Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Design And Implementation Of Intelligent Guidance Algorithms For Uav Mission Protection, Karina Rivera

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

In recent years, the interest of investigating intelligent systems for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have increased in popularity due to their large range of capabilities such as on-line obstacle avoidance, autonomy, search and rescue, fast prototyping and integration in the National Air Space (NAS). Many research efforts currently focus on system robustness against uncertainties but do not consider the probability of readjusting tasks based on the remaining resources to successfully complete the mission. In this thesis, an intelligent algorithm approach is proposed along with decision-making capabilities to enhance UAVs post-failure performance. This intelligent algorithm integrates a set of path planning …

Dynamic Optimization Of High-Altitude Solar Aircraft Trajectories Under Station-Keeping Constraints, Ronald Abraham Martin, Nathaniel Gates, Andrew Ning, John Hedengren

Faculty Publications

This paper demonstrates the use of nonlinear dynamic optimization to calculate energy optimal trajectories for a high-altitude, solar-powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The objective is to maximize the total energy in the system while staying within a 3 km mission radius and meeting other system constraints. Solar energy capture is modeled using the vehicle orientation and solar position, and energy is stored both in batteries and in potential energy through elevation gain. Energy capture is maximized by optimally adjusting the angle of the aircraft surface relative to the sun. The UAV flight and energy system dynamics are optimized over a …

Direct Adaptive Control For A Trajectory Tracking Uav, Nirmit Prabhakar

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This research focuses on the theoretical development and analysis of a direct adaptive control algorithm to enable a fixed-wing UAV to track reference trajectories while in the presence of persistent external disturbances. A typical application of this work is autonomous flight through urban environments, where reference trajectories would be provided by a path planning algorithm and the vehicle would be subjected to significant wind gust disturbances. Full 6-DOF nonlinear and linear UAV simulation models are developed and used to study the performance of the direct adaptive control system for various scenarios. A stability proof is developed to prove convergence of …

Experiments Of Propeller-Induced Flow Effects On A Low-Reynolds-Number Wing, Gavin K. Ananda, Robert Deters, Michael S. Selig

Publications

Novel findings are discussed in this paper that will be especially beneficial to designers and modelers of small-scale unmanned air vehicles and high-altitude long-endurance vehicles that both operate at low Reynolds numbers (Re = 50,000-300,000). Propeller-induced Oow effects in both tractor and pusher configurations on a recta ngular wing using the Wortmann FX 63-137 airfoil (a common low-Reynolds-number high-lift airfoil) are presented in this paper . Significant performance benefits can be found for a wing in the tractor configuration. Experiments, including trip tests and upper-surface oil Dow visualization, show and verify that the propeller slipstream induces early transition to turbulent …

Trust Based Time-Varying Network Topology For Distributed Co-Operative Control Of Multi-Class Multi-Agent Systems, Ankur Vipulkumar Dalal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

With increased levels of autonomy in most of the engineering fields and booms in areas such as swarms, platoons and Internet of Things (IoT), communication and information flow has become a highly researched field. With advancements in autonomous vehicles (AVs) and drones in armed warfare, more and more focus is being laid on intercommunication between these vehicles and its surroundings as well as intra-communication among the fleets/swarms itself. It is easier to deal with individual agents whereas it is quite challenging to deal with multi-agent systems especially with highly dynamic agents. In this thesis, we propose a general protocol for …

Homography-Based State Estimation For Autonomous Exploration In Unknown Environments, Andres S. Chavez Armijos

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis presents the development of vision-based state estimation algorithms to enable a quadcopter UAV to navigate and explore a previously unknown GPS denied environment. These state estimation algorithms are based on tracked Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) points and the homography relationship that relates the camera motion to the locations of tracked planar feature points in the image plane. An extended Kalman filter implementation is developed to perform sensor fusion using measurements from an onboard inertial measurement unit (accelerometers and rate gyros) with vision-based measurements derived from the homography relationship. Therefore, the measurement update in the filter requires the processing …

Design And Implementation Of An Artificial Neural Network Controller For Quadrotor Flight In Confined Environment, Ahmed Mekky

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Quadrotors offer practical solutions for many applications, such as emergency rescue, surveillance, military operations, videography and many more. For this reason, they have recently attracted the attention of research and industry. Even though they have been intensively studied, quadrotors still suffer from some challenges that limit their use, such as trajectory measurement, attitude estimation, obstacle avoidance, safety precautions, and land cybersecurity. One major problem is flying in a confined environment, such as closed buildings and tunnels, where the aerodynamics around the quadrotor are affected by close proximity objects, which result in tracking performance deterioration, and sometimes instability. To address this …

Military Application Of Aerial Photogrammetry Mapping Assisted By Small Unmanned Air Vehicles, Kijun Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the practical military applications of the photogrammetric methods using remote sensing assisted by small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs). The research explored the feasibility of UAV aerial mapping in terms of the specific military purposes, focusing on the geolocational and measurement accuracy of the digital models, and image processing time. The research method involved experimental flight tests using low-cost Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components, sensors and image processing tools to study key features of the method required in military like location accuracy, time estimation, and measurement capability. Based on the results of the data analysis, two military applications are …

Stabilized Rpa Flight In Building Proximity Operations, Michael M. Kaniut

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis seeks a solution to the requirement for a highly reliable and capable Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) to support a wide array of missions and applications that require close proximity flight to structures. The scope of the project includes the drafting of a concept of operations (CONOPs) describing how the mission requirements might be met using the sensor, operators, and air vehicle described here in. The demonstration of the wall-following section of that CONOPs is performed by cart testing a custom algorithm and evaluating its ability to react to its environment. Finally, a flight test was performed to characterize …

Design And Test Of A Uav Swarm Architecture Over A Mesh Ad-Hoc Network, Timothy J. Allen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop a testable swarm architecture such that the swarm of UAVs collaborate as a team rather than acting as several independent vehicles. Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components were used as they were low-cost, readily available, and previously proven to work with at least two networked UAVs. Initial testing was performed via software-in-the-loop (SITL) demonstrating swarming of three simulated multirotor aircraft, then transitioned to real hardware. The architecture was then tested in an outdoor nylon netting enclosure. Command and control (C2) was provided by software implementing an enhanced version of Reynolds’ flocking rules via an onboard …

Ten Years Of The Real World Design Challenge, Robert W. Deters, Brent Terwilliger, S.C. Kleinke, Ralph K. Coppola, Jeff Coppola

Publications

Preparing students to be successful in STEM careers is important to foster continued growth in the US and the world. The Real World Design Challenge is a high school design competition focused on the area of aviation. Students work in teams to solve a real world problem using professional tools. The 2018 challenge marks the tenth anniversary of this program. The first students to compete in this competition are now in the work force. This paper describes the background of RWDC, the different challenges that have been used throughout its ten years, the current precision agriculture challenges using UAS, and …

Unmanned Aerial Systems: Research, Development, Education & Training At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Michael P. Hickey

Publications

With technological breakthroughs in miniaturized aircraft-related components, including but not limited to communications, computer systems and sensors, state-of-the-art unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have become a reality. This fast-growing industry is anticipating and responding to a myriad of societal applications that will provide new and more cost-effective solutions that previous technologies could not, or will replace activities that involved humans in flight with associated risks.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has a long history of aviation-related research and education, and is heavily engaged in UAS activities. This document provides a summary of these activities, and is divided into two parts. The first part …

A Novel Approach For Missing Combat Support Aircraft Search Acceleration Using Vtol Uas, Mohammed Ba Zuhair, Wisam Yousef, Issam Samara, Vladislav Varsegov

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

In this paper, an approach to accelerate search operations for a missing combat support aircraft using a portable waterproof autonomous vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial system called “flying locator beacon” is described. The latter is connected with both flight data and cockpit voice recorders with a parallel bus and may be deployed from the empennage during extreme emergency scenarios, which is detected when few flight parameters are overrun leading to an air crash stimulating behavior. Landing of the flying locator beacon strictly takes place on global latitude and longitude coordinates only of integer values enabling significant minimization of search …

Autonomous Uav Battery Swapping, Reed Jacobsen, Nikolai Ruhe, Nathan Dornback

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

One of the main hindrances of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology are power constraints. One way to alleviate some power constraints would be for two UAVs to exchange batteries while both are in flight. Autonomous mid-air battery swapping will expand the scope of UAV technology by allowing for indefinite flight times and longer missions. A single board computer will control each UAV’s flight software to respond to inputs to align with each other mid-flight. When the two UAVs have joined, mechanical components will exchange a depleted battery on the worker UAV for a freshly charged battery that belongs to the …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav): Flight Performance, Fevens Louis Jean

Student Works

It is important that when measuring the sideslip angle and angles of attack during flight test performance of a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), to fully understand that the Angles of attack and sideslip are parameters that aid in determining the safety of the flight as they improve stability and control of the aircraft. The disadvantage of the measurement of these angles using this method is low accuracy of measurement due to friction to the potentiometers in connection with the vanes. To counter this, a new sensing method was developed to minimize friction and collect more accurate data. The method is …

System Identification Of A Circulation Control Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Mohammed Agha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The advancement in automation and sensory systems in recent years has led to an increase the demand of UAV missions. Due to this increase in demand, the research community has gained interest in investigating UAV performance enhancing systems. Circulation Control (CC), which is an active control flow method used to enhance UAV lift, is a performance enhancing system currently studied. In prior research, experimental studies have shown that Circulation Control wings (CCW) implemented on class-I UAVs can reduce take-off distance by 54%. Wind tunnel tests reveal that CC improves aircraft payload capabilities through lift enhancement. Increasing aircraft payload capabilities causes …

A Hybrid Optimization Technique Applied To The Intermediate-Target Optimal Control Problem, Clay J. Humphreys, Richard G. Cobb, David R. Jacques, Jonah A. Reeger

Faculty Publications

The DoD has introduced the concept of Manned-Unmanned Teaming, a subset of which is the loyal wingman. Optimal control techniques have been proposed as a method for rapidly solving the intermediate-target (mid-point constraint) optimal control problem. Initial results using direct orthogonal collocation and a gradient-based method for solving the resulting nonlinear program reveals a tendency to converge to or to get `stuck’ in locally optimal solutions. The literature suggested a hybrid technique in which a particle swarm optimization is used to quickly find a neighborhood of a more globally minimal solution, at which point the algorithm switches to a gradient-based …

2015-2016 Eraudb Aiaa Design/Build/Fly Technical Report, Trevor W. Perrott

Student Works

The economic potential of small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) has been well documented and reported. According to the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), there is an associated economic impact from the growth of the UAV industry. The goal of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Design/Build/Fly Competition Research Program (AIAA DBF CRP) is to investigate design and manufacturing methods for application to SUAVs within the scope of the AIAA DBF Competition.

Students were engaged in the application of aerospace engineering knowledge for the production of a dual-aircraft system. Through the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computer …

Uav As A Service: Providing On-Demand Access And On-The-Fly Retasking Of Multi-Tenant Uavs Using Cloud Services, Justin Yapp

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As commercial roles for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) become more well-defined and demand for the services provided by them increases, UAVs rely more on new cloud computing services and co-operative coordination to provide mission planning, control, tracking and data processing. We present UAV as a Service (UAVaaS) framework, which brings features commonly found in traditional cloud services, such as Infrastructure, Platform, and Software as a Service, to the domain of UAVs. Our work aims to conceptualize and design UAVaaS for commercial applications. Specifically, a cloud-provided orchestration framework that allows multi-tenant UAVs to easily serve multiple heterogenous clients at once and …

Development And Flight Test Of Moving-Mass Actuated Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Sampath Reddy Vengate

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Conventional airplane control is achieved by aerodynamic control surfaces by generating moments around all the three axes of the aircraft. Defections of the control surfaces have some disadvantages such as induced drag, increase in radar signature, and exposure to high temperature in high speed applications. As an alternative moment generation mechanism, prior research proposed internal mass-actuation, which is to generate gravitational moment by changing the center of gravity of the aircraft through motion of internal masses within the aircraft. Prior research investigated the feasibility and benefit of internal mass-actuation in airplane control based on simulation analysis. The main focus of …

Path Following By A Quadrotor Using Virtual Target Pursuit Guidance, Abhishek Manjunath

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Missile guidance laws have been solely developed to follow and intercept a target thereby destroying or damaging it. In this research, the primary objective is to modify and adopt a missile guidance law to be used on a quadrotor to follow a virtual target. The target is termed 'virtual' as it only exists mathematically in the form of equations. The goal is to have the quadrotor successfully following the predefined path (described by the target) while maintaining a fixed distance from the virtual target. To ensure viability and assess performance, a detailed comparison with another path following law is made.

Examining American Attitudes On The Use Of Military Drones, Todd Brandon

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Recent polls have revealed that Americans of both the political left and right support the use of military drones. This statement stands true among groups who traditionally do not support the use of military force. I hypothesize that people of a more liberal persuasion will be more concerned with whether or not the drone program endangers innocent civilians, while those of a more conservative view will be more concerned with the legality of conducting military drone strikes. I analyze data obtained from the Pew Research Center to examine people's attitudes on military drone strikes via framing theory. My hypothesis has …

Thrust Sensing For Small Uavs, Christopher Scott Marchman

Masters Theses

"Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become prevalent in both military and civilian applications. UAVs have many size categories from large-scale aircraft to micro air vehicles. The performance, health, and efficiency for UAVs of smaller sizes can be difficult to assess and few associated instrumentation systems have been developed. Thrust measurements on the ground can characterize systems especially when combined with simultaneous motor power measurements. This thesis demonstrates the use of strain measurements to measure the thrust produced by motor/propeller combinations for such small UAVs. A full-bridge Wheatstone circuit and electrical resistance strain gauges were used in conjunction with constant-stress cantilever …

Examining Unmanned Aerial System Threats & Defenses: A Conceptual Analysis, Ryan J. Wallace, Jon M. Loffi

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into the already complex global aviation system presents new and unique hazards. While many studies have addressed the potential safety concerns of UAS integration, little research has been dedicated to the potential security implications. This study sought to identify potential uses and adaptations of civil UAS systems as weapons of terrorism or crime and potential UAS defenses. Researchers examined 68 academic studies, unclassified government reports, and news articles using Conceptual Analysis to systematically capture and categorize various threats. Using the collected data, researchers developed a UAS threat model for categorically evaluating potential threats. …

How To Save The World: One Life (And Uav) At A Time!, Natalie A. Wright

STAR Program Research Presentations

The proliferation of Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) in commercial and public service aviation arenas has begun to gain the attention of many citizens. Popularized vehicles such as quadcopters have applications in aerial photography, small package delivery and hobbyist/consumer interests. Use of small-scale, fixed- and rotary-wing, remotely operated systems has been popularized as a result of such vehicles’ size and operational simplicity, which widens the range of application of this technology. Public service applications have the potential to advance emergency services management, which can substantially contribute to the public wellbeing. This research will examine the utility of multi-rotor systems in the …

Electric Commuter Multicopter, Marley Hunter Miller, Blake Sperry, Ike Sheppard, Olliver Fredrick Kunz, Sam Juday, Alex O'Hearn, Kyle Seth Kruse, Arthur Norwood, Jarrell Washington

Mechanical Engineering

This document describes the design, analysis, and overall goals of the Electric Commuter Multicopter (ECM) Senior Project. It was presented by Bob Addis and Bill Burner to the senior mechanical engineering class of 2015 at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The progress and development of the project are described in detail and to an extent that an individual or group with similar aspirations can construct their own multicopter or expand upon this one. The goal of this project is to create an Ultralight, as defined by FAA Part 103, commuter multicopter vehicle capable of transporting an individual to and from …

Design Of Synthetic Jet Actuator For Flight Control Of Small Uav, Priyanka Pagadala

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The main idea of this project is to develop a prototype SJA - Synthetic Jet Actuator to embed into a small UAV with modified Glauert wing cross-section for Active Flow Control. Apart from lift enhancement, drag reduction, or separation control, etc; LCO suppression might be possible by modifying the boundary layer through the use of these actuators. For initial investigation, a wing section with span of 12.4 cm and chord of 14 cm was fabricated and tests were conducted in the subsonic wind tunnel at the free stream velocities of 5 and 10 m / s. From these experiments, lift …

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav) Propulsion Research: Conceptual Studies Of “Ultra-Compact Shaft-Less Jet Engines” For Next Generation Uavs, Tyler Eiguren, Trevor Douglas, Tre Buchanan

Publications

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are becoming more commonly used in today’s society, ranging anywhere from military applications to entertainment for enthusiasts and hobbyists. The complexity of current generation UAV’s propulsive devices, based upon a scaled turbine engine and separate gas & electrically powered rotating fan blades, require regular maintenance for every 24 hours of flight. This added cost coupled with necessary intricate machinery deters UAV designers from such engines, leaving a void in current production. Our research team believes that by combining a simplified alternative compression & combustion process with an electrically driven fan, we can develop an energy efficient, reliable, …

Design Methods For Remotely Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, William Beaman Howe

Master's Theses

A method for sizing remotely powered unmanned aerial vehicles is presented to augment the conventional design process. This method allows for unconventionally powered aircraft to become options in trade studies during the initial design phase. A design matrix is created that shows where, and if, a remotely powered vehicle fits within the design space. For given range and power requirements, the design matrix uses historical data to determine whether an internal combustion or electrical system would be most appropriate. Trends in the historical data show that the break in the design space between the two systems is around 30 miles …

Intelligent Control Of Miniature Holonomic Vertical Take-Off And Landing Robot, Mohammad A. Jaradata, Mohamed Al-Fandia, Omar Alkhatiba, Yousef Sardahi

All Engineering Faculty Research

This paper discusses the development of a fuzzy based controller for miniaturized unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).This controller is designed to control the center-of-gravity (CoG) in a new configuration of coaxial miniaturized flying robot (MFR). The idea is to shift the CoG by controlling two pendulums located in perpendicular directions; each pendulum ends with a small mass. A key feature of this work is that the control algorithm represents the original nonlinear function that describes the dynamics of the proposed system. The controller model incorporates two cascaded subsystems: PD and PI fuzzy logic controllers. These two controllers regulate the attitude and …