Engineering Commons^™

Efficient Connectivity Management And Path Planning For Iot And Uav Networks, Amirahmad Chapnevis

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how to better manage resources in mobile networks, especially for enhancing the performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-supported IoT networks. We explored ways to set up a flexible communication architecture that can handle large IoT deployments by making good use of mobile core network resources like bearers and data paths. We developed strategies that meet the needs of IoT networks and enhance network performance. We also developed and tested a system that combines traffic from several mobile devices that use the same user identity and network resources within the core mobile network. We used everyday smartphones, SIM …

On-Board Artificial Intelligence For Failure Detection And Safe Trajectory Generation, Eduardo Morillo

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The use of autonomous flight vehicles has recently increased due to their versatility and capability of carrying out different type of missions in a wide range of flight conditions. Adequate commanded trajectory generation and modification, as well as high-performance trajectory tracking control laws have been an essential focus of researchers given that integration into the National Air Space (NAS) is becoming a primary need. However, the operational safety of these systems can be easily affected if abnormal flight conditions are present, thereby compromising the nominal bounds of design of the system's flight envelop and trajectory following. This thesis focuses on …

Path Planning For Aircraft Under Threat Of Detection From Ground-Based Radar With Uncertainty In Aircraft And Radar States, Austin D. Costley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mission planners for manned and unmanned aircraft operating within the detection range of ground-based radar systems are often concerned with the probability of detection. Several factors influence the probability of detection, including aircraft position and orientation, radar position, and radar performance parameters. Current path planning algorithms assume that these factors are known with certainty, but in practice, these factors are estimated and have some uncertainty.

This dissertation explores methods to consider the uncertainty in the detection factors for an aircraft path planner. First, the detection model is extended to include uncertainty in the aircraft position and orientation, radar position, and …

Quadrotor Uav Flight Control With Integrated Mapping And Path Planning Capabilities, Jason A. Gauthier

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Quadrotor UAVs have become a common and easily acquirable hardware platform for research and development with control laws, mapping systems, and path planning. In this research, a non-linear model of a quadrotor UAV is linearized with model parameters being identified using collected flight data. The PID, LQR, and backstepping control laws are implemented. An adaptive control law is also implemented to handle the loss of effectiveness in motor actuation. Additionally, this research also implements a laser-based SLAM algorithm for mapping and localization in an unknown two-dimensional environment. Path planning and obstacle avoidance algorithms are implemented onboard using the Robot Operating …

Fault-Tolerant Mapping And Localization For Quadrotor Uav, Maximillian Andrew Gilson

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to accomplish three main tasks for a quadrotor UAV with mapping and navigation capabilities. Firstly, a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) system is developed utilizing a laser rangefinder an open source SLAM algorithm called GMapping. This system allows for mapping of the surrounding environment as well as localizing the position of the quadrotor, enabling position control. Secondly, several path planning algorithms were implemented and evaluated. This allows the quadrotor to navigate through the environment even in the presence of obstacles. Lastly, to compensate for possible faults in the SLAM measurements, a fault-tolerant control method is developed. Real-time …

3d Dubins Curves For Multi-Vehicle Path Planning, Yiheng Wang

Masters Theses

"This thesis proposes a unified algorithm for target assignment and path planning in 3D space for multiple Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to visit multiple targets. The multi-target assignment and path planning problem is modeled as a multiple Traveling Salesmen Problem (mTSP) and is usually solved by two separate algorithms: the multiple task assignment problem is first solved by the Genetic Algorithm (GA) using Euclidean distances between the targets; then the 3D path planning problem is solved for each assignment by selecting Dubins curves or other continuity curves. In contrast, this paper embeds the 3D Dubins curve selection into the target …

Airborne Collision Detection And Avoidance For Small Uas Sense And Avoid Systems, Laith Rasmi Sahawneh

Theses and Dissertations

The increasing demand to integrate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the national airspace is motivated by the rapid growth of the UAS industry, especially small UAS weighing less than 55 pounds. Their use however has been limited by the Federal Aviation Administration regulations due to collision risk they pose, safety and regulatory concerns. Therefore, before civil aviation authorities can approve routine UAS flight operations, UAS must be equipped with sense-and-avoid technology comparable to the see-and-avoid requirements for manned aircraft. The sense-and-avoid problem includes several important aspects including regulatory and system-level requirements, design specifications and performance standards, intruder detecting and tracking, …

Scalable Autonomous Operations Of Unmanned Assets, Sunghun Jung

Open Access Dissertations

Although there have been great theoretical advances in the region of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) autonomy, applications of those theories into real world are still hesitated due to unexpected disturbances. Most of UAVs which are currently used are mainly, strictly speaking, Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPA) since most works related with the flight control, sensor data analysis, and decision makings are done by human operators. To increase the degree of autonomy, many researches are focused on developing Unmanned Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (UAAV) which can takeoff, fly to the interested area by avoiding unexpected obstacles, perform various missions with decision makings, come …

Caddy: A 2005 Roborodentia Entry With Vision And Path Planning Abilities, Taylor Braun-Jones

Computer Engineering

Roborodentia is an autonomous robotics competition held each year during Cal Poly’s Open House. For the 2005 competition, robot entries needed to navigate a maze searching for three randomly placed golf balls, collect them, and then deposit the balls in the “nest” at the end of the maze. A newly added aspect for the 2005 competition included two bonus balls that were placed on a platform behind the wall in two predetermined corners of the maze.

Caddy is a robot that was entered into the 2005 Roborodentia competition. Caddy included a vision system that allowed searching for balls down untraveled …

Developing A Guidance Law For A Small-Scale Controllable Projectile Using Backstepping And Adaptive Control Techniques And A Hardware System Implementation For A Uav And A Ugv To Track A Moving Ground Target, Kevin Christopher Meier

Theses and Dissertations

The work in this thesis is on two topics. The first topic focuses on collaboration between a UAV and a UGV to track a moving ground target. The second topic focuses on deriving a guidance law for a small-scale controllable projectile to be guided into a target. For the first topic, we implement a path planning algorithm in a hardware system for a UAV and UGV to track a ground target. The algorithm is designed for urban environments where it is common for objects to obstruct sensors located on the UAV and the UGV. During the hardware system's implementation, multiple …

Online Path Planning And Control Solution For A Coordinated Attack Of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles In A Dynamic Environment, Juan Vega-Nevarez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The role of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has significantly expanded in the military sector during the last decades mainly due to their cost effectiveness and their ability to eliminate the human life risk. Current UAV technology supports a variety of missions and extensive research and development is being performed to further expand its capabilities. One particular field of interest is the area of the low cost expendable UAV since its small price tag makes it an attractive solution for target suppression. A swarm of these low cost UAVs can be utilized as guided munitions or kamikaze UAVs to attack …

Bearing-Only Cooperative-Localization And Path-Planning Of Ground And Aerial Robots, Rajnikant Sharma

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we focus on two fundamental problems related to the navigation of ground robots and small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs): cooperative localization and path planning. The theme running through in all of the work is the use of bearing only sensors, with a focus on monocular video cameras mounted on ground robots and UAVs. To begin with, we derive the conditions for the complete observability of the bearing-only cooperative localization problem. The key element of this analysis is the Relative Position Measurement Graph (RPMG). The nodes of an RPMG represent vehicle states and the edges represent bearing measurements …

Vision-Based Path Planning, Collision Avoidance, And Target Tracking For Unmanned Air And Ground Vehicles In Urban Environments, Huili Yu

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned vehicle systems, specifically Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) have found potential use in both military and civilian applications. For many applications, unmanned vehicle systems are required to navigate in urban environments where obstacles with various types and sizes exist. The main contribution of this research is to offer vision-based path planning, collision avoidance, and target tracking strategies for Unmanned Air and Ground vehicles operating in urban environments. Two vision-based local-level frame mapping and planning techniques are first developed for Miniature Air Vehicles (MAVs). The techniques build maps and plan paths in the local-level frame of …

System Identification, State Estimation, And Control Of Unmanned Aerial Robots, Caleb H. Chamberlain

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes work in a variety of topics related to aerial robotics, including system identification, state estimation, control, and path planning. The path planners described in this thesis are used to guide a fixed-wing UAV along paths that optimize the aircraft's ability to track a ground target. Existing path planners in the literature either ignore occlusions entirely, or they have limited capability to handle different types of paths. The planners described in this thesis are novel in that they specifically account for the effect of occlusions in urban environments, and they can produce a much richer set of paths …

Path Planning For Unmanned Air And Ground Vehicles In Urban Environments, Andrew B. Curtis

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned vehicle systems, specifically unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), have become a popular research topic. This thesis discusses the potential of a UAV-UGV system used to track a human moving through complex urban terrain. This research focuses on path planning problems for both a UAV and a UGV, and presents effective solutions for both problems. In the UAV path planning problem, we desire to plan a path for a miniature fixed-wing UAV to fly through known urban terrain without colliding with any buildings. We present the Waypoint RRT (WRRT) algorithm, which accounts for UAV dynamics while …

A Virtual Reality Visualization Ofan Analytical Solution Tomobile Robot Trajectory Generationin The Presence Of Moving Obstacles, Ricardo Elias

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Virtual visualization of mobile robot analytical trajectories while avoiding moving obstacles is presented in this thesis as a very helpful technique to properly display and communicate simulation results. Analytical solutions to the path planning problem of mobile robots in the presence of obstacles and a dynamically changing environment have been presented in the current robotics and controls literature. These techniques have been demonstrated using two-dimensional graphical representation of simulation results. In this thesis, the analytical solution published by Dr. Zhihua Qu in December 2004 is used and simulated using a virtual visualization tool called VRML.

Obstacle Avoidance For Small Unmanned Air Vehicles, Brandon R. Call

Theses and Dissertations

Small UAVs are used for low altitude surveillance flights where unknown obstacles can be encountered. These UAVs can be given the capability to navigate in uncertain environments if obstacles are identified. This research presents an obstacle avoidance system for small UAVs. First, a mission waypoint path is created that avoids all known obstacles using a genetic algorithm. Then, while the UAV is in flight, obstacles are detected using a forward looking, onboard camera. Image features are found using the Harris Corner Detector and tracked through multiple video frames which provides three dimensional localization of the features. A sparse three dimensional …