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Air Force Institute of Technology

2018

Automated Aerial Refueling

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Stereo Vision: A Comparison Of Synthetic Imagery Vs. Real World Imagery For The Automated Aerial Refueling Problem, Nicholas J. Seydel Mar 2018

Stereo Vision: A Comparison Of Synthetic Imagery Vs. Real World Imagery For The Automated Aerial Refueling Problem, Nicholas J. Seydel

Theses and Dissertations

Missions using unmanned aerial vehicles have increased in the past decade. Currently, there is no way to refuel these aircraft. Accomplishing automated aerial refueling can be made possible using the stereo vision system on a tanker. Real world experiments for the automated aerial refueling problem are expensive and time consuming. Currently, simulations performed in a virtual world have shown promising results using computer vision. It is possible to use the virtual world as a substitute environment for the real world. This research compares the performance of stereo vision algorithms on synthetic and real world imagery.


Mitigating The Effects Of Boom Occlusion On Automated Aerial Refueling Through Shadow Volumes, Zachary C. Paulson Mar 2018

Mitigating The Effects Of Boom Occlusion On Automated Aerial Refueling Through Shadow Volumes, Zachary C. Paulson

Theses and Dissertations

In flight refueling of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is critical to the United States Air Force (USAF). However, the large communication latency between a ground-based operator and his/her remote UAV makes docking with a refueling tanker unsafe. This latency may be mitigated by leveraging a tanker-centric stereo vision system. The vision system observes and computes an approaching receiver's relative position and orientation offering a low-latency, high frequency docking solution. Unfortunately, the boom -- an articulated refueling arm responsible for physically pumping fuel into the receiver -- occludes large portions of the receiver especially as the receiver approaches and docks with …