Group

The UAV Icing Lab is a research workgroup at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) focusing on the challenge of atmospheric icing on unmanned aircraft. Our mission is to provide knowledge and solution for unmanned aircraft in icing conditions.

The UAV Icing Lab was founded in 2020 as a branch to the UAV Lab of the Department of Engineering Cybernetics. The history of icing research at NTNU dates back to 2013 with Kim Lynge Sørensen starting a PhD project on developing an ice protection system on UAVs. The first prototype of this ice protection system was tested in flight tests in Anchorage Alaska in 2015. In 2016 this was followed by more flights in Svalbard and icing tunnel tests in LeClerc. The same year, Richard Hann started a PhD project on UAV icing focusing on aerodynamics and physical effects. Icing wind tunnel tests were conducted in 2018 in Cranfield, 2019 and 2020 in Helsinki.