Wireless accelerometers: can they be useful for understanding drone vibration at flight?

quietdrones2026 Tracking Number 73

This paper introduces a recently developed wireless vibration measurement system by Hottinger Bruel & Kjaer that is thought to be useful for experimental structure analysis of flying drones. Analysing the noise emission from drone often requires a good understanding of how the drone structure vibrates. Obtaining the vibration data of a flying drone with existing measurement techniques could be troublesome due to the weight of the data acquisition system. The wireless accelerometers make it possible. The lightweight miniature wireless accelerometers (22 g each) can collect high frequency vibration data (up to 1.6 kHz frequency range) in three measurement axes. The acquired data is synchronized between the sensors, which enables the phase information between the different measurement locations. The measured vibration data of a flying drone will enable further analysis, which eventually contributes to make drones quieter. Due to the lack of access to sufficiently big drones, the paper exemplifies sensors’ use on a lightweight sport bike, where the accelerometers are mounted on the rotating elements, such as wheels and pedals.