Atmospheric Icing Conditions Measurement System (AIMS) for UAVs

Significant improvements in remote sensing technologies for icing weather avoidance is required to increase the level of safety for UAVs flying in the atmospheric icing environment. Recent icing tunnel and flight testing at IDI has demonstrated the capability to obtain important cloud properties information, including icing potential and SLD droplets, using light weight inexpensive optical sensors and Laser Range Finder techniques. Advances in hydrophobic coatings and their application to aircraft lifting surfaces have shown promise to enhance the mission capability of aircraft and rotorcraft in known icing conditions.During a Multi-Phase SBIR Program IDI proposes to evaluate an Atmospheric Icing Conditions Measurement System (AIMS) with a low SWAP that provides a distance to cloud ranging LIDAR, as well as providing in situ measurement of LWC and MVD droplet sizes. The proposed design provides early warning of Icing Hazard information that will enable real time icing avoidance using light weight IR sensors fused with information from the aircraft flight control system. The probe will be tested in both the icing tunnel environment and on an aircraft flight test bed to determine its range and sensitivity to super-cooled water droplets and ice crystal formation as defined in FAA Part 25 Appendix C/O.