Engineering Commons^™

Uav For Medical Equipment Distribution, Richard Barakat, Logan Christensen, Brandon Halebsky, Justin Slavick

Mechanical Engineering

This Final Design Review report documents the senior project participating in the Vertical Flight Society’s 38th Annual Student Design Competition sponsored by The Boeing Company. The goal of this project and competition is to develop an unmanned vertical lift for medical equipment distribution capable of safely delivering a 50 kg payload over distances up to 200 km. This system must be autonomous and have a backup plan to land if any part of the system malfunctions. We discuss the research and justification that drove the selection of the aircraft configuration, a winged quadcopter with a rear propeller. Furthermore, we document …

Research And Education For Optimizing The Development And Implementation Of An Unmanned Aircraft Program At The Nebraska Department Of Transportation, Wayne Woldt, Jon Starr, Christopher M. U. Neale

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This report describes the development and implementation of an Unmanned Aircraft System Program at the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT). The project involved the selection and purchase of appropriate UAS and imaging systems for NDOT, education and training for NDOT personnel with classroom and hands-on operation of UAS with the goal of obtaining proficiency and pilot licenses. In addition, the development of policy for the use of UAS within NDOT was accomplished as well as standard operating procedures (SOP) documentation and the development of example case studies of interest to NDOT using the purchased systems and technology.

Research And Education For Optimizing The Development And Implementation Of An Unmanned Aircraft Program At The Nebraska Department Of Transportation, Wayne Woldt, Jon Starr, C.M.U. Neale

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This report describes the development and implementation of an Unmanned Aircraft System Program at the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT). The project involved the selection and purchase of appropriate UAS and imaging systems for NDOT, education and training for NDOT personnel with classroom and hands-on operation of UAS with the goal of obtaining proficiency and pilot licenses. In addition, the development of policy for the use of UAS within NDOT was accomplished as well as standard operating procedures (SOP) documentation and the development of example case studies of interest to NDOT using the purchased systems and technology.

Flying Wing Uav For Surveillance And Object Tracking, Kristen Padgett, Scott Semmelink, Jared Lasley, Paul Horne

Senior Design Project For Engineers

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have become ubiquitous in recent years due to their adaptability and ease of use. Surveillance UAVs in particular have seen increased interest and usage by law enforcement, civilian security, surveying, and federal services. The increased interest has led to the development of UAVs with increased endurance and payload capacity. Further as many of the applications of surveillance drones involve heightened security requirements, an aircraft of domestic make is preferential to many organizations. With this demand in mind, Inspired Products, LLC put forth a request for assistance in the design and testing of a surveillance UAV. More …

Field Demonstration Of Gpr And Uav Technologies For Evaluation Of Two Us 75/77 Bridges, Sepehr Pashoutani, Jinying Zhu, Chungwook Sim, Ji-Yong Lee

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Two Nebraska bridges with asphalt overlay were selected for nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT/NDE). Three NDT techniques were conducted on these two bridges, including Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), Half-Cell Potential (HCP) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imaging. NDT data were collected during three construction stages of the bridges: (1) before repair on existing asphalt overlay; (2) on bare concrete after asphalt removal; (3) and after repairing delaminated concrete.

A machine learning technique, autoencoder, was used to build quantitative relationships between different NDT datasets. On bare concrete, the GPR amplitude and HCP voltage show a strong linear relationship. Then a threshold …

Trajectory Generation And Tracking Control For Winged Electric Vertical Takeoff And Landing Aircraft, Jacob B. Willis

Theses and Dissertations

The development of high-energy-density batteries, advanced sensor technologies, and advanced control algorithms for multirotor electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has led to interest in using these vehicles for a variety of applications including surveillance, package delivery, and even human transportation. In each of these cases, the ideal vehicle is one that can maneuver in congested spaces, but is efficient for traveling long distances. The combination of wings and vectored thrust make winged eVTOLs the obvious choice. However, these aircraft experience a much wider range of flight conditions that makes them challenging to model and control. …

Nonlinear Trajectory Tracking Control For Winged Evtol Uavs, Jacob Willis, Randal W. Beard

Faculty Publications

Current control methods for winged eVTOL UAVs consider the vehicle primarily as a fixed-wing aircraft with the addition of vertical thrust used only during takeoff and landing. These methods provide good long-range flight handling but fail to consider the full dynamics of the vehicle for tracking complex trajectories. We present a trajectory tracking controller for the full dynamics of a winged eVTOL UAV in hover, fixed-wing, and partially transitioned flight scenarios. We show that in low- to moderate-speed flight, trajectory tracking can be achieved using a variety of pitch angles. In these conditions, the pitch of the vehicle is a …

Optimal Defense Of High Value Airborne Assets, Isaac E. Weintraub

Theses and Dissertations

Optimal control theory and differential game theory is applied to the study of the defense of high value airborne assets, particularly in the case of a single threat such as an adversarial aircraft or missile. Rather than utilizing onboard defenses of the high value airborne asset, defense is proposed using a teamed unmanned combat air vehicle. The common scenario throughout this dissertation involves the defense of a high value airborne asset (evader) teamed with an unmanned combat vehicle (defender) against a single threat (pursuer). The unmanned combat air vehicle (defender), provides defense in one of two ways: kinetic or directed …

Can The Timeframe Of Reported Uas Sightings Help Regulators?, Spencer Erik Pitcher, Kelly A. Whealan-George

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Remotely controlled small aircraft, otherwise known as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or drones have started to impact the United States National Airspace System by interfering with the safe flight of aircraft. As the UAS industry continues its expected growth into the future, lawmakers, as well as regulators at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aviation community must be able to predict when there will be more UAS craft in the air that could cause an interruption to air traffic so that more resources can be allocated optimally to counter the threat of UAS craft. The purpose of this study …

Adaptive Two-Stage Edge-Centric Architecture For Deeply-Learned Embedded Real-Time Target Classification In Aerospace Sense-And-Avoidance Applications, Nicholas A. Speranza

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

With the growing number of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, current network-centric architectures present limitations in meeting real-time and time-critical requirements. Current methods utilizing centralized off-platform processing have inherent energy inefficiencies, scalability challenges, performance concerns, and cyber vulnerabilities. In this dissertation, an adaptive, two-stage, energy-efficient, edge-centric architecture is proposed to address these limitations. A novel, edge-centric Sense-and-Avoidance architecture framework is presented, and a corresponding prototype is developed using commercial hardware to validate the proposed architecture. Instead of a network-centric approach, processing is distributed at the logical edge of the sensors, and organized as Detection and Classification Subsystems. Classical machine vision algorithms are …

Landslide Site Assessment And Characterization Using Remote Sensing Techniques, Batmyagmar Dashbold

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Landslides are common and dangerous natural hazards that occur worldwide, often causing severe direct impacts on human lives, public and private properties. It is imperative to identify the landslide susceptible areas to avoid or mitigate the possible damage. Landslide prediction can be presented in a slope failure in spatial and/ or temporal terms. If it is presented in spatial term, it is considered a landslide susceptibility map (LSM) defined as the probability of spatial occurrence of slope failures. If it is presented in a combination of spatial and temporal distribution of the landslide susceptibility, it is commonly referred to as …

Prediction Of Noise Emissions Using Panel Contribution Analysis Supplemented With Scale Modeling, Gong Cheng

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Panel contribution analysis (PCA) can be used to predict machinery noise emissions, component contributions, and to assess the impact of sound reduction treatments. PCA is a measurement approach that is advantageous for complex machinery that is not easily modeled using conventional numerical analysis approaches. In this research, PCA is combined with scale modeling in order to speed up the necessary measurement work. Moreover, the method can be applied to much larger machinery and noise emissions can be assessed prior to locating and installing the equipment. This eliminates the necessity to use voluminous anechoic chambers.

The machinery is first discretized into …

Edge Processing Of Image For Uas Sense And Avoidance, Christopher J. Rave

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Today there is a large market for Unmanned Aerial Systems. Although most current systems are remotely piloted by operators on the ground, increasingly, many of these systems will use some sort of automatic flight controller to help mitigate new challenges, due to their deployment at growing scale. These challenges include, but are not limited to, shortage of FAA-certified UAS pilots, transmission bandwidth and delay constraints and cyber security threats associated with wireless networking, profitability of operations constrained by energy capacity and efficiency and air dynamics planning, and etc. In order to address these rising challenges, this thesis is a part …

Analyzing And Improving Calculation And Tuning Process For A Uav, Laurel Wardell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The nature of this project is confidential and cannot be disclosed in detail. Generally, this project deals with the analysis of a control system of a UAV with several electric motors and gimbals. The goal of this analysis is to improve control calculations for increased stability. In addition, development has been started on an application to streamline the tuning of gains for this particular controller, allowing for more efficient use of precious flight time.

Development Of A Robust And Tunable Aircraft Guidance Algorithm, Jacob R. Spangenberg

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

A set of guidance control laws is developed for application to a reduced order dynamic aircraft model. A feedback control formulation utilizing a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is developed, together with methods for easing the design burden associated with gain tuning. Metrics are developed to assess the stability margin of the controller over the full flight envelope of a notional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) model. A feedforward control path is then added to the architecture. The performance of the guidance control laws is assessed through time domain step response metrics as well as through execution of a design mission. The …

Development Of A Robust And Tunable Aircraft Guidance Algorithm, Jacob R. Spangenberg

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

A set of guidance control laws is developed for application to a reduced order dynamic aircraft model. A feedback control formulation utilizing a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) is developed, together with methods for easing the design burden associated with gain tuning. Metrics are developed to assess the stability margin of the controller over the full flight envelope of a notional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) model. A feedforward control path is then added to the architecture. The performance of the guidance control laws is assessed through time domain step response metrics as well as through execution of a design mission. The …

Evaluation Of Lidar Systems For Rock Mass Discontinuity Identification In Underground Stone Mines From 3d Point Cloud Data, Mario Alejandro Bendezu De La Cruz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The goal of this thesis is to compare the accuracy and precision of the discontinuity identification results obtained by three active remote sensing technologies along with a point cloud processing program, and the results obtained by conventional methods. For this research, the active remote sensing devices were terrestrial LIDAR, mobile LiDAR with Simultaneous localization, and mapping (SLAM), and LIDAR/Camera on an autonomous UAV. The open-source point cloud data processing programs Discontinuity Set Extractor (DSE) and the Cloud Compare were used to process point cloud data.

The results of this research found that it is possible to identify certain geological structures …

Application Of A Small Unmanned Aerial System To Measure Ammonia Emissions From A Pilot Amine-Co2 Capture System, Travis J. Schuyler, Bradley Irvin, Keemia Abad, Jesse G. Thompson, Kunlei Liu, Marcelo I. Guzman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

The quantification of atmospheric gases with small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) is expanding the ability to safely perform environmental monitoring tasks and quickly evaluate the impact of technologies. In this work, a calibrated sUAS is used to quantify the emissions of ammonia (NH₃) gas from the exit stack a 0.1 MWth pilot-scale carbon capture system (CCS) employing a 5 M monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent to scrub CO₂ from coal combustion flue gas. A comparison of the results using the sUAS against the ion chromatography technique with the EPA CTM-027 method for the standard emission sampling of NH_{3 …}

Autonomous Landing Of Quadrotor On A Moving Ugv With The Optimal Control Policies, Suhas Priyatham Manda

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis proposes an offline method that uses an integral reinforcement learning (IRL) technique along with the system identification to determine the optimal control of a system with completely unknown dynamics. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) that are particularly deployed to track and land on an arbitrarily moving unmanned ground vehicles (UGV), demand a high performance controller to perform precise tracking. One way of designing an optimal tracking controller is developing linear quadratic integrators (LQI) with a quadratic type of cost function that solves Riccati equation. However, this approach requires prior knowledge of the linearized UAV system dynamics. We overcome this …

Self-Describing Fiducials For Gps-Denied Navigation Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Amanda J. Strate

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Accurate estimation of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle’s (UAV’s) location is critical for the operation of the UAV when it is controlled completely by its onboard processor. This can be particularly challenging in environments in which GPS is not available (GPS-denied). Many of the options previously explored for estimation of a UAV’s location without the use of GPS require more sophisticated processors than can feasibly be mounted on a UAV because of weight, size, and power restrictions. Many options are also aimed at indoor operation without the range capabilities to scale to outdoor operations. This research explores an alternative method of …

Path Planning And Obstacle Avoidance Of Uav For Cage Culture Inspection, Yi-En Cai, Jih-Gau Juang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This paper presents path planning and obstacle avoidance of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for cage culture inspection. The proposed system can automatically inspect cage farming environment that can cut manpower and reduce cost. The problem is similar to travelling salesman problem (TSP). Genetic algorithms are useful techniques for TSP and can also be used for cage culture inspection. In addition to path planning, an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) is applied to avoid obstacle between different cages. The IPSO is applicable to both stationary and dynamic environments with one or more obstacles. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the …

Real-Time Work Zone Traffic Management Via Unmanned Air Vehicles, Charles Malveaux Ph.D, Marcio De Queiroz Ph.D, Xin Li Ph.D, Hanny Hassan Ph.D, Zewei He Ph.D

Data

Highway work zones are prone to traffic accidents when congestion and queues develop. Vehicle queues expand at a rate of 1 mile every 2 minutes. Back-of-queue, rear-end crashes are the most common work zone crash, endangering the safety of motorists, passengers, and construction workers. The dynamic nature of queuing in the proximity of highway work zones necessitates traffic management solutions that can monitor and intervene in real time. Fortunately, recent progress in sensor technology, embedded systems, and wireless communication coupled to lower costs are now enabling the development of real-time, automated, “intelligent” traffic management systems that address this problem. The …

Real-Time Work Zone Traffic Management Via Unmanned Air Vehicles, Charles Malveaux Ph.D, Marcio De Queiroz Ph.D, Xin Li Ph.D, Hany Hassan Ph.D, Zewei He Ph.D

Publications

Highway work zones are prone to traffic accidents when congestion and queues develop. Vehicle queues expand at a rate of 1 mile every 2 minutes. Back-of-queue, rear-end crashes are the most common work zone crash, endangering the safety of motorists, passengers, and construction workers. The dynamic nature of queuing in the proximity of highway work zones necessitates traffic management solutions that can monitor and intervene in real time. Fortunately, recent progress in sensor technology, embedded systems, and wireless communication coupled to lower costs are now enabling the development of real-time, automated, “intelligent” traffic management systems that address this problem. The …

Prospects Of The Development Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uavs), Rakhimjon Shokirov, Nuriddin Abdujabarov, Takhirov Jonibek, Kadamboy Saytov, Saidbek Bobomurodov

Technical science and innovation

This article outlines the current state of research and development for autonomous unmanned aircraft for civil use. Specifically, the history of UAVs for civil use, research and development in the world, and the topics and prospects for the control and operation of autonomous UAVs for civil use are defined. The perspectives for the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are addressed, programs due to the formation and problems preventing the use of UAVs are listed, and ways of increasing competitiveness are taken into account. This article provides an overview of research involving the advancement of UAV technology for the management …

Evaluating The Potential Of Drone Swarms In Nonverbal Hri Communication, Kasper Grispino, Damian Lyons, Truong-Huy Nguyen

Faculty Publications

Human-to-human communications are enriched with affects and emotions, conveyed, and perceived through both verbal and nonverbal communication. It is our thesis that drone swarms can be used to communicate information enriched with effects via nonverbal channels: guiding, generally interacting with, or warning a human audience via their pattern of motions or behavior. And furthermore that this approach has unique advantages such as flexibility and mobility over other forms of user interface. In this paper, we present a user study to understand how human participants perceived and interpreted swarm behaviors of micro-drone Crazyflie quadcopters flying three different flight formations to bridge …

3d Real-Time Visualization And Simulation Platform For Collaborative Path Planning Of Ua, Chen Gong, Xu Lei, Zhiyong Su

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: There are still some issues existing in current path planning of UAV, such as planning result simulation verification and 3D visualization. To solve the problems, a 3D real-time visualization and simulation platform for collaborative path planning of UAV was proposed. The target area was divided and calculated. The reconnaissance beam of UAV was modeled with virtual camera, the intersection points obtained quickly based on graphics hardware. The terrain mesh was calculated by scan-line polygon filling algorithm, reconnaissance information was recorded and analyzed, and the color temperature maps were given. Through the actual operation by the simulation platform, simulation …

Cooperative Task Assignment Simulation Of Multi-Uavs In Dynamic Environments, Tizhou Qiao, Xinping Guo, Yawei Li, Wenjun Zhang, Zhongyi Yin

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In order to address the problem of cooperative task assignment for multiple UAVs, a parallel simulation framework was proposed for cooperative task planning based on HLA/RTI simulation through UAV aerodynamic simulations and flight control simulation, which could be more real and effective algorithm validation. The paths were optimized to account for randomization and threats in the environment by modeling the probability of UAV loss. By coupling the failure probabilities of each UAV to the missions of the other UAVs, reality of cooperation was improved significantly. In order to achieve the desired objectives, the stochastic simulation models were used to …

Efficiency Simulation Of System Of Uav Patrol System Base On Stk, Yang Yong, Xijun Yan, Zhang Heng

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: In order to analyze problems such as coverage percent of mission area and reliable communication between unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and ground control station, a method for simulation and validation based on STK was proposed. The condition should be satisfied in theory to achieve seamless coverage of the mission area by using UAV reconnaissance and communication system was analyzed. A method for down link calculation of UAV and the ground control station was proposed. STK simulation was used for validating the correctness of theoretical analysis. It shows that the simulation results can provide rational support for UAV reconnaissance and …

Uav Takeoff Decision Based On Neural Network Model Of Takeoff Capability, Yongtao Peng, Yueping Wang, Xiaoting Wang

Journal of System Simulation

Abstract: To enhance the safety in case of engine flameout failure, a new type of UAV takeoff decision based on neural network capacity model was proposed. Two capacity parameters of takeoff safety in case of engine flameout failure were defined, one is the maximum velocity for a safe takeoff and the other is the minimum velocity for a safe shut down. A calculation method based on iterative simulations for those parameters under multiple flight conditions was introduced. Double layer neural networks were used to model the relationship between flight conditions and the capacity parameters, to realize the compressive storage and …

Evaluating The Hydraulic Performance Of Digital Photogrammetry-Derived 3-Dimensional Models Of A Hydraulic Structure Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Tyler J. Ashby

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research investigated the combination of aerial imagery, photogrammetry, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Two 3D models of an 8-ft ramp flume were developed from aerial imagery using a commercial photogrammetry software. The GCP model was developed using ground control points (GCP) to improve and measure the model's accuracy. The Non-GCP model used GCPs as check points, which only measure the model's accuracy. The horizontal and vertical errors were, respectively, 0.39 in. and 0.73 in. for the GCP model, and 5.37 in. and 2.80 in. for the Non-GCP model.

In addition to the GCP and Non-GCP models, two hybrid 3D …