You would think that it might be obvious that if a drone sounds wonky before a flight, chances are something could be wonky on some parts – just when a funny sounding car should be checked out before it gets on the road.
But apparently when it comes to drones, we need some researchers to tell us that.
This, after reports have emerged that engineers at the University of Cincinnati are using sound to help NASA detect if a drone’s motors or propellers are damaged to prevent a crash.
UC College of Engineering and Applied Science doctoral student Prissha Chawla and her research partners recorded the various sounds that drones make when their propellers get chipped or cracked or their motor becomes damaged or begins to fail.
They then converted the recordings into valuable data that computers at a ground station can use to alert operators that a drone is not airworthy before it takes off.
The students presented their project at the Modelling, Estimation and Control Conference in Phoenix, Arizona last week.
“The project started in 2024 with interest by NASA in detecting problems with motors before a drone took off,” Chawla said.
“More and more, drones are being used for public safety. You don’t want them to crash.”
Long term, the students are working towards the objective where a drone can intelligently listen to the sound it makes to detect damage to its own propellers and other mechanical systems during flight so it can return to base before sustaining a catastrophic failure.
And we have to admit that, when put that way, the whole thing does make a lot of sense.
Besides chips or cracks in propellers, Chawla said grit and other debris can get into motor bearings, causing it to seize.
“We’re focusing on pre-flight tests that NASA already runs,” she said.
UC student Luke Busse said the damage-detection system could be a feature of fully autonomous “drone-in-a-box” systems. Drones deploy from a weatherproof docking station that handles launch, landing, charging, data upload and mission scheduling without an on-site operator.
“In that scenario, it would be great. You could have sensors in the box that provide preflight checks,” Busse said.