Embedded sensors for the health monitoring of 3D printed unmanned aerial systems

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are growing in applications every day, extending into the fields of agriculture and data acquisition. Increasingly, these systems are being designed to be low cost and affordable; although, are often required to carry expensive payloads that adds higher mission risk if the UAS faults mid-flight. Real time health prognostics of UAS capable of alerting a pilot or ground system of potential problems before they arise will decrease the associated risk of high cost payloads on lower cost UAS. In this paper, a novel strategy of embedding health monitoring systems within a 3D printed structure or airframe is presented.