WindShaper

Large WindShaper fan array.
April 8, 2025
A large WindShaper fan array is available for dynamic low-speed and hovering flight research.
NASA/John Melton

April 9, 2025
The Navigation Cameras, or Navcams, aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this view of the rover’s deck on Feb. 20, 2021.
NASA/JPL-Caltech


A large WindShaper fan array is available for dynamic low-speed and hovering flight research.  The WindShaper is ideal for generating arbitrary wind gradients and wind gusts via a simple Python API.  A companion WindProbe is also available for quick surveys of flows.  The WindProbe utilizes the lab’s OptiTrack motion capture system to extract the position and orientation of the 5-hole cone probe located on the probe tip.

•Large dynamic fan array: 9’x7’, 1134 fans arranged as 567 ‘wind pixels’

•Wind speeds: 0 to 16 m/s (0 to 36 mph/31 kts)

•Acceleration: 4 m/s2, Deceleration: 2.5 m/s2

•Each fan is programmable via Python scripting

•Replicates steady winds, gusts, and wind gradients

WindProbe for handheld mobile wind data collection.
WindProbe for handheld mobile wind data collection.
WindShaper
Indoor Testing Facilities available at the NASA Unmanned Autonomy Research Complex (NUARC)