Jan 31 2011
MicroStrain has introduced the wireless health usage and monitoring systems (Hums) that are at present being deployed in US military rotorcraft as an experiment. If they complete successful runs, they could become part of an all military and commercial aircraft.
The system is cost-effective and will enhance the life of the aircraft. They allow savings on operational and maintenance costs. It will enable training of pilots and help monitor aircraft management. If a pilot is doing maneuvers and flying varied regimes, he will have to record the worst cases to measure usage. He can then fly the same regime with different rotating loads. The system will help him measure the amount of strain and vibration on rotating and non-rotating components.
The system guts are compact and light. Strain sensors are connected to a minute wireless node measuring half a credit card fueled by an energy harvester. This is an Infinite Power Solutions Thinergy rechargeable micro energy cell connected to the main frequencies. It gets its power from the aircraft’s vibrations. The cyclic loading, in turn generates power.
Sensor data is sent to a wireless sensor data aggregator (WSDA), a single-board compact computer powered by the Linux operating system. It includes Ethernet, USB and Arinc 1553 connectivity besides wireless IEEE802.15.4 in the 2.4-GHz radio frequency band. It deploys a GSM cell phone to send data to the cloud where it gets uploaded on a secure server. It has an inertial sensor to give vehicle pitch, roll, yaw data and tri-axial speeds and angular rates. It uses microelectro-mechanical inertial and magnetic sensors. Exceedance levels will be transmitted through internet to enable pilots to review the condition of the aircraft components.
Source: http://microstrain.com/