Fuzzy Helicopter Rotor Speed Estimation based on Sound

This work focuses on the use of a supervising computer to extract detailed information from an autonomous helicopter’s intrinsic sound signature. This can be used at a later stage to enhance the helicopter’s control without the need to add additional sensors. We propose a system to extract the overall rotor speed from the sound of the helicopter. A fuzzy temporal filter based system is trained on flight data using an Adaptive Network- Based Fuzzy Inference System and tested in three test flights. Test flights confirm the system to be working, capable of closely following the measured rotational speed from a sensor on-board the helicopter.