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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Optimized 3d Reconstruction For Infrastructure Inspection With Automated Structure From Motion And Machine Learning Methods, Samuel Arce Munoz Jun 2020

Optimized 3d Reconstruction For Infrastructure Inspection With Automated Structure From Motion And Machine Learning Methods, Samuel Arce Munoz

Theses and Dissertations

Infrastructure monitoring is being transformed by the advancements on remote sensing, unmanned vehicles and information technology. The wide interaction among these fields and the availability of reliable commercial technology are helping pioneer intelligent inspection methods based on digital 3D models. Commercially available Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been used to create 3D photogrammetric models of industrial equipment. However, the level of automation of these missions remains low. Limited flight time, wireless transfer of large files and the lack of algorithms to guide a UAV through unknown environments are some of the factors that constraint fully automated UAV inspections. This work …


Pitch And Thrust Allocation For Full-Flight-Regime Control Of Winged Evtol Uavs, Jacob B. Willis, Randal W. Beard Apr 2020

Pitch And Thrust Allocation For Full-Flight-Regime Control Of Winged Evtol Uavs, Jacob B. Willis, Randal W. Beard

Faculty Publications

Trajectory tracking control for winged eVTOL aircraft is complicated by the high-angle-of-attack aerodynamics experienced during navigational flight occurring immediately after takeoff and immediately before landing. The total energy use of the vehicle can be reduced and the control performance can be improved by appropriately considering the pitch angle of the vehicle in varying flight conditions. We present a review of high-angle-of-attack aerodynamic models as well as an algorithm for finding the optimal pitch and thrust of a winged eVTOL throughout its flight regime. We show simulation results demonstrating a 75% reduction in tracking error over our previous work while maintaining …


Error-State Estimation And Control For A Multirotor Uav Landing On A Moving Vehicle, Michael David Farrell Feb 2020

Error-State Estimation And Control For A Multirotor Uav Landing On A Moving Vehicle, Michael David Farrell

Theses and Dissertations

Though multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become widely used during the past decade, challenges in autonomy have prevented their widespread use when moving vehicles act as their base stations. Emerging use cases, including maritime surveillance, package delivery and convoy support, require UAVs to autonomously operate in this scenario. This thesis presents improved solutions to both the state estimation and control problems that must be solved to enable robust, autonomous landing of multirotor UAVs onto moving vehicles.Current state-of-the-art UAV landing systems depend on the detection of visual fiducial markers placed on the landing target vehicle. However, in challenging conditions, such …