Flight Data Recorder

Objective: Design a flight data recorder for the Design Build Fly plane that collects in-flight information. Provide the subteams with sensor data to quantify and improve the performance of the plane in preparation for the DBF competition in April.

Parameters: The FDR should collect data on the following in order of priority:

1. Altitude
2. Bank angle
3. Airspeed
4. Inertial Measurement Unit (orientation & acceleration)
5. Servo position
6. GPS

Constraints: The FDR must be independent from the control system with its own power source. It should be lightweight and compact to minimize its impact on the dynamics of the plane. Data should be collected consistently throughout the flight and be accessible to analyze at a later time. Budget should be within $500.

FDR Evolution

FDRv0-v2

FDRv3-v5

FDRv6

Sensors

• 9-axis IMU
  • Accelerometer
  • Gyroscope
  • Magnetometer
• Altimeter
• Barometric Pressure
• Pitot Tube
• GPS
• 915 MHz LoRa Transceiver
• 6 Channel PPM input/output
  • PWM servo input or output

Flight Visualizations

The data is captured on a microSD card in CSV format. Python is used to clean and process the data. The Jupyter Notebook can be found here.

Simulation - In development