MNEMOSINE Mark V. The Fifth Generation of a FTI System for an Ultralight Aircraft

Alberto Rolando, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Federico Rossi, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Tommaso Castelletti, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Federico Reghenzani, Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy

Abstract

The Department of Aerospace Science and Technology of the Politecnico di Milano has been involved in Flight Testing of Ultra-Light Machines since 2004, when the de- velopment of Flight Test Instrumentation system, tailor-designed on the particular re- quirements of such class of machines, was started as the main research topic of a PhD.

Since then, the resulting Mnemosine FTI has been intensely used for more than one decade, in support of didactic activities, like the annual Student Flight Test Cam- paign within the MSc. Flight Testing course, as well as of research and third-party contract initiatives. In parallel, thanks to the constant feedback provided by the regu- lar system operation on one side and to the theses work of MSc. final year students on the other, Mnemosine has constantly evolved, including enhancements, fixes and upgrades in a number of subsequent system generations.

The present paper details the fifth generation Mnemosine Mk-V version, which has been in operation since early 2015. It features the smallest and lightest on-board unit ever, synchronous ac- quisition of more than 40 parameters, electronic kneepad providing real-time data visualisation to the Flight Test Engineer, GPS time-stamped data recording on mi- croSD card, 802.11n-based telemetry system delivering up to some dozens of Mbit/s data throughput over a several kilometres Line Of Sigh link, a fully featured Ground Station for real-time data presentation and a XidML-based flight post processing soft- ware.

Reports on the successful system use during the recent May 2015 Student Flight Test Campaign and the LTF-UL certification flight test campaign of a new ma- chine from a pre-eminent Italian ULM manufacturers are presented, as well as a pre- view of the new features that will be included in the currently under development sixth generation Mnemosine Mk-VI.