Design and Development of Multirotor Mounted with 3D Ultrasonic Anemometer for Wind Assessment

This study designs and develops the multirotor with a 3D Ultrasonic anemometer mounting to measure wind vector (speed and direction). To overcome the limitation of its flight time. The related variables and tests were conducted from previous studies and carried out the optimum battery capacity and flight time. The aircraft in this research is a Hexa-rotor which is 800 mm in size and powered with a 15Ah 25.2V Li-ion battery. The multi-rotor has an all-up weight of 4,815 g and can achieve a continuous flight time of 45 minutes. To avoid the disturbance, the 3D ultrasonic anemometer was mounted on a pole (60 cm) away from the propeller plane and found to have accuracy while collecting a wind vector. Then the wind vector measured by the UAV was compared to a nearby meteorological tower and showed a good agreement in both speed and direction. This shows the feasibility of wind assessment using an ultrasonic anemometer installed on a multirotor.