LIDAR monitoring of propellers

About

This technology is a device for monitoring the tracking, balance and integrity of blades for application in rotor-wing, fixed-wing, manned and unmanned aviation as well as wind energy sectors. Background Researchers at Montana State University have developed a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system for sensing oscillations fields around open rotors. This invention directly targets the Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) market within aviation with the potential for offering higher data rate collection and greater accuracy. Other applications within aviation may include the identification (propeller signature) of drones. This technology has obvious extension into the wind turbine blade market. The device incorporating the technology could be mounted on the nacelle continuous monitoring or used from the ground in a point-and-shoot data collection manner. This technology was tested by sensing the wing beats of honey bees. As such the detection sensitivity is very high, easily covering the RPM rate of any helicopter or propeller driven aircraft or even the small and lighter sub-megawatt wind energy generators. Applications * Rotor and propeller tracking; rotor wing and fixed wing aviation * Quality control instrument in blade and propeller manufacturing * Potential to integrate with other HUMS devices * Use of data in real time or downloaded from recording media * Continuous monitoring