Experimental Data

Accelerometer

For the experiment to determine whether there was a difference in vibrations with or without the landing gears, the accelerometer in the Pixhawk was used, and the data quantified into a graph.

An accelerometer is a small electromechanical device used to measure proper acceleration & acceleration forces. They are generally sensitive to vibration and acceleration, and is used to estimate the drone’s position. Excessive vibration may lead to inaccurate data which could lead to poor performance when performing position calculation.

Since there was a readily available accelerometer in the Pixhawk, it was used to measure vibrations when arming or dropping the drone, to compare the differences with and without the landing gears. For the initial hypothesis, the vibrations for the drone when equipped with landing gears would be greater than without landing gears when the drone is armed, but the vibrations experienced by the drone would be less than without landing gears when dropped from a constant height.

Vibration Graph

During the drop test, the intended results were yielded. When the drone was dropped from a fixed test height of 15cm from Pixhawk relative to ground, the drone with landing gears showed a noticeable decrease in vibration throughout the body, which is the main intended function of the landing gears: Reduce or minimise impact force and vibration when landing to protect the electrical hardware within the body.

No Suspensions Vibration Graph

Suspensions Vibration Graph

From the above data, it is observed that the drop test without suspensions yielded a higher vibration output of 50m/s^2 as opposed to the test with suspensions, which gave a vibration output of 35m/s^2. This shows that there indeed was a reduce in vibrations felt when the landing gears with suspensions were used. Measuring acceleration gives information about velocity & amplitude of vibration. Degree of harm is relative to magnitude of acceleration.