ABB Robotic Laser Doppler Anemometry Measurements With RobotStudio® With An Open Wind Channel And An Ellipsoid

Laser Doppler anemometry is a state-of-the-art non-invasive experimental flow measurement technique. Traditionally used linear traversing units can only change the position of the measurement probe, but cannot change the orientation of the probe. A six degrees of freedom robot can simplify and fasten up the pose planning and measurement process real-offline. A developed LDA software plug-in for RobotStudio is used to real-offline plan and perform flow measurements in an open wind channel (flow rate = 300 m³/h) with an ellipsoid (diameter y=z = 140 mm and x = 40 mm). In 25 mm, 20 mm, 15 mm, 10 mm, 5 mm and 2 mm orthogonal distance of the ellipsoid surface the tangential velocity component is determined. Accuracy and repeatability of the robot-LDA system is found and compared to the traditional linear traversing system. Results show a positive velocity gradient towards the axis of the wind channel with a velocity range of 4.4 – 20.3 m/s. At 25 mm distance the tangential velocity is in the range of 4.4 – 12.5 m/s, at 20 mm 7.6 – 17.5 m/s, at 15 mm 12.1 – 19.7 m/s, at 10 mm 16.5 – 20.1 m/s, at 5 mm 19.0 – 20.2 m/s and at 2 mm 18.3 – 20.3 m/s. In positive y and negative z-direction, a reduction of the tangential velocity component is found in all measurements. At a distance of 25 mm, the measurement surface is slightly outside to the wind channel inlet (diameter = 80 mm). The closer the measurement surface is at the wind channel axis, the higher is the wind channel axial component. Robot-LDA average accuracy of 13 µm and repeatability of 10 µm is in the range of the linear traversing unit where the accuracy is 20 µm and the repeatability is 6 µm. The robot-LDA measurement system is an alternative to the existing linear-LDA with the advantages of real-offline robot path planning for arbitrary surfaces requiring six degrees of freedom probe placement.