Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2024 - 37

SPINOFF
A
irplane manufacturers running
noise tests on new aircraft now
have a much cheaper option than
traditional wired microphone arrays.
And it's sensitive enough to help
farmers with pest problems. The
wireless microphone array that one
company recently created with help
from NASA can locate crop-threatening
insects by listening for sound
they make in fields. And now, it's
making fast, affordable testing possible
almost anywhere.
Since releasing its first commercial
product in 2017, a sensor for
wind tunnel testing developed with
extensive help from NASA, Interdisciplinary
Consulting Corporation
(IC2) has doubled its staff size
and moved to larger lab and office
space to produce its new WirelessArray
product. Interested in making
its own flight tests more affordable,
NASA's
Langley
Research
Center in Hampton, VA, supported
this new project as well, with multiple
Small Business Innovation Research
(SBIR) contracts and expert
consulting.
The result is a series of small, saucer-shaped
bases equipped with
multiple sensors that measure the
air pressure changes created by
overhead sounds. Airplanes go
through noise testing and require
certification, so they don't exceed
the FAA noise level set for the body
type. When an airplane flies directly
overhead, the array collects noise
data to build a two-dimensional
map of the sound pressure and its
source. A custom software package
translates that information for the
end user.
The WirelessArray developed by Interdisciplinary Consulting
Corporation (IC2), laid out here for a test flight at
Langley Research Center, makes flight testing for drones
quick and cost-effective. (Image: NASA)
Spinoff is NASA's annual publication featuring
successfully commercialized NASA technology. This
commercialization has contributed to the development
of products and services in the fields of health and
medicine, consumer goods, transportation, public safety,
computer technology, and environmental resources.
NASA's Noise-Testing Tool Finds Applications Beyond Aircraft
A wireless microphone array quickly, cheaply, accurately maps noise from aircraft and much more.
" Previously, when we went out to
Edwards Air Force Base for a series of
flight tests, we used a large array with
hundreds of sensors. We had about
15 miles of cabling to hook up all of
them, and it took a crew of six people
three days to set up and tear down, "
he said. The cables had to be positioned
in a specific pattern to avoid
overlapping, and if it rained, each
sensor had to be covered to protect it
from precipitation. Multiple semitrucks
hauled all of that equipment,
along with power generators, racks of
servers, and other equipment.
By contrast, two IC2 staff arrived at
Langley's flight-test range driving a
minivan with all the hardware needed
to test the WirelessArray system. Yet
Humphreys said the data generated
by the smaller wireless system was
comparable to a conventional system.
The flight testing NASA and commercial
airlines perform with a wired
system is so expensive that it's usually
out of reach for smaller companies,
said Chip Patterson, Vice President of
IC2, which is based in Gainesville, FL.
This technology, designed to meet
NASA specifications, is changing that.
Whether using one or 100 of the sensor
nodes, anyone can afford to do
flight testing.
" Each node contains a small computer
system, " said Patterson. " It's
able to acquire and store data in
memory on an SD card. It also has a
small web server that allows the end
The WirelessArray developed by IC2 uses self-powered,
weather-proof nodes, like this one, to detect noise. The
microphone can be replaced by other sensors to collect
data for a day, a week, or even year-round. Solar panels
on the top power the internal battery, and data is stored
internally on a memory card. (Image: Interdisciplinary
Consulting Corporation)
Thanks to support from NASA,
the more affordable testing tool is seeing
applications beyond aircrafts, from
animal monitoring to clean energy
generation.
NASA Aeronautics has always used
wired systems to collect the same data
but saw the potential for a less cumberTech
Briefs, August 2024
some approach, said Tony Humphreys,
Chief Engineer with Langley's Measurement
Sciences. Humphreys oversaw
the WirelessArray SBIR contracts
and also provided consulting and even
a prototype device the company used
as a starting point.
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user to poke it, asking it to start acquisition,
stop recording, download
files, check on the battery health,
and more. "
A traditional wired system requires
the simultaneous and instant
download of all data, meaning the
array is limited to the capacity of the
hard drives it feeds into. IC2's smaller
system acquires significantly larger
datasets, allowing that data to sit in
each node until it's collected. If, for example,
a single node is placed in the
field to collect community noise mea37

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Tech Briefs Magazine - August 2024

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