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Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Supporting Flight Control For Uav-Assisted Wilderness Search And Rescue Through Human Centered Interface Design, Joseph L. Cooper Nov 2007

Supporting Flight Control For Uav-Assisted Wilderness Search And Rescue Through Human Centered Interface Design, Joseph L. Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

Inexpensive, rapidly deployable, camera-equipped Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems can potentially assist with a huge number of tasks. However, in many cases such as wilderness search and rescue (WiSAR), the potential users of the system may not be trained as pilots. Simple interface concepts can be used to build an interaction layer that allows an individual with minimal operator training to use the system to facilitate a search or inspection task. We describe an analysis of WiSAR as currently accomplished and show how a UAV system might fit into the existing structure. We then discuss preliminary system design efforts for …


Using A Mini-Uav To Support Wilderness Search And Rescue: Practices For Human-Robot Teaming, Julie A. Adams, Brian G. Buss, Joseph L. Cooper, Michael A. Goodrich, Curtis Humphrey, Ron Zeeman Sep 2007

Using A Mini-Uav To Support Wilderness Search And Rescue: Practices For Human-Robot Teaming, Julie A. Adams, Brian G. Buss, Joseph L. Cooper, Michael A. Goodrich, Curtis Humphrey, Ron Zeeman

Faculty Publications

Wilderness Search and Rescue can benefit from aerial imagery of the search area. Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicles can potentially provide such imagery, provided that the autonomy, search algorithms, and operator control unit are designed to support coordinated human-robot search teams. Using results from formal analyses of the WiSAR problem domain, we summarize and discuss information flow requirements for WiSAR with an eye toward the efficient use of mUAVs to support search. We then identify and discuss three different operational paradigms for performing field searches, and identify influences that affect which human-robot team paradigm is best. Since the likely location of …


Vision-Based Control And Flight Optimization Of A Rotorcraft Uav, David Christian Hubbard Jun 2007

Vision-Based Control And Flight Optimization Of A Rotorcraft Uav, David Christian Hubbard

Theses and Dissertations

A Rotorcraft UAV provides an ideal experimental platform for vision-based navigation. This thesis describes the flight tests of the US Army PALACE pro ject, which implements Moravec's pseudo-normalized correlation tracking algorithm. The tracker uses the movement of the landing site in the camera, a laser range, and the aircraft attitude from an IMU to estimate the relative motion of the UAV. The position estimate functions as a GPS equivalent to enable the rotorcraft to maneuver without the aid of GPS. Flight tests were performed with obstacles and over concrete, asphalt, and grass in daylight conditions with a safe landing area …


Probabilistic Searching Using A Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Steven R. Hansen, Timothy W. Mclain, Michael A. Goodrich May 2007

Probabilistic Searching Using A Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Steven R. Hansen, Timothy W. Mclain, Michael A. Goodrich

Faculty Publications

Ground breaking concepts in optimal search theory were developed during World War II by the U.S. Navy. These concepts use an assumed detection model to calculate a detection probability rate and an optimal search allocation. Although this theory is useful in determining when and where search effort should be applied, it offers little guidance for the planning of search paths. This paper explains how search theory can be applied to path planning for an SUAV with a fixed CCD camera. Three search strategies are developed: greedy search, contour search, and composite search. In addition, the concepts of search efficiency and …


Feature-Based Mini Unmanned Air Vehicle Video Euclidean Stabilization With Local Mosaics, Damon Dyck Gerhardt Feb 2007

Feature-Based Mini Unmanned Air Vehicle Video Euclidean Stabilization With Local Mosaics, Damon Dyck Gerhardt

Theses and Dissertations

Video acquired using a camera mounted on a mini Unmanned Air Vehicle (mUAV) may be very helpful in Wilderness Search and Rescue and many other applications but is commonly plagued with limited spatial and temporal field of views, distractive jittery motions, disorienting rotations, and noisy and distorted images. These problems collectively make it very difficult for human viewers to identify objects of interest as well as infer correct orientations throughout the video. In order to expand the temporal and spatial field of view, stabilize, and better orient users of noisy and distorted mUAV video, a method is proposed of estimating …


Performance Evaluation Of Vision-Based Navigation And Landing On A Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, David Hubbard, Timothy W. Mclain, Bryan S. Morse, Colin Theodore, Mark Tischler Feb 2007

Performance Evaluation Of Vision-Based Navigation And Landing On A Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, David Hubbard, Timothy W. Mclain, Bryan S. Morse, Colin Theodore, Mark Tischler

Faculty Publications

A Rotorcraft UAV provides an ideal experimental platform for vision-based navigation. This paper describes the flight tests of the US Army PALACE project, which implements Moravec’s pseudo-normalized correlation tracking algorithm. The tracker uses the movement of the landing site in the camera, a laser range, and the aircraft attitude from an IMU to estimate the relative motion of the UAV. The position estimate functions as a GPS equivalent to enable the rotorcraft to maneuver without the aid of GPS. With GPS data as a baseline, tests were performed in simulation and in flight that measure the accuracy of the position …