Experimental Investigation of Wireless Technologies for Data Acquisition

Abstract

Now, more than ever, there is significant demand to reduce the weight of Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) which in turn translates to cost savings. Moreover, there is the on-going requirement to improve the ease of installation, simplify wiring, and reduce power. Wireless technologies provide the ideal solution to overcome these issues by effectively eliminating the need for wiring which in turn reduces weight and simplifies the architecture. Wireless sensors are typically small, low-cost, low weight, and low-power devices that can be used to facilitate remote data acquisition in hard-to-reach and harsh locations in the aircraft. This paper discusses wireless sensor technologies and presents a prototype wireless sensor data acquisition module that was developed to investigate the feasibility of this technology for FTI data acquisition systems.