Aircraft Integrated Research Vehicle Optimal Loading Test-Stand (AIRVOLT)
Author:
Christopher RamirezMentors:
- Kurt Kloesel, Engineer, NASA
- Alec Sim, Professor of Physics, Irvine Valley College
- Timothy Usher, Professor of Physics, California State University San Bernardino
AIRVOLT is an electric propulsion system project whose purpose is to obtain critical design measurements; these include thrust, torque, RPM, temperature, noise, air speed, power, and efficiencies which include the battery, motor controller, and final propeller. In addition AIRVOLT extends these design characteristics to larger scales of complexity. The National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW software development package is used to conduct multi-platform tests for three unique test stands. The first test stand (MiniVOLT) investigates the hardware and software setup on a small scale and provide a basis for the other two more complex stands (MediVOLT and MaxiVOLT). In addition to software and hardware concerns, safety is a key design goal of this project. Design of safety procedures for personnel, the software, and hardware system has been demonstrated. This work describes progress for the MiniVOLT and MediVOLT test beds; a description of the hardware, software, and design safety components of the project.