Canadian aerospace company Tyto Robotics is to distribute an innovative wind generator for testing drones inside called Windshaper in North America as part of an exclusive agreement.
The Windshaper is a modular multi-fan wind generator that can be set up in different configurations to create a range of flight conditions, repeatably and reliably. The Windshaper can also be used with climate chambers, rain and snow generators and water injectors for icing to test drones in a variety of weather conditions.
Windshaper has been developed by two alumni from the Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse occidentale during the last five years and offers an alternative to wind tunnels. The technology was conceived to solve challenges engineers face with drone testing, including management of the testing environment and experiment replicability.
The exclusive North American distribution agreement with Tyto Robotics, a Canadian company specializing in drone testing equipment will give access to the custom wind generation technology offered by the WindShaper to customers in the USA and Canada.
The WindShaper itself can be flat or curved, small or large, tiltable, and can include add-ons such as motion tracking, weather effects and turbulence filters. Each individual fan in a WindShaper is independently controlled through an online GUI or custom scripting through a Python 3.x control API. 3D wind flow programming. This allows the user to simulate any wind environment, including turbulence, obstacles, gusts and landing conditions
Tyto Robotics said it will help clients design their wind testing facilities, which is a highly customized task due to the modular construction of the wind generators.
Drones are being increasingly used around the world, for applications such as deliveries, logistics and inspection. While investment in equipment and infrastructure is high, industry insiders acknowledge a barrier for increased growth in drone applications remains increasing the “flyability” of drones in bad weather.
To learn more about the challenges around testing drones in bad weather, read the article in the current issue of Aerospace Testing International. To subscribe to the magazine go here.
