Download

Download Full Text (106 KB)

Faculty Advisors

Zhang, Wei

Description

Renewable energy has grown considerably over the past years, with a projected growth of $460 billion per year by 2030. One of these renewable energies is deploying wind turbines to harvest wind energy. Knowledge of wind speed and direction is critical to determine the appropriate site to place wind turbines. The current method of collecting wind data primarily by installing stationary meteorological towers is expensive and limited, because met masts are fixed once built. This research aims at using a network of hovering drones as a platform to measure wind speed, direction, temperature and humidity at multiple elevations, which could potentially supplement the previous methods. The rapid development of drone technology is very promising due to its mobility and cost-effectiveness. The research scope includes: (1) install a contemporary wind measurement system on a drone; (2) hover the drone with the weather sensors and collect wind data in the field; and (3) compare the measurements with local meteorological data to test its accuracy.

Publication Date

2017

College

Washkewicz College of Engineering

Department

Mech Eng

Disciplines

Mechanical Engineering

P1: Measuring Wind using a Hovering Drone Network: Met-Masts on the Go

Share

COinS