Facilities and Equipment

1.5 m x 1.5 m open-section wind tunnel with 648 individually controllable computer fans, located in the GRASP Treehouse. A full Optitrack motion-capture system enables precisely controlled flight tests of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) in tailored turbulent wind conditions. Flow measurements will be conducted with a fully automated, robot-mounted anemometry system (in progress).

Recirculating free-surface water channel with 3 m x 61 cm x 61 cm optically accessible test section, gust generators (active grid and transverse jets), and a six-axis load cell mounted on a 6-DoF robotic arm. Flow-measurement capabilities include 2D particle-image velocimetry (PIV), 3D particle-tracking velocimetry (PTV), and 3D Lagrangian particle tracking (LPT). We are also developing algorithms for 3D time-resolved pressure reconstruction from 3D-LPT data.

We are currently building a field-deployable 3D Lagrangian particle-tracking (LPT) system for large-scale (10+ m domain lengths) volumetric flow measurements in real-world turbulent atmospheric flows. This includes:

• Four high-speed, high-resolution video cameras,

• A custom-built helium-filled soap-bubble generator for producing seeding particles, and

• Illumination for nighttime measurements.

We are also in the process of procuring meteorological instruments for on-site measurements of atmospheric properties.

Initial experiments in a semi-controlled setting can be conducted in a 100 ft x 50 ft x 50 ft outdoor drone arena at UPenn's Pennovation Campus (pictured, left).