Inflight helicopter blade track measurement using computer vision

Different type of vibrations are inherent in helicopters which cause discomfort to the crew, structural fatigue and other problems which may lead to accidents. Vertical vibrations are due to the out of track conditions i.e. the blades of the helicopter being out of track. The objective of this research work is to minimize the vertical vibrations by improving the blade tracking using image processing. The proposed work is low-cost as compared to the other methods being used by the aviation industry and very simple to understand. This method consists of several steps which include: image filtering, image thresholding, position finding of each blade and conversion of pixels´ distance into real-world distance. At the end the difference between tips of each blade is calculated with respect to a reference blade. The experimental results show that the proposed work is very effective and accurate.