Engineering Commons^™

Real-Time Edge Computing For Autonomous Systems, Junlin Ou

Theses and Dissertations

This research presents systematic studies and algorithmic and hardware development to enable real-time edge computing for autonomous systems, in particular, for robot path planning and localization applications. First, a low-cost, indoor, multi-camera positioning system is proposed to localize ground robots using the ArUco marker. In this system, the normalized coordinates of the marker processed by OpenCV are utilized to calculate the camera coordinates. Data-driven models are developed to establish a mapping relationship between the camera coordinates and the world coordinates of the marker. Fifty data pairs of the camera and world coordinate systems within one camera view (150 pairs in …

Autonomous Teaming Of Multileader System - Robust Cluster Formation Approach, Maryam N. Naleini

Electrical Engineering Dissertations

The cluster consensus problem of Multileader MAS Is considered and the clustering problem of interconnected multileader systems is formulated as a disturbance attenuation problem. For the first time, it's proved that the multileader MAS can reach cluster consensus without limiting the communication between the clusters. The combination of Small Gain Theorem and H8 optimization has been designed in the graphical differential game platform to prove the stability for the system. At the end, an online off-policy reinforcement learning algorithm is developed to find the solution to the H8 optimal problem of multileader MAS with completely unknown systems.

Autonomous Aerial Vehicles Distributed Control And Interactive Games, Yusuf Kartal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations

As the number of quadrotors and other Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) increases in industrial and urban areas, the development of reliable engineering methods to control their behavior as they interact with each other becomes of central interest in control research. With the increase in demand for UAVs to work together, several real-life challenges need to be addressed that include the implementation, test, and validation of the control algorithms in flight test experiments. On the one hand, the interests of UAVs may be in harmony to perform certain tasks such as transportation, surveillance and reconnaissance. On the other hand, the interests …

Robotic Olfactory-Based Navigation With Mobile Robots, Lingxiao Wang

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Robotic odor source localization (OSL) is a technology that enables mobile robots or autonomous vehicles to find an odor source in unknown environments. It has been viewed as challenging due to the turbulent nature of airflows and the resulting odor plume characteristics. The key to correctly finding an odor source is designing an effective olfactory-based navigation algorithm, which guides the robot to detect emitted odor plumes as cues in finding the source. This dissertation proposes three kinds of olfactory-based navigation methods to improve search efficiency while maintaining a low computational cost, incorporating different machine learning and artificial intelligence methods.

A. …

Formation Control Using Vehicle Operational Envelopes And Behavior-Based Dual-Mode Model Predictive Control, Brian Merrell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis presents a control framework for formation control. Given an initial desired trajectory, a framework is presented to generate trajectories for each vehicle within the formation. When combined with an operational envelope, a designated area for each vehicle to maneuver, for each vehicle the multi-vehicle formation control problem can be redefined into a single vehicle problem. A single vehicle framework is presented to track the respective trajectory when possible, or stay near it when it passes through previously unknown obstacles. Arc-based motions are used to rapidly produce desirable robot controls while a trajectory tracking motion is used to ensure …

A Multi-Vehicle Cooperative Localization Approach For An Autonomy Framework, Edwin A. Mora

Theses and Dissertations

Offensive techniques produced by technological advancement present opportunities for adversaries to threaten the operational advantages of our joint and allied forces. Combating these new methodologies requires continuous and rapid development towards our own set of \game-changing" technologies. Through focused development of unmanned systems and autonomy, the Air Force can strive to maintain its technological superiority. Furthermore, creating a robust framework capable of testing and evaluating the principles that define autonomy allows for the exploration of future capabilities. This research presents development towards a hybrid reactive/deliberative architecture that will allow for the testing of the principles of task, cognitive, and peer …

Vision-Based Emergency Landing Of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Parker Chase Lusk

Theses and Dissertations

Emergency landing is a critical safety mechanism for aerial vehicles. Commercial aircraft have triply-redundant systems that greatly increase the probability that the pilot will be able to land the aircraft at a designated airfield in the event of an emergency. In general aviation, the chances of always reaching a designated airfield are lower, but the successful pilot might use landmarks and other visual information to safely land in unprepared locations. For small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), triply- or even doubly-redundant systems are unlikely due to size, weight, and power constraints. Additionally, there is a growing demand for beyond visual line …

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 …

Multi-Source Uav-Based Object Classification Using Cnn’S And Data Acquisition System For Robotic Skin, Raghavendra Sriram Margasahayam Subrahamanyam

Electrical Engineering Theses

Autonomous robots are intelligent systems capable of performing tasks in the world by themselves, without explicit human control. Examples range from autonomous helicopters to Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner to robotic manipulators. The numerous sensors onboard gather data related to the desired actions and this poses several challenges and design constraints in terms of computation and hardware design that can prove to be extremely difficult and expensive to avoid. The objective of this research is to study, develop and implement various Intelligent solutions to help solve several real-world problems with respect to multi agent configurations of unmanned systems. We shall …

Multi-Source Uav-Based Object Classification Using Cnn’S And Data Acquisition System For Robotic Skin, Raghavendra Sriram Margasahayam Subrahamanyam

Electrical Engineering Dissertations

Autonomous robots are intelligent systems capable of performing tasks in the world by themselves, without explicit human control. Examples range from autonomous helicopters to Roomba, the robot vacuum cleaner to robotic manipulators. The numerous sensors onboard gather data related to the desired actions and this poses several challenges and design constraints in terms of computation and hardware design that can prove to be extremely difficult and expensive to avoid. The objective of this research is to study, develop and implement various Intelligent solutions to help solve several real-world problems with respect to multi agent configurations of unmanned systems. We shall …

Optimizing Dynamic Logic Realizations For Partial Reconfiguration Of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, Matthew Parris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many digital logic applications can take advantage of the reconfiguration capability of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to dynamically patch design flaws, recover from faults, or time-multiplex between functions. Partial reconfiguration is the process by which a user modifies one or more modules residing on the FPGA device independently of the others. Partial Reconfiguration reduces the granularity of reconfiguration to be a set of columns or rectangular region of the device. Decreasing the granularity of reconfiguration results in reduced configuration filesizes and, thus, reduced configuration times. When compared to one bitstream of a non-partial reconfiguration implementation, smaller modules resulting in …