Helicopter Launching Platform Test

Thanks to the Automatics department from the UPC we could test the launching platform mounting on an helicopter and its effect on the flight performance.

The image on the left side shows how was the first design of the cansat lauching platform.

The cansat is mounted inside a circular cage without front column, the helicopter takes off and pulls up de cage, when at altitude the helicopter pitches down and the cansat falls.

Due to the wind it was imposible to stabilize the helicopter once the cage was airborne and a second design of cansat was tested.

This second design consists on a tube mounted between the helicopter skids and paralel to the longitudinal axis. We tested the helicopter performance in this way and the helicopter performance was only affected by the payload weight.

GPS tests

We have been performing GPS tests to analize the data it provides and to ensure the programe that we have created is working properly.

This is the result of the last test, the presicion is quite good. The track is not straight due to the building interferences, we expect the GPS receiver data to be more precise when operating in open spaces.