Computer Engineering Commons^™

Accelerating Precision Station Keeping For Automated Aircraft, James D. Anderson

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Automated vehicles pose challenges in various research domains, including robotics, machine learning, computer vision, public safety, system certification, and beyond. These vehicles autonomously handle navigation and locomotion, often requiring minimal user interaction, and can operate on land, in water, or in the air. In the context of aircraft, one specific application is Automated Aerial Refueling (AAR). Traditional aerial refueling involves a "tanker" aircraft using a mechanism, such as a rigid boom arm or a flexible hose, to transfer fuel to another aircraft designated as the "receiver". For AAR, the boom arm may be maneuvered automatically, or in certain instances the …

Integrated Environment And Proximity Sensing For Uav Applications, Shawn S. Brackett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or “drone” applications expand, new methods for sensing, navigating and avoiding obstacles need to be developed. The project applies an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to a simulated quadcopter vehicle though Matlab in order to estimate not only the vehicle state but the world state around the vehicle. The EKF integrates multiple sensor readings from range sensors, IMU sensors, and radiation sensors and combines this information to optimize state estimates. The result is an estimated world map to be used in vehicle navigation and obstacle avoidance.

The simulation handles the physics behind the vehicle flight. As …