Aeronautical Vehicles Commons^™

Development Of Long Endurance Small Unmanned Aerial System, Andreas Quainoo

Honors Theses

The purpose of this Senior Design Project is to design, build, and test an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). This will be used as a test platform for airborne electronics. The intended capabilities of this project include a 12-hour flight time, the ability to carry 5 lbs of payload, and the ability to recharge the batteries of electronics while in the air. With these parameters in mind, the focus of the design was on endurance, and, by extension, efficiency and durability. Upon completion, the aircraft and its onboard systems was constructed and evaluated. Secondary products of this project include an instrumented …

An Unstandard Way Of Using The Cubesat Standard, Robert J. Twiggs, Amin Djamshidpour, Steward Davis, Ben Malphrus

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs, Amin Djamshidpour, Steward Davis, and Ben Malphrus titled  "An Unstandard way of Using the CubeSat Standard" from November 8, 2014.

Development Of An Exteroceptive Sensor Suite On Unmanned Surface Vessels For Real-Time Classification Of Navigational Markers, Christopher Lloyd Kennedy

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis presents the development of an exteroceptive sensor suite for real-time detection and classification of navigational markers on Unmanned Surface Vessels. Three sensors were used to complete this task: a 3D LIDAR and two visible light cameras. First, all LIDAR points were transformed from the sensor’s reference frame to the local frame using a Kalman filter to estimate instantaneous vehicle pose. Next, objects were chosen from the LIDAR data to be classified using either Multivariate Gaussian or Parzen Window Classifiers. Both produce 96% accuracy or better, however, multivariate Gaussian ran considerably faster than the Parzen and was simpler to …

Achieving Global Range In Future Subsonic And Supersonic Airplanes, Nihad E. Daidzic Ph.D., Sc.D.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

No commercial airplane in service today is able to fly half great-circle distances over the globe and achieve the non-stop or the global range to any antipodal location on Earth. A subsonic jetliner has the optimum cruising speed at Mach numbers approaching the drag divergence Mach number while still preserving relatively high aerodynamic efficiency. Various fuel-flow laws were used to investigate the cruise performance of subsonic and supersonic aircraft. The effect of wind and aircraft weight and how it affects the optimal cruising airspeed was investigated. Of all different operational cruising techniques, the cruise-climb at high Mach numbers is the …

Space Hackathon: Magnitude.Io, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Space Hackathon: Magnitude.io" from November 7, 2014.

Understanding Orbits: Chapters 4-9, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Understanding Orbits: Chapters 4-9" from October 30, 2014.

Flow Induced Vibration On Piezoelectric Structures: Prediction, Experiment And Applications, Felix Ewere

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Optimization Of An Integrated Uav Imaging System For Agricultural Applications, Nishanth Goli

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Springs To Deploy A Forward Drag Device For The Cansat Competition, Evan Tingley, Evan Unruh

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Cognitively Tailored Interfaces (Ctis) For Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uavs), Anna Parker Strickland

Von Braun Symposium Student Posters

No abstract provided.

Improving Airplane Touchdown Control By Utilizing The Adverse Elevator Effect, Nihad E. Daidzic Ph.D., Sc.D.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The main objective of this original research article is to understand the short-term dynamic behavior of the transport-category airplane during landing flare elevator control application. Increasing the pitch angle to arrest the sink rate, the elevator will have to produce negative lift to rotate the airplane’s nose upward. This has an immediate adverse effect of initially accelerating airplane downward. A mathematical model of landing flare based on the flat-Earth longitudinal dynamics of rigid airplane was developed which is realistic only on very short time-scales as pitch stiffness and damping were neglected. Pilot control scenarios using impulse and step elevator pull-up …

Laminar Deflagrated Flame Interaction With A Fluidic Jet Flow For Deflagration-To-Detonation Flame Acceleration, Joseph P. Mcgarry

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The concept of the Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE) has been of interest for centuries. The issue was originally studied to understand flame propagation in mine shafts after explosions due to methane buildup. The flames would travel down the shafts, transitioning to turbulent flames due to the roughness of the shaft walls, and accelerate to detonation, delivering powerful, destructive forces. The potential for efficient energy production was noticed, and the theory behind flame propagation was later applied to developing propulsion systems. Recently, researchers have begun to understand the full potential of PDEs to efficiently produce an immense amount of thrust due …

The Effects Of Rewards On The Ability Of An Autonomous Uav Controlled By A Reinforcement Learning Agent To Accomplish A Target Localization Task, Hemali Dinesh Virani

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The need for Unmanned Aerial System (UASs) is increasing in the fields of science, security, military and others. With an increasing number of challenges faced by mankind the need for system with advance autonomous and intelligent capabilities is growing rapidly. The required intelligent behavior can be achieved in an unmanned system with machine learning methods such as Reinforcement Learning (RL) theory. This theory presents algorithms which have the capability to learn how to adapt to its environment. Using RL methods, autonomous systems have the ability to use past experiences to improve future mission performance. In this research, the effects of …

Cubesats: The Beginning Of Amateur Space Exploration, Tim Debenedictis

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

An article by Tim DeBenedictis of the Southern Stars Group titled "CubeSats: the Beginning of Amateur Space Exploration" from August 7, 2014.

Foss Big Data Storage Solution, Gary L. Jaffe

STAR Program Research Presentations

Utilizing the AERO Institute as an IT test bed or “sandbox”, a small-agile development team will design, build, and test a data management storage system to support post processing of archived and in-flight data collected with the Piccolo flight control system and Compact Fiber Optic Sensing System (C-FOSS). Both systems are integrated on the APV3 aircraft, a small remote-operated vehicle. Due to the amount of data collected from C-FOSS, a system will be designed to sort and organize large data sets. An open-source database will be explored as a viable solution to manage large data loads and provide multi-cluster system …

Effect Of Adaptive Tabs On Drag Of A Square-Base Bluff Body, Brian W. Barker

Master's Theses

This thesis involves the experimental wind tunnel testing of a 0.127m by 0.127m square-base bluff body to test the effectiveness of trailing edge tabulations to reduce drag in the Cal Poly 0.912m by 1.219 m low-speed wind tunnel. To accomplish this, the boundary layer was first measured on the trailing edge of the model for the three speeds at 10, 20, and 30 m/s, with Re = 8.3e4, 1.6e5 and 2.5e5 respectively, without the tabs. Three different tests were performed to determine the effectiveness of the tabs. These tests included base pressure measurements, total drag force measurements and hotwire velocity …

"Cap" Cornish, Indiana Pilot: Navigating The Century Of Flight, Ruth Ann Ingraham

Purdue University Press Books

Clarence "Cap" Cornish was an Indiana pilot whose life spanned all but five years of the Century of Flight. Born in Canada in 1898, Cornish grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He began flying at the age of nineteen, piloting a "Jenny" aircraft during World War I, and continued to fly for the next seventy-eight years. In 1995, at the age of ninety-seven, he was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest actively flying pilot. The mid-1920s to the mid-1950s were Cornish's most active years in aviation. During that period, sod runways gave way to asphalt and concrete; …

Localization And System Identification Of A Quadcopter Uav, Kenneth Befus

Masters Theses

The research conducted explores the comparison of several trilateration algorithms as they apply to the localization of a quadcopter micro air vehicle (MAV). A localization system is developed employing a network of combined ultrasonic/radio frequency sensors used to wirelessly provide range (distance) measurements defining the location of the quadcopter in 3-dimensional space. A Monte Carlo simulation is conducted using the extrinsic parameters of the localization system to evaluate the adequacy of each trilateration method as it applies to this specific quadcopter application. The optimal position calculation method is determined.

Furthermore, flight testing is performed in which real range measurement data …

Flight Testing Small Uavs For Aerodynamic Parameter Estimation, Adam Thomas Chase

Master's Theses

A flight data acquisition system was developed to aid unmanned vehicle designers in verifying the vehicle's design performance. The system is reconfigurable and allows the designer to choose the correct combination of complexity, risk, and cost for a given flight test. The designer can also reconfigure the system to meet packaging and integration requirements. System functionality, repeatbility, and accuracy was validated by collecting data during multiple flights of a radio-controlled aircraft. Future work includes sensor fusion, thrust prediction methods, stability and control derivative estimation, and growing Cal Poly's small-scale component aerodynamic database.

Lightweight Uav Launcher, Ben Miller, Christian Valoria, Corinne Warnock, Jake Coutlee

Mechanical Engineering

This report discusses the design, construction, and testing of a lightweight, portable UAV launcher. There is a current need for a small team of soldiers to launch a US Marine Tier II UAV in a remote location without transport. Research was conducted into existing UAV launcher designs and the pros and cons of each were recorded. This research served as a basis for concept generation during the initial design development stage. It was required that the design weigh less than 110 lbs, occupy a smaller volume than 48" x 24" 18" in its collapsed state, be portable by a single …

The Role Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) In Disaster Response And Recovery Efforts: Historical, Current And Future, Dennis Vincenzi, David C. Ison, Brent A. Terwilliger

Publications

A wide range of legislation has been proposed or put into place that restricts the use of unmanned systems. These actions by legislators and regulators will stifle the growth of this technology and the associated surrounding industry. The largest obstacle to the proliferation of UAS in the U.S. is the FAA. The FAA has designated the location of six test sites that are anticipated to allow for less restrictive and formative research to assess the technologies that the FAA has claimed need to exist in order to integrate UAS into the NAS. Further complicating the adoption of UAS for beneficent …

Space Environment, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Space Environment" from May 12, 2014.

Context & Overview, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Context & Overview" from May 12, 2014.

Earth Orbits, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Earth Orbits" from May 12, 2014.

The Next Big Thing Is Small, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "The Next Big Thing is Small" from May 8, 2014.

The Pocketqube Concept, Robert J. Twiggs, J. G. Jernigan, L. R. Cominsky, L. R. Malphrus, B. K. Silverman, K. Zack, S. Mcneil, W. Roach-Barrett, T-Logoqube

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs and associates titled "The PocketQube Concept" from April 23, 2014.

Innovative Uses Of The Canisterized Satellite Dispenser (Csd), Robert J. Twiggs, Walter Holemans, Ryan Williams, Andrew Kalman, Rex Ridenoure, Tom Walkinshaw, Ryan Hevner, Floyd Azure

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Walter Holemans, Ryan Williams, Andrew Kalman, Robert Twiggs, Rex Ridenoure, Tom Walkinshaw, Ryan Hevner, and Floyd Azure titled "Innovative Uses of the Canisterized Satellite Dispenser (CSD)" from April 16, 2014.

Spacecraft Thermal Design, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs on "Spacecraft Thermal Design" from April 7, 2014.

Power Storage & Control, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs on "Power Storage & Storage" on April 3, 2014.

Eps Power Supply Tech, Jeffrey Kruth

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A technology report by Jeff Kurth on "EPS Power Supply Tech" from April 1, 2014.