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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Design Of An Autopilot For Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Reed Siefert Christiansen
Design Of An Autopilot For Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Reed Siefert Christiansen
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis presents the design of an autopilot capable of flying small unmanned aerial vehicles with wingspans less then 21 inches. The autopilot is extremely small and lightweight allowing it to fit in aircraft of this size. The autopilot features an advanced, highly autonomous flight control system with auto-launch and auto-landing algorithms. These features allow the autopilot to be operated by a wide spectrum of skilled and unskilled users. Innovative control techniques implemented in software, coupled with light weight, robust, and inexpensive hardware components were used in the design of the autopilot.
Autonomous Landing Of A Rotary Unmanned Aerial Vehicle In A Non-Cooperative Environment Using Machine Vision, Joshua Martin Hintze
Autonomous Landing Of A Rotary Unmanned Aerial Vehicle In A Non-Cooperative Environment Using Machine Vision, Joshua Martin Hintze
Theses and Dissertations
Landing an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a non-trivial problem. Removing the ability to cooperate with the landing site further increases the complexity. This thesis develops a multi-stage process that allows a UAV to locate the safest landing site, and then land without a georeference. Machine vision is the vehicle sensor used to locate potential landing hazards and generate an estimated UAV position. A description of the algorithms, along with validation results, are presented. The thesis shows that software-simulated landing performs adequately, and that future hardware integration looks promising.
Implementation Issues Of Real-Time Trajectory Generation On Small Uavs, Derek B. Kingston
Implementation Issues Of Real-Time Trajectory Generation On Small Uavs, Derek B. Kingston
Theses and Dissertations
The transition from a mathematical algorithm to a physical hardware implementation is non-trivial. This thesis discusses the issues involved in the transition from the theory of real-time trajectory generation all the way through a hardware experiment. Documentation of the validation process as well as modifications to the existing theory as a result of hardware testing are treated at length. The results of hardware experimentation show that trajectory generation can be done in real-time in a manner facilitating coordination of multiple small UAVs.