Engineering Commons^™

An Experimental Comparison Of Student Motivation Between Two Computational Thinking-Based Stem Activities: Vex-Based Automation And Robotics And A Quadcopter Activity, Cory J. Ortiz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to compare student motivation between two junior high level computational thinking based STEM curricular activities. These two activities were a newly developed quadcopter based curriculum and a VEX based curricular activity developed for Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology – Automation and Robotics course. Student motivation was assessed using an assessment called My Class Activities which broke motivation into four constructs: interest, challenge, choice, and enjoyment.

This study assessed students in three schools in a northern Utah school district. Students were assessed after receiving each curriculum. Assessment responses were then coded and analyzed. …

Field Validation Of An Advanced Autonomous Method Of Exterior Dam Inspection Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Benjamin Joseph Barrett

Theses and Dissertations

The maintenance of infrastructure is critical to the well-being of society. This work focuses on a novel method for inspecting the exterior of dams using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in an automated fashion. The UAVs are equipped with optical sensors capturing still images. The resulting images are used to generate three-dimensional (3D) models using Structure from Motion (SfM) computer software. The SfM models are then used to inspect the exterior of the dam. As typical dam inspections entail completing a checklist of inspection items with varied degrees of precision (e.g. a concrete spillway may be finely inspected for cracking or …

Design Optimization And Control Of A Fully Actuated Hexrotor Uav For Use In Aerial Manipulation Applications, Jameson Yau Sung Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This work addresses the issue of controller complexity in the application of a special class of multirotor in aerial manipulation tasks. Much of the current research concerning aerial manipulation involves the modeling and control of highly coupled multirotor and manipulator systems. This is a consequence of the platform’s under-actuation condition. To accommodate the rejection of arbitrary wrench disturbances brought about by the environment, multirotor must perform deliberate attitude tracking to affect forward and lateral maneuvers mid-flight. The manipulator end-effector tracking is highly affected by this, thus, their performance in general aerial manipulation is limited. To address these limitations, a special …

Scintillator-Based Uav, Austin Mullen, Chris Haseler, Sarah Davis, Brooke Mcmurrer, Tanner Jefferies, Peyton Lara

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Trust Based Time-Varying Network Topology For Distributed Co-Operative Control Of Multi-Class Multi-Agent Systems, Ankur Vipulkumar Dalal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

With increased levels of autonomy in most of the engineering fields and booms in areas such as swarms, platoons and Internet of Things (IoT), communication and information flow has become a highly researched field. With advancements in autonomous vehicles (AVs) and drones in armed warfare, more and more focus is being laid on intercommunication between these vehicles and its surroundings as well as intra-communication among the fleets/swarms itself. It is easier to deal with individual agents whereas it is quite challenging to deal with multi-agent systems especially with highly dynamic agents. In this thesis, we propose a general protocol for …

Uav-Based Geotechnical Modeling And Mapping Of An Inaccessible Underground Site, Elizabeth Anne Russell

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Digital photogrammetry is becoming a more common method used for mapping geological and structural rock mass features in underground mining. The issue of capturing geological and structural data in inaccessible, unsupported areas of mines remains even when utilizing terrestrial photogrammetric methods; thus, geotechnical models of mines are left with incomplete datasets. Large unsupported underground voids, like stopes, have the potential to cause major failures, but by filling in the geotechnical data gaps in inaccessible areas, potential failures can be predicted through kinematic analysis of the area’s mapped discontinuities. Implementation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in underground mines and recent advances …

Design And Implementation Of An Artificial Neural Network Controller For Quadrotor Flight In Confined Environment, Ahmed Mekky

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Quadrotors offer practical solutions for many applications, such as emergency rescue, surveillance, military operations, videography and many more. For this reason, they have recently attracted the attention of research and industry. Even though they have been intensively studied, quadrotors still suffer from some challenges that limit their use, such as trajectory measurement, attitude estimation, obstacle avoidance, safety precautions, and land cybersecurity. One major problem is flying in a confined environment, such as closed buildings and tunnels, where the aerodynamics around the quadrotor are affected by close proximity objects, which result in tracking performance deterioration, and sometimes instability. To address this …

Design And Test Of A Uav Swarm Architecture Over A Mesh Ad-Hoc Network, Timothy J. Allen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a testable swarm architecture such that the swarm of UAVs collaborate as a team rather than acting as several independent vehicles. Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components were used as they were low-cost, readily available, and previously proven to work with at least two networked UAVs. Initial testing was performed via software-in-the-loop (SITL) demonstrating swarming of three simulated multirotor aircraft, then transitioned to real hardware. The architecture was then tested in an outdoor nylon netting enclosure. Command and control (C2) was provided by software implementing an enhanced version of Reynolds’ flocking rules via an onboard …

Stabilized Rpa Flight In Building Proximity Operations, Michael M. Kaniut

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis seeks a solution to the requirement for a highly reliable and capable Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) to support a wide array of missions and applications that require close proximity flight to structures. The scope of the project includes the drafting of a concept of operations (CONOPs) describing how the mission requirements might be met using the sensor, operators, and air vehicle described here in. The demonstration of the wall-following section of that CONOPs is performed by cart testing a custom algorithm and evaluating its ability to react to its environment. Finally, a flight test was performed to characterize …

Military Application Of Aerial Photogrammetry Mapping Assisted By Small Unmanned Air Vehicles, Kijun Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the practical military applications of the photogrammetric methods using remote sensing assisted by small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs). The research explored the feasibility of UAV aerial mapping in terms of the specific military purposes, focusing on the geolocational and measurement accuracy of the digital models, and image processing time. The research method involved experimental flight tests using low-cost Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, sensors and image processing tools to study key features of the method required in military like location accuracy, time estimation, and measurement capability. Based on the results of the data analysis, two military applications are …

Nonlinear Control Framework For Gimbal And Multirotor In Target Tracking, Jae Hun Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents some existing gimbal and UAV control algorithms as well as novel algorithms developed as the extensions of the existing ones. The existing image-based visual servoing algorithms for both gimbal and UAV require the depth information to the object of interest. The depth information is not measurable when only a monocular camera is used for tracking. This thesis is the result of contemplation to the question: how can the necessity for a depth measurement be removed? A novel gimbal algorithm using adaptive control is developed and presented with simulation and hardware results. Although the estimated depth using the …

Implementation Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Reporting Plume Cloud Concentration Values In A 3d Simulation Environment, Emily Catherine Novak

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have the potential to vastly improve plume cloud tracking at low cost. Plume clouds can be produced from blast mining, chemical warfare, unintended man-made disasters, and natural causes. This thesis provides implementation of the capability to simulate a 3D environment in which UAVs are individually controlled and each report a plume's concentration value at a specific location. It leverages existing industry standard technologies, including the PX4 autopilot system, the Gazebo simulation environment, the Robot Operating System (ROS), and QGroundControl. The provided system integrates the existing tools with a plume model plug-in that provides simulated plume …

Force-Canceling Mixer Algorithm For Vehicles With Fully-Articulated Radially Symmetric Thruster Arrays, Joseph Nicholas Casabona

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A new type of fully-holonomic aerial vehicle is identified and developed that can optionally utilize automatic cancellation of excessive thruster forces to maintain precise control despite little or no throttle authority. After defining the physical attributes of the new vehicle, a flight control mixer algorithm is defined and presented. This mixer is an input/output abstraction that grants a flight control system (or pilot) full authority of the vehicle's position and orientation by means of an input translation vector and input torque vector. The mixer is shown to be general with respect to the number of thrusters in the system provided …

Autonomous Uav Battery Swapping, Reed Jacobsen, Nikolai Ruhe, Nathan Dornback

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

One of the main hindrances of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology are power constraints. One way to alleviate some power constraints would be for two UAVs to exchange batteries while both are in flight. Autonomous mid-air battery swapping will expand the scope of UAV technology by allowing for indefinite flight times and longer missions. A single board computer will control each UAV’s flight software to respond to inputs to align with each other mid-flight. When the two UAVs have joined, mechanical components will exchange a depleted battery on the worker UAV for a freshly charged battery that belongs to the …

Overwhelming The Saa System Of Delivery Uavs By Drone Swarming, Barry Lynn Pfaff

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

As the Internet continues to replace the brick-and-mortar store as the main place for purchasing goods, web-based companies are looking for ways to reduce the cost of delivering those goods. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs, is one delivery method that is increasingly being used. These UAVs can be programmed with delivery routes and destinations and can complete the job while requiring limited intervention from human controllers. Sense and Avoidance (SAA) systems have recently been incorporated into these UAVs so that they can detect objects in their flight path, reroute the UAV accordingly and operate even more autonomously. …