Vision Based Deflection Angle Measurement of Flight Control Surfaces in Aircraft Testing

During the flight control system testing (FCST), it is crucial to accurately measure the deflection angles of flight control surfaces to determine whether they respond precisely to commands. However, the traditional measurement method, which relies on the manual use of angle measuring rulers for inspections, is inefficient, prone to wear, and lacks precision. To address this issue, we introduce a vision-based angle measurement method for FCST that replaces manual measurements, thereby significantly enhancing testing efficiency and accuracy. Our proposed triangular mesh alignment based angle measurement algorithm (TMA-AM) is a non-contact measurement method that involves two key procedures, capturing 3D coordinates from images and calculating deflection angles. The TMA-AM algorithm converts deflected angles into angular differences between two coordinate systems, while accounting for the curved characteristics of control surfaces. We evaluate TMA-AM algorithm on a 3D-printed wing test platform and an aircraft wing test platform. Experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves high accuracy, with an average angular measurement error below 0.05^○.