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Glider and laser Anemometer

Posted by Jonathan Gerald Pelham on June 13, 2010 at 2:30pm
I'm currently mulling over the concept of a MALE UAV.
I'm thinking that with a laser anemometer the UAV might be able to locate thermals and plan it's way points to take advantage of them.

I'm currently doing some research for usable range for the anemometer and the weight, power and processing requirements.
Since they will only give air movement relative to the scanner i'm thinking that be using one on each wingtip and one on the top of the fueslage I might be able to gain the actual vector of the air in a certain point.
The three scanners would coordinate to scan the same area at the same time.
Might need to use 3 different wavelengths to avoid interference.

The problems I can see right off the bat are.
Processing!
Weight
Power Requirements
If it does work it would also detect obstacles.

Perhaps this could also be achieved with weather radar.
Multiple receiving antennas?




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Tags: anemometer, glider, laser, lidar, male
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  • Developer
    Doug Weibel June 13, 2010 at 6:27pm
    Wow, that is an ambitious concept! As far as I know the only working laser anemometer systems in use today are used by the wind power industry. The units I have seen appear to weigh at least 20 kilograms, although you could probably strip those systems down a lot. Even so, it is not an "off the shelf" technology at this point. I got the impression that the range was measured in hundreds of meters.

    I doubt these systems have sufficient resolution so that mounting them on wingtips would provide any useful (vector) information, unless you are talking about a full scale sailplane wing or larger.

    If you have seen other, smaller systems I would love to hear about them.
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