Evaluation of Quadrotor Flight and Battery Consumption under Wind Turbulence conditions in an Open-Jet Wind Tunnel

Abstract

This paper presents the results of battery consumption for quadrotor flight under wind turbulence conditions. The study was performed in an open-jet wind tunnel. A motion capture system was developed at the exhaust part of the open-jet wind tunnel. The motion capture system comprised 6 optitrack cameras installed outside the exhaust part of the wind tunnel, and a PC at the ground station. A LiPo rechargeable battery was used, with two sizes, namely 5200 mAH with a discharge rate of 30 C and 4200 mAH with a discharge rate of 40 C, to evaluate the quadrotor's battery consumption and flight performance. The results show that the 4200 mAH battery performed better (with a smaller steady-state error during hovering) compared to the 5200 mAH battery. To overcome turbulence, the quadrotor propellers have to act fast, so the higher discharge rate from 4200 mAH battery gave better performance, as it kept the quadrotor hovering in close proximity to the desired setpoint.