UAV Takeoff, Hover and Landing Test in Real-World Flight Conditions Within a Laboratory Setting

Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly prevalent, ranging from small recreational quadcopters for aerial photography to large-scale military and commercial drones used for delivery and inspection. As UAVs transition to autonomous flight, their ability to operate safely in adverse weather conditions must be tested in a controlled, repeatable, and measurable manner. To address this need, a facility, called the WindShaper, capable of replicating unsteady and non-homogeneous wind conditions in a laboratory setting was developed. This facility allows for the free-flight testing of UAVs, with precise position and attitude determination throughout the test duration via an optical motion tracking system. Moreover, the newly introduced regulations for drone certification move in the direction of demostrating the safety of the system in case of harsh environment and require a rigorous set of means of compliance. In this study, we subjected several commercially available quadcopters to various wind conditions, including steady winds and gusts, during the critical phases of take-off, hovering, and landing. A virtual bounding box with 50 cm edge length was defined around each UAV's initial position, and their ability to remain within this boundary was measured using the motion tracking system. Additionally, tests were conducted under conditions of degraded or complete loss of positioning sensors, such as cameras, GNSS, and ultrasonic distance sensors, to evaluate the UAVs' safety in the case of a sensor failure or obstruction during a mission. The tests were also repeated with the drones in different orientations to measure their abilities to withstand lateral and back-facing winds. This newly developed testing procedure aims to establish a state-of-the-art methodology for ensuring UAV safety, efficiency, and regulatory compliance. It offers significant benefits to manufacturers, operators, and regulators by providing a robust framework for assessing UAV performance in challenging flight conditions.