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The Development of Neural Network Based System Identification ...

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3.3 THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEST STAND FOR SAFE FLIGHT CONTROL TESTING 65<br />

weights <strong>of</strong> the sliders, and <strong>of</strong> the pitch, roll and yaw joints, which are mounted at the<br />

top <strong>of</strong> them, are cancelled out by a counterweight. This means that the helicopter only<br />

has to lift its own weight, as if it was in free flight without the test stand. <strong>The</strong>re are<br />

three stays which are attached to the top <strong>of</strong> the static part <strong>of</strong> the sliders, and to three<br />

points on the second horizontal arm. This gives rigidity to the sliders with minimal<br />

weight gain.<br />

<strong>The</strong> helicopter platform is joined to the test stand by the mount shown in Figure<br />

3.8. Rotational motion is achieved by the pitch, roll and yaw joints in the test frame.<br />

This arrangement allows the helicopter to have a variable tilt around pitch, roll and<br />

yaw axis. In order to limit the roll and pitch rotation movements, the helicopter motion<br />

is constrained by a flexible cord joining the bottom <strong>of</strong> the helicopter mount to the<br />

base <strong>of</strong> the yaw arm. <strong>The</strong> cord prevents the combined angle <strong>of</strong> the pitch and roll from<br />

exceeding the maximum tilt angle. By altering the length <strong>of</strong> the cord the maximum<br />

tilt angle can be restricted to a smaller angle. <strong>The</strong> maximum tilt <strong>of</strong> the roll and pitch<br />

movements are set about 30 ◦ around pitch and roll axis. <strong>The</strong> yaw motion is constrained<br />

to approximately 450 ◦ due to cable twist issues. <strong>The</strong> pitch, roll and yaw arrangement<br />

consists <strong>of</strong> two sections; a ‘U’ shaped section and a bent section. Pitching motion occurs<br />

by a rotation between the helicopter mount and ‘U’ shaped section. <strong>The</strong> yaw motion<br />

occurs by the rotation between the bent section <strong>of</strong> the helicopter occurs by coupled<br />

rotation <strong>of</strong> the ‘U’ shaped to bent section and the bent section to the vertical member.<br />

<strong>The</strong> rotational joints (pitch, roll and yaw) can also be locked into to zero position<br />

with three solenoids. This is necessary for the zeroing <strong>of</strong> the instrumentation before<br />

testing and during the wind up phase <strong>of</strong> the helicopters rotors. During wind up phase,<br />

the rotor blades can be unstable and behave chaotically. <strong>The</strong> helicopter needs to be held<br />

in a steady position until steady rotation speed <strong>of</strong> the blades has been reached. <strong>The</strong><br />

metal shaft <strong>of</strong> the solenoids is released via locking switch allowing the helicopter to tilt<br />

and yaw. In the first design <strong>of</strong> the test frame prototype, the solenoid shafts are returned<br />

back to their respective initial position by using elastic bands. Since the solenoids only<br />

allow single direction <strong>of</strong> movement, re-engagement process <strong>of</strong> the solenoids to lock the<br />

pitch, roll and yaw motion must be done manually by aligning the solenoid pins with

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