Flights of a Multirotor UAS with Structural Faults: Failures on Composite Propeller(s)

Data acquired from several flights of a custom-fabricated Hexacopter UAS with composite structure (carbon fiber arms and central hub) and composite (carbon fiber) propellers is presented here. The Hexacopter was assembled from a commercially available kit (Tarot 690) and was flown in manual and autonomous mode; take-offs and landings were under manual control and the bulk of the flight tests were conducted with the Hexacopter in a “Position Hold” mode. All flights were flown within the UAS flight cage at Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology at Saint Louis University, for approximately 5 minutes each. Several failure conditions (different types of manually induced) on the composite (carbon fiber) propellers were tested, including failures on up to two propellers. The data set described in this article contains flight data from the onboard flight controller (Pixhawk) as well as three 3-axis accelerometers mounted on the arms of the Hexacopter UAS. The data is included as supplemental material.