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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Long Distance Bluetooth Low Energy Exploitation On A Wireless Attack Platform, Stephanie L. Long Mar 2021

Long Distance Bluetooth Low Energy Exploitation On A Wireless Attack Platform, Stephanie L. Long

Theses and Dissertations

In the past decade, embedded technology, known as the Internet of Things, has expanded for many uses. The smart home infrastructure has drastically grown to include networked refrigerators, lighting systems, speakers, watches, and more. This increase in the use of wireless protocols provides a larger attack surface for cyber actors than ever before. Wireless loT traffic is susceptible for sniffing by an attacker. The attack platform skypie is upgraded to incorporate Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon collection for pattern-of-life data, as well as device characteristic enumeration and potential characteristic modification. This platform allows an attacker to mount the skypie to …


Stereo Camera Calibrations With Optical Flow, Joshua D. Larson Mar 2021

Stereo Camera Calibrations With Optical Flow, Joshua D. Larson

Theses and Dissertations

Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) are currently unable to refuel mid-air due to the large communication delays between their operators and the aircraft. AAR seeks to address this problem by reducing the communication delay to a fast line-of-sight signal between the tanker and the RPA. Current proposals for AAR utilize stereo cameras to estimate where the receiving aircraft is relative to the tanker, but require accurate calibrations for accurate location estimates of the receiver. This paper improves the accuracy of this calibration by improving three components of it: increasing the quantity of intrinsic calibration data with CNN preprocessing, improving the quality …


Low-Cost Terrestrial Demonstration Of Autonomous Satellite Proximity Operations, Zackary R. Hewitt Mar 2021

Low-Cost Terrestrial Demonstration Of Autonomous Satellite Proximity Operations, Zackary R. Hewitt

Theses and Dissertations

The lack of satellite servicing capabilities significantly impacts the development and operation of current orbital assets. With autonomous solutions under consideration for servicing, the purpose of this research is to build and validate a low-cost hardware platform to expedite the development of autonomous satellite proximity operations. This research aims to bridge the gap between simulation and existing higher fidelity hardware testing with an affordable alternative. An omnidirectional variant of the commercially available TurtleBot3 mobile robot is presented as a 3-DOF testbed that demonstrates a satellite servicing inspection scenario. Reference trajectories for the scenario are generated via optimal control using the …


A Framework For Autonomous Cooperative Optimal Assignment And Control Of Satellite Formations, Devin E. Saunders Mar 2021

A Framework For Autonomous Cooperative Optimal Assignment And Control Of Satellite Formations, Devin E. Saunders

Theses and Dissertations

A decentralized, cooperative multi-agent optimal control framework is presented to offer a solution to the assignment and control problems associated with performing multi-agent tasks in a proximity operations environment. However, the framework developed may be applied to a variety domains such as air, space, and sea. The solution presented takes advantage of a second price auction assignment algorithm to optimally task each satellite, while model predictive control is implemented to control the agents optimally while adhering to safety and mission constraints. The solution is compared to a pseudospectral collocation method, and a study on tuning parameters is included.


Optimizing A Bank Of Kalman Filters For Navigation Integrity, Luis E. Sepulveda Mar 2021

Optimizing A Bank Of Kalman Filters For Navigation Integrity, Luis E. Sepulveda

Theses and Dissertations

Alternative navigation is an area of research which employs a variety of sensor technologies to provide a navigation solution in Global Navigation Satellite System degraded or denied environments. The Autonomy and Navigation Technology Center at the Air Force Institute of Technology has recently developed the Autonomous and Resilient Management of All-source Sensors (ARMAS) navigation framework which utilizes an array of Kalman Filters to provide a navigation solution resilient to sensor failures. The Kalman Filter array size increases exponentially as system sensors and detectable faults are scaled up, which in turn increases the computational power required to run ARMAS in areal-world …


Enumerating And Locating Bluetooth Devices For Casualty Recovery In A First-Responder Environment, Justin M. Durham Mar 2021

Enumerating And Locating Bluetooth Devices For Casualty Recovery In A First-Responder Environment, Justin M. Durham

Theses and Dissertations

It is difficult for first-responders to quickly locate casualties in an emergency environment such as an explosion or natural disaster. In order to provide another tool to locate individuals, this research attempts to identify and estimate the location of devices that would likely be located on or with a person. A variety of devices, such as phones, smartwatches, and Bluetooth-enabled locks, are tested in multiple environments and at various heights to determine the impact that placement and interference played in locating the devices. The hypothesis is that most Bluetooth devices can be successfully enumerated quickly, but cannot be accurately located …


Indoor Navigation Using Convolutional Neural Networks And Floor Plans, Ricky D. Anderson Mar 2021

Indoor Navigation Using Convolutional Neural Networks And Floor Plans, Ricky D. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to evaluate a new indoor navigation technique by incorporating floor plans along with monocular camera images into a CNN as a potential means for identifying camera position. Building floor plans are widely available and provide potential information for localizing within the building. This work sets out to determine if a CNN can learn the architectural features of a floor plan and use that information to determine a location. In this work, a simulated indoor data set is created and used to train two CNNs. A classification CNN, which breaks up the floor plan into …


Comparison Of Conic Ray Tracing For Occlusion Determination On 3d Point Cloud Data, Henry Cho Mar 2021

Comparison Of Conic Ray Tracing For Occlusion Determination On 3d Point Cloud Data, Henry Cho

Theses and Dissertations

The US Air Force has been increasing the use of automation in its weapon systems to include the remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) platforms. The RPA career field has had issues with poor pilot retention due to job stressors. For example, RPA operators spend a lot of time and attention surveilling a suspect on the ground for many hours, so adding automation to this activity could help improve pilot retention. The research problem in this thesis attempted to automate the process of observing a ground target. This thesis presents a method termed conic ray tracing for determining visibility and occlusion of …


Laser Illuminated Imaging: Beam And Scene Deconvolution Algorithm, Benjamin W. Davis Mar 2021

Laser Illuminated Imaging: Beam And Scene Deconvolution Algorithm, Benjamin W. Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Laser illuminated imaging systems deal with several physical challenges that must be overcome to achieve high-resolution images of the target. Noise sources like background noise, photon counting noise, and laser speckle noise will all greatly affect the imaging systems ability to produce a high-resolution image. An even bigger challenge to laser illuminated imaging systems is atmospheric turbulence and the effect that it will have on the imaging system. The illuminating beam will experience tilt, causing the beam to wander off the center of the target during propagation. The light returning to the detector will similarly be affected by turbulence, and …


Delayed Authentication System For Civilian Satellite, Sean M. Feschak Mar 2021

Delayed Authentication System For Civilian Satellite, Sean M. Feschak

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the feasibility of a Delayed Authentication System (DAS) for civilian satellite navigation (satnav) receivers. In satnav systems, encrypted signal components are transmitted synchronously with civilian components. Hence, the civilian signals can be authenticated by detecting the presence of encrypted signal components within the received signal. To authenticate, a reference station transmits estimated encrypted signal spreading code symbols processed using a high gain antenna. In this thesis, it is shown that a 1-meter diameter dish antenna is adequate to provide a high probability of successful authentication, thereby reducing overall system complexity and cost.


A Cyber Threat Taxonomy And A Viability Analysis For False Injections In The Tcas, John W. Hannah Mar 2021

A Cyber Threat Taxonomy And A Viability Analysis For False Injections In The Tcas, John W. Hannah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provided background information on the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). Additionally, the thesis developed a threat taxonomy for TCAS, resulting in the determination that a false injection attack presents the most comprehensive risk. Moreover, the thesis presents the development of a program to determine what ranges, altitudes, and relative bearings are most vulnerable to a false injection attack. The program includes test for all requirements of a successful false injection. Furthermore, the thesis presents an analysis of results and creates threat maps as situational awareness tools. Lastly, the thesis discusses potential solutions to the false injection attack, covers …


Infiniband Network Monitoring: Challenges And Possibilities, Kyle D. Hintze Mar 2021

Infiniband Network Monitoring: Challenges And Possibilities, Kyle D. Hintze

Theses and Dissertations

Within the realm of High Performance Computing, the InfiniBand Architecture is among the leading interconnects used today. Capable of providing high bandwidth and low latency, InfiniBand is finding applications outside the High Performance Computing domain. One of these is critical infrastructure, encompassing almost all essential sectors as the work force becomes more connected. InfiniBand is not immune to security risks, as prior research has shown that common traffic analyzing tools cannot effectively monitor InfiniBand traffic transmitted between hosts, due to the kernel bypass nature of the IBA in conjunction with Remote Direct Memory Access operations. If Remote Direct Memory Access …


Automated Network Exploitation Utilizing Bayesian Decision Networks, Graeme M. Roberts Mar 2021

Automated Network Exploitation Utilizing Bayesian Decision Networks, Graeme M. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) is the process of using tactics and techniques to penetrate computer systems and networks in order to achieve desired effects. It is currently a manual process requiring significant experience and time that are in limited supply. This thesis presents the Automated Network Discovery and Exploitation System (ANDES) which demonstrates that it is feasible to automate the CNE process. The uniqueness of ANDES is the use of Bayesian decision networks to represent the CNE domain and subject matter expert knowledge. ANDES conducts multiple execution cycles, which build upon previous action results. Cycles begin by modeling the current …


Exploring Fog Of War Concepts In Wargame Scenarios, Dillon N. Tryhorn Mar 2021

Exploring Fog Of War Concepts In Wargame Scenarios, Dillon N. Tryhorn

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores fog of war concepts through three submitted journal articles. The Department of Defense and U.S. Air Force are attempting to analyze war scenarios to aid the decision-making process; fog modeling improves realism in these wargame scenarios. The first article "Navigating an Enemy Contested Area with a Parallel Search Algorithm" [1] investigates a parallel algorithm's speedup, compared to the sequential implementation, with varying map configurations in a tile-based wargame. The parallel speedup tends to exceed 50 but in certain situations. The sequential algorithm outperforms it depending on the configuration of enemy location and amount on the map. The …


Remote Monitoring Of Memory Data Structures For Malware Detection In A Talos Ii Architecture, Robert A. Willburn Mar 2021

Remote Monitoring Of Memory Data Structures For Malware Detection In A Talos Ii Architecture, Robert A. Willburn

Theses and Dissertations

New forms of malware, namely xC;leless malware and rootkits, pose a threat to traditional anti-malware. In particular, Rootkits have the capacity to obscure the present state of memory from the user space of a target machine. If thishappens, anti-malware running in the user space of an axB;ected machine cannot be trusted to operate properly. To combat this threat, this research proposes the remote monitoring of memory from a second, secure processor runningOpenBMC, serving as a baseboard management controller for a POWER9 processor, which is assumed vulnerable to exploitation. The baseboard management controller includes an application called pdbg, used for debugging …


Aircraft Inspection By Multirotor Uav Using Coverage Path Planning, Patrick H. Silberberg Mar 2021

Aircraft Inspection By Multirotor Uav Using Coverage Path Planning, Patrick H. Silberberg

Theses and Dissertations

All military and commercial aircraft must undergo frequent visual inspections in order to identify damage that could pose a danger to safety of flight. Currently, these inspections are primarily conducted by maintenance personnel. Inspectors must scrutinize the aircraft’s surface to find and document defects such as dents, hail damage, broken fasteners, etc.; this is a time consuming, tedious, and hazardous process. The goal of this work is to develop a visual inspection system which can be used by an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), and to test the feasibility of this system on military aircraft. Using an autonomous system in place …


Display Design To Avoid And Mitigate Limit Cycle Oscillations (Lco) On The F-16c, David J. Feibus Mar 2021

Display Design To Avoid And Mitigate Limit Cycle Oscillations (Lco) On The F-16c, David J. Feibus

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons flying characteristics and flight envelope are dynamic and defined by its external weapon stores configuration. The employment of its munitions at certain speeds can put the F-16 into a flutter-like state in which Limit Cycle Oscillations (LCO) are induced. In LCO, a pilots fine motor control might be hindered, and the aircraft may lose combat effectiveness until flight conditions are reduced. The current research attempted to provide pilots with a predictive feedback display to avoid an LCO-susceptible configuration by increasing their situation awareness about the consequences of employing certain munitions to their flight …


Electro-Optic Satellite Constellation Design Using Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm, Yasin Tamer Dec 2020

Electro-Optic Satellite Constellation Design Using Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm, Yasin Tamer

Theses and Dissertations

Satellite constellation design is a complex, highly constrained, and multidisciplinary problem. Unless optimization tools are used, tradeoffs must be conducted at the subsystem level resulting in feasible, but not necessarily optimal, system designs. As satellite technology advances, new methods to optimize the system objectives are developed. This study is based on the development of a representative regional remote sensing constellation design. This thesis analyses the design process of an electrooptic satellite constellation with regional coverage considerations using system-level optimization tools. A multi objective genetic algorithm method is used to optimize the constellation design by utilizing MATLAB and STK integration. Cost, …


Deep Learning-Based, Passive Fault Tolerant Control Facilitated By A Taxonomy Of Cyber-Attack Effects, Dean C. Wardell Dec 2020

Deep Learning-Based, Passive Fault Tolerant Control Facilitated By A Taxonomy Of Cyber-Attack Effects, Dean C. Wardell

Theses and Dissertations

In the interest of improving the resilience of cyber-physical control systems to better operate in the presence of various cyber-attacks and/or faults, this dissertation presents a novel controller design based on deep-learning networks. This research lays out a controller design that does not rely on fault or cyber-attack detection. Being passive, the controller’s routine operating process is to take in data from the various components of the physical system, holistically assess the state of the physical system using deep-learning networks and decide the subsequent round of commands from the controller. This use of deep-learning methods in passive fault tolerant control …


Direct Digital Synthesis: A Flexible Architecture For Advanced Signals Research For Future Satellite Navigation Payloads, Pranav R. Patel Sep 2020

Direct Digital Synthesis: A Flexible Architecture For Advanced Signals Research For Future Satellite Navigation Payloads, Pranav R. Patel

Theses and Dissertations

In legacy Global Positioning System (GPS) Satellite Navigation (SatNav) payloads, the architecture does not provide the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances and environments. GPS SatNav payloads have largely remained unchanged since the system became fully operational in April 1995. Since then, the use of GPS has become ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives. GPS availability is now a basic assumption for distributed infrastructure; it has become inextricably tied to our national power grids, cellular networks, and global financial systems. Emerging advancements of easy to use radio technologies, such as software-defined radios (SDRs), have greatly lowered the difficulty of discovery and …


Improving Closely Spaced Dim Object Detection Through Improved Multiframe Blind Deconvolution, Ronald M. Aung Sep 2020

Improving Closely Spaced Dim Object Detection Through Improved Multiframe Blind Deconvolution, Ronald M. Aung

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on improving the ability to detect dim stellar objects that are in close proximity to a bright one, through statistical image processing using short exposure images. The goal is to improve the space domain awareness capabilities with the existing infrastructure. Two new algorithms are developed. The first one is through the Neighborhood System Blind Deconvolution where the data functions are separated into the bright object, the neighborhood system, and the background functions. The second one is through the Dimension Reduction Blind Deconvolution, where the object function is represented by the product of two matrices. Both are designed …


Joint 1d And 2d Neural Networks For Automatic Modulation Recognition, Luis M. Rosario Morel Sep 2020

Joint 1d And 2d Neural Networks For Automatic Modulation Recognition, Luis M. Rosario Morel

Theses and Dissertations

The digital communication and radar community has recently manifested more interest in using data-driven approaches for tasks such as modulation recognition, channel estimation and distortion correction. In this research we seek to apply an object detector for parameter estimation to perform waveform separation in the time and frequency domain prior to classification. This enables the full automation of detecting and classifying simultaneously occurring waveforms. We leverage a lD ResNet implemented by O'Shea et al. in [1] and the YOLO v3 object detector designed by Redmon et al. in [2]. We conducted an in depth study of the performance of these …


Design And Test Of An Autonomy Monitoring Service To Detect Divergent Behaviors On Unmanned Aerial Systems, Loay Y. Almannaei Jun 2020

Design And Test Of An Autonomy Monitoring Service To Detect Divergent Behaviors On Unmanned Aerial Systems, Loay Y. Almannaei

Theses and Dissertations

Operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) support many critical missions in the United State Air Force (USAF). Monitoring abnormal behavior is one of many responsibilities of the operator during a mission. Some behaviors are hard to be detect by an operator, especially when flying one or more autonomous vehicles; as such, detections require a high level of attention and focus to flight parameters. In this research, a monitoring system and its algorithm are designed and tested for a target fixed-wing UAV. The Autonomy Monitoring Service (AMS) compares the real vehicle or simulated Vehicle with a similar simulated vehicle using Software …


Monte Carlo Tree Search Applied To A Modified Pursuit/Evasion Scotland Yard Game With Rendezvous Spaceflight Operation Applications, Joshua A. Daughtery Jun 2020

Monte Carlo Tree Search Applied To A Modified Pursuit/Evasion Scotland Yard Game With Rendezvous Spaceflight Operation Applications, Joshua A. Daughtery

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis takes the Scotland Yard board game and modifies its rules to mimic important aspects of space in order to facilitate the creation of artificial intelligence for space asset pursuit/evasion scenarios. Space has become a physical warfighting domain. To combat threats, an understanding of the tactics, techniques, and procedures must be captured and studied. Games and simulations are effective tools to capture data lacking historical context. Artificial intelligence and machine learning models can use simulations to develop proper defensive and offensive tactics, techniques, and procedures capable of protecting systems against potential threats. Monte Carlo Tree Search is a bandit-based …


Object Detection With Deep Learning To Accelerate Pose Estimation For Automated Aerial Refueling, Andrew T. Lee Mar 2020

Object Detection With Deep Learning To Accelerate Pose Estimation For Automated Aerial Refueling, Andrew T. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) cannot currently refuel during flight because the latency between the pilot and the aircraft is too great to safely perform aerial refueling maneuvers. However, an AAR system removes this limitation by allowing the tanker to directly control the RP A. The tanker quickly finding the relative position and orientation (pose) of the approaching aircraft is the first step to create an AAR system. Previous work at AFIT demonstrates that stereo camera systems provide robust pose estimation capability. This thesis first extends that work by examining the effects of the cameras' resolution on the quality of pose …


Extracting Range Data From Images Using Focus Error, Erik M. Madden Mar 2020

Extracting Range Data From Images Using Focus Error, Erik M. Madden

Theses and Dissertations

Air-to-air refueling (AAR) has become a staple when performing long missions with aircraft. With modern technology, however, people have begun to research how to perform this task autonomously. Automated air-to-air refueling (A3R) is this exact concept. Combining many different systems, the idea is to allow computers on the aircraft to link up via the refueling boom, refuel, and detach before resuming pilot control. This document lays out one of the systems that is needed to perform A3R, namely, the system that extracts range data. While stereo cameras perform such tasks, there is interest in finding other ways of accomplishing the …


Developing A Serious Game To Explore Joint All Domain Command And Control, Nathaniel W. Flack Mar 2020

Developing A Serious Game To Explore Joint All Domain Command And Control, Nathaniel W. Flack

Theses and Dissertations

Changes in the geopolitical landscape and increasing technological complexity have prompted the U.S. Military to coin Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) and Joint All-Domain Command and Control as terms to describe an over-arching strategy that frames the complexity of warfare across both traditional and emerging warfighting domains. Teaching new and advanced concepts associated with these terms requires both innovation as well as distinct education and training tools in order to realize the cultural change advocated by senior military leaders. BSN, a Collectible Card Game, was developed to teach concepts integral to MDO and initiate discussion on military strategy.


Comparison Of Visual Simultaneous Localization And Mapping Methods For Fixed-Wing Aircraft Using Slambench2, Patrick R. Latcham Mar 2020

Comparison Of Visual Simultaneous Localization And Mapping Methods For Fixed-Wing Aircraft Using Slambench2, Patrick R. Latcham

Theses and Dissertations

Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) algorithms have evolved rapidly in the last few years, however there has been little research evaluating current algorithm's effectiveness and limitations when applied to tracking the position of a fixed-wing aerial vehicle. This research looks to evaluate current monocular VSLAM algorithms' performance on aerial vehicle datasets using the SLAMBench2 benchmarking suite. The algorithms tested are MonoSLAM, PTAM, OKVIS, LSDSLAM, ORB-SLAM2, and SVO, all of which are built into the SLAMBench2 software. The algorithms' performance is evaluated using simulated datasets generated in the AftrBurner Engine. The datasets were designed to test the quality of each …


Sliver: Simulation-Based Logic Bomb Identification/Verification For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Jake M. Magness Mar 2020

Sliver: Simulation-Based Logic Bomb Identification/Verification For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Jake M. Magness

Theses and Dissertations

This research introduces SLIVer, a Simulation-based Logic Bomb Identification/Verification methodology, for finding logic bombs hidden within Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) autopilot code without having access to the device source code. Effectiveness is demonstrated by executing a series of test missions within a high-fidelity software-in-the-loop (SITL) simulator. In the event that a logic bomb is not detected, this methodology defines safe operating areas for UAVs to ensure to a high degree of confidence the UAV operates normally on the defined flight plan. SLIVer uses preplanned flight paths as the baseline input space, greatly reducing the input space that must be searched …


Relational Database Design And Multi-Objective Database Queries For Position Navigation And Timing Data, Sean A. Mochocki Mar 2020

Relational Database Design And Multi-Objective Database Queries For Position Navigation And Timing Data, Sean A. Mochocki

Theses and Dissertations

Performing flight tests is a natural part of researching cutting edge sensors and filters for sensor integration. Unfortunately, tests are expensive, and typically take many months of planning. A sensible goal would be to make previously collected data readily available to researchers for future development. The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) has hundreds of data logs potentially available to aid in facilitating further research in the area of navigation. A database would provide a common location where older and newer data sets are available. Such a database must be able to store the sensor data, metadata about the sensors, …