5m/s which the spring can produce the speed and the consistency according to the average runs speed which is 3.36m/s. The results show that with the proper sizing and attachment to the UAV. The launcher could achieve better result in the experiment.