Multi-Vehicle Systems and Air Traffic Control Commons^™

Machine Learning For Predictive Energy And Emissions Modeling Of Vehicles And Power Grids In The United States, S M Tanvir Faysal Alam Chowdhoury

Dissertations

The environmental benefits of electric vehicle (EV) adoption depend on more than replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric powertrains. EV adoption reshapes electricity demand, interacts with regional generation mixes, and influences travel behavior and congestion, creating a coupled transportation-energy system in which vehicle and power-plant emissions must be evaluated together. This dissertation develops machine-learning frameworks for predicting energy consumption and emissions from vehicles and power grids under rising EV adoption. The first component forecasts grid emissions from EV charging. Using simulation data from NREL's Cambium database, a Prophet-based time-series framework predicts carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane emission rates …

Assessing Computer Vision Based Conflict Detection In Uas Traffic Monitoring Under Secure Communication Constraints, Fadjimata Issoufou Anaroua

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The rapid growth of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) is creating a new low-altitude airspace ecosystem where drones, air taxis, service suppliers, communication networks, sensors, and ground-based monitoring systems must work together safely. Within this ecosystem, UAS Traffic Management (UTM) is expected to provide a digital framework for coordinating operations beyond traditional air traffic control. However, reliable integration also requires resilient monitoring methods that can detect non-cooperative aircraft, protect communication links, and maintain timely situational awareness under real-world constraints.

This dissertation examines how computer vision can support cooperative monitoring systems such as Remote ID and ADS-B …

Cooperative Unmanned Aerial System (Uas) Geolocation Of Emitters, Christopher Peters

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

A collection of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) can be networked as a cooperative wireless sensor array to geolocate an unknown-location RF emitter using time-based measurements. In operation, however, environmental multipath and hardware errors in sensor positioning and timing can degrade emitter localization accuracy and limit the practicality of single-snapshot solutions. This dissertation evaluates time-of-arrival and time-difference-of-arrival (TOA/TDOA) geolocation for cooperative UAS arrays under realistic error sources and develops geometry-control strategies that actively reduce localization uncertainty through iterative UAS repositioning.

This work studies the Location on a Conic Axis (LOCA) method for emitter localization. Using Monte Carlo simulations with hardware error …

Autonomous Uav Mission Planning Under Threat Using Model Predictive Control With Proportional-Navigation Pursuers, Mehmet B. Ozcelik

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses

Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating in contested environments must

complete mission objectives while avoiding restricted regions, radar exposure, and pos-

sible interception. This thesis develops a MATLAB-based simulation framework for

two-dimensional UAV mission planning under threat using model predictive control and

proportional-navigation chasers. The mission requires the UAV to travel from a start

location to a goal while visiting required checkpoints and avoiding no-fly zones and radar

regions. A chaser attempts to intercept the UAV using either a basic pure-pursuit-style

law or a proportional-navigation guidance law.

The framework integrates environment generation, augmented visibility-graph rout-

ing, waypoint management, UAV kinematic …

Gaussian Process Regression–Based Uncertainty Quantification For Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management And Advanced Air Mobility Applications, Aakarshan Khanal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations

Uncertainty quantification has gained significant attention in recent years as a research area in dynamical systems. Mathematical representations of the physical system, combined with an understanding of model uncertainties, enable the propagation of uncertainty in temporal space, which allows us to make informed decisions. However, what if the true dynamics of the system is unknown or too complex to define explicitly? In such cases, the system’s behavior can instead be inferred or learned from observed input–output data rather than from an analytical or physics-based model. To this end, this dissertation focuses on developing a data-driven framework for nonparametric dynamics modeling, …

Flysurf: A Flying Robotic Surface With Shape Morphing And Motion Control, Kevin Aubert De Luchi Lomellini

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis introduces FlySurf, a novel flying robotic surface capable of simultaneous shape morphing and motion control. FlySurf is modeled as a mesh-based dynamic structure actuated by multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, enabling complex deformations during flight. The proposed control architecture comprises three main components. First, a state estimator to infer the robotic surface state from limited observations. Second, a shape trajectory planner that incorporates an affine deformation term to preserve surface integrity during shape transitions. Third, a surface controller to minimize the error between the desired and actual surface configurations.

The methodology is validated through realistic simulations and hardware experiments, …

Heterogeneous Boid Swarm Performance Under Environmental And Neighbor Communication Link Variability, Jonathan C. Oxborrow

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial swarms are of growing interest in numerous fields and use cases. As their utilization increases drones and robots with different capabilities will be required to coordinate for task completion thus creating heterogeneous swarms. Swarm individuals generally communicate with all neighbors inside their sensor range generating a significant amount of message traffic. Previous research of a heterogeneous group in a non-physical environment has shown that restricting communication to only one neighbor of each different capability maintained performance. This work applies that finding to a heterogeneous boid swarm with the addition of varied environmental conditions. The swarm is comprised of three …

Metaheuristic Techniques To Optimize Trajectory Planning Of Uav Swarms: Enhancing Data Acquisition In Wireless Sensor Networks, Nada Ali Mohamed Ahmed Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become increasingly integrated into various applications due to their cost-efficiency, rapid deployment, flexible maneuvers, and enhanced performance. This has led to the development of a new field called UAV-assisted Wireless Sensor Networks (U-WSNs), which focus on data routing, network performance optimization, and planning UAV trajectories between sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks. In this thesis, a new framework has been proposed to manage a swarm of UAVs cooperatively serving large-scale wireless sensor networks. The framework consists of three optimization problems: distributing sensor nodes among UAVs, finding optimal trajectories in the presence of obstacles, and performing …

Topology-Driven Performance Analyses In Consensus Algorithms For Multi-Agent Systems, Brandon Ayala

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis presents a simulation-based analysis of consensus algorithms in multi-agent systems, focusing on how network topology influences convergence performance. Both first-order and second-order linear consensus dynamics were examined across a variety of network configurations, including undirected and directed versions of cycle graphs, star graphs, minimum spanning trees, and fully connected graphs. In addition to standard consensus problems, leader-follower network structures were introduced to explore the impact of leader placement on convergence behavior, and extensions to multi-leader systems were analyzed to study robustness and convergence under multiple reference inputs. Graph-theoretic properties such as connectivity, degree distribution, and Laplacian eigenvalues were …

Multi-Agent Differential Games Under An Altruistic Equilibrium, Craig Alan Lovell

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

This work studies a multi-agent differential game with linear dynamics under the Berge equilibrium. The governing coupled differential equations for a two-agent and a three-agent game under the Berge equilibrium are derived. These games are simulated and compared to the Nash equilibrium. A sensitivity study is performed which validates that, under some criteria, the Nash equilibrium can be recovered from the Berge equilibrium. Policy fusion between the Berge and Nash equilibrium is explored in a two-agent game. A five-agent game under the Berge equilibrium is simulated and multiple teams of agents in this game are evaluated. Finally, a mixed game, …

Nonlinear Guidance And Control Of Unmanned Aerial Manipulators For Delivering A Payload On A Moving Platform, Ravi Gyawali

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

Unmanned Aerial manipulators (UAMs) are a class of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) equipped with a manipulator. By combining the aerial mobility of a UAV with a manipulator's dexterity, these hybrid systems can perform a wide range of complex tasks while reducing risks and costs. As a result, they are increasingly being utilized for military, industrial, and agricultural applications.

The thesis presents a novel approach for a multi-UAM system to collaboratively deliver a payload on a stationary or maneuvering platform. A sliding-mode-based guidance law, sourced from existing literature, is integrated with a combined control technique for the UAVs and their respective …

Cooperative Pursuit Nonlinear Guidance And Control Laws To Surround Intruder Swarms, Rishab Rijal

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Theses - Archive

In this thesis, an integrated guidance and control architecture to enable a group of n quadcopters, which are connected to each other by a rope line, to perform cooperative pursuit with the objective to surround a swarm of intruder UAVs (possibly flying in restricted airspaces) is presented. The UAVs in the intruder swarm may maneuver and sometimes get closer to each other, and sometimes further apart, and the pursuing UAVs need to adjust their formation appropriately to achieve the surround objective. A nonlinear controller is developed for the quadcopters so as to effectively execute the guidance laws, thereby ensuring precise …

Analysis And Detection Of Cyber Attacks In Multi Vehicle Systems Using Macroscopic Models, Abhishek Kashyap

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The study of potential cyber-attacks in different domains is an active area of research. Given that systems are becoming more and more interconnected, cyber physical systems that operate infrastructure and/or plants can make these assets more vulnerable and open to different attack vectors. The primary focus of this research is the modeling, analysis and detection of cyber-attacks on platoons of autonomous cars and swarms of UAVs. In this work, we consider scenarios wherein an attacker may hack into a subset of vehicles in a multi-vehicle system and make subtle modifications in their parameters. Due to the interconnected nature of the …

Efficient Connectivity Management And Path Planning For Iot And Uav Networks, Amirahmad Chapnevis

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how to better manage resources in mobile networks, especially for enhancing the performance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-supported IoT networks. We explored ways to set up a flexible communication architecture that can handle large IoT deployments by making good use of mobile core network resources like bearers and data paths. We developed strategies that meet the needs of IoT networks and enhance network performance. We also developed and tested a system that combines traffic from several mobile devices that use the same user identity and network resources within the core mobile network. We used everyday smartphones, SIM …

External Runtime Execution Monitoring Of A Cyber Physical System Via Trace Interfaces, Peter Vaughan Truslow

Theses and Dissertations

In the past two decades, Unmanned Aerial Systems have progressed from expensive military hardware or one-off custom builds, to include off-the-shelf drones that can be purchased for a rather affordable price and flown by nearly anyone. As the technology and performance have improved, the door is opened to applications that require operation in environments where the consequences for failure are high, such as operating in the navigable airspace or in urban environments, or with human passengers. This requires a great deal of trust in the reliability and integrity of the control systems of the aircraft. A method of monitoring the …

Embedded State Estimation For Optimization Of Cislunar Space Domain Awareness Constellation Design, Thomas Henry Clareson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The traffic in cislunar space is expected to increase over the coming years, leading to a higher likelihood of conjunction events among active satellites, orbital debris, and non-cooperative satellites. This increase necessitates enhanced space domain awareness (SDA) capabilities that include state estimation for targets of interest. Both Earth surface-based and space-based observation platforms in geosynchronous orbit or below face challenges such as range, exclusion, and occlusion that hinder observation. Motivated by the need to place space-based observers in the cislunar space regime to overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a cislunar SDA constellation design and analysis framework that integrates state …

Pattern-Of-Life Modeling With Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (Ads-B), Sarah J. Bolton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation and research were sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory Layered Sensing Exploitation Branch (AFRL/RYA) to investigate the utility of using the data found within aircraft secondary radar to make predictions about aircraft characteristics and intent. The research focuses on making predictions on aircraft characteristics using only the kinetic data within one type of secondary radar, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B), as a surrogate for primary radar. The results from this research provide a means to reduce the reliance on a type of aircraft tracking that is vulnerable to cyber attack and other integrity concerns.

In-Flight Testing & Verification Of An Adaptive Distributed Fault-Tolerant Control Architecture, Michael Budihartono

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The interest in utilizing multi-agent systems (MAS) has increased in the aerospace industry. Its scalability, efficiency, robustness, fault tolerance, and cost-effectiveness make it ideal for performing real-world missions that require more than one agent. However, in completing the tasks, the multi-agent systems are still vulnerable to environmental disturbances, cyber-attacks, and hardware failures. Therefore, an adaptive distributed fault-tolerant control architecture is needed to minimize the impacts of the previously stated circumstances and ensure the mission can continue successfully.

This thesis describes the development of an experimental setup for testing and validating an adaptive consensus algorithm and a bio-inspired health management architecture. …

Optimal Deployment Of Air Vehicle As Communication Relay For Multiple Ground Vehicles, Juan David Pabon Arias

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Heterogeneous teams of both air and ground mobile vehicles can combine the advantages of mobility, sensing capability, and operation time when performing complex tasks. However, when ground vehicles operate in cluttered environments with randomized obstacles, they may experience line of sight (LoS) obstructions and loss of communication due to those obstacles. To mitigate this issue, an airborne relay can be positioned in the vicinity of the ground vehicles to aid communication by establishing two-hop communication links between the vehicles.

This thesis develops an analytical framework to calculate the probability of spanning a two-hop communication between a pair of ground vehicles …

Assessing The Performance Of A Particle Swarm Optimization Mobility Algorithm In A Hybrid Wi-Fi/Lora Flying Ad Hoc Network, William David Paredes

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research on Flying Ad-Hoc Networks (FANETs) has increased due to the availability of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and the electronic components that control and connect them. Many applications, such as 3D mapping, construction inspection, or emergency response operations could benefit from an application and adaptation of swarm intelligence-based deployments of multiple UAVs. Such groups of cooperating UAVs, through the use of local rules, could be seen as network nodes establishing an ad-hoc network for communication purposes.

One FANET application is to provide communication coverage over an area where communication infrastructure is unavailable. A crucial part of a FANET implementation is …

A Machine Learning Framework For Automatic Speech Recognition In Air Traffic Control Using Word Level Binary Classification And Transcription, Fowad Shahid Sohail

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning have enabled a variety of new technologies. One such technology is Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), where a machine is given audio and transcribes the words that were spoken. ASR can be applied in a variety of domains to improve general usability and safety. One such domain is Air Traffic Control (ATC). ASR in ATC promises to improve safety in a mission critical environment. ASR models have historically required a large amount of clean training data. ATC environments are noisy and acquiring labeled data is a difficult, expertise dependent task. This thesis attempts to …

Low-Cost Uav Swarm For Real-Time Object Detection Applications, Joel Valdovinos Miranda

Master's Theses

With unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, becoming readily available and affordable, applications for these devices have grown immensely. One type of application is the use of drones to fly over large areas and detect desired entities. For example, a swarm of drones could detect marine creatures near the surface of the ocean and provide users the location and type of animal found. However, even with the reduction in cost of drone technology, such applications result costly due to the use of custom hardware with built-in advanced capabilities. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is to compile an …

A Unified Tool For Adaptive Collocation Techniques Applied To Solving Optimal Control Problems, Bethany Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In this work, a user-friendly MATLAB tool is introduced to solve nonlinear optimal control problems by applying collocation techniques using Coupled Radial Basis Functions (CRBFs). CRBFs are a new class of Radial Basis Functions combined with a conical spline r^5, which provides the advantage of insensitivity to the shape parameter while maintaining accuracy and robustness. To solve optimal control problems, software tools are often employed to implement numerical methods and apply advanced techniques to solving differential equations. Although several commercial software tools exist for solving optimal control problems, such as ICLOCS2, GPOPS, and DIDO, there are no options available that …

Formation Control With Bounded Controls And Collision Avoidance: Theory And Application To Quadrotor Unmanned Air Vehicles, Zachary S. Lippay

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

This dissertation presents new results on multi-agent formation control and applies the new control algorithms to quadrotor unmanned air vehicles. First, this dissertation presents a formation control algorithm for double-integrator agents, where the formation is time varying and the agents’ controls satisfy a priori bounds (e.g., the controls accommodate actuator saturation). The main analytic results provide sufficient conditions such that all agents converge to the desired time-varying relative positions with one another and the leader, and have a priori bounded controls (if applicable). We also present results from rotorcraft experiments that demonstrate the algorithm with time-varying formations and bounded controls. …

Formation Control With Collision Avoidance For Fixed-Wing Unmanned Air Vehicles With Speed Constraints, Christopher Heintz

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Advances in the miniaturization of powerful electronic components and motors, the democratization of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), and improvements in the performance, safety, and cost in lithium batteries has led to the proliferation of small and relatively inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Many of these UAVs are of the multi-rotor design, however, fixed-wing designs are often more efficient than rotary-wing aircraft, leading to a reduction in the power required for a UAV of a given mass to stay airborne. Autonomous cooperation between multiple UAVs would enable them to complete objectives that would be difficult or impossible for a single …

Multilateration Index., Chip Lynch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We present an alternative method for pre-processing and storing point data, particularly for Geospatial points, by storing multilateration distances to fixed points rather than coordinates such as Latitude and Longitude. We explore the use of this data to improve query performance for some distance related queries such as nearest neighbor and query-within-radius (i.e. “find all points in a set P within distance d of query point q”). Further, we discuss the problem of “Network Adequacy” common to medical and communications businesses, to analyze questions such as “are at least 90% of patients living within 50 miles of a covered emergency …

Flight Trajectory Prediction For Aeronautical Communications., Nathan T Schimpf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The development of future technologies for the National Airspace System (NAS) will be reliant on a new communications infrastructure capable of managing a limited spectrum among aircraft and ground systems. Emerging approaches to this spectrum allocation task mostly consider machine learning techniques reliant on aircraft and Air Traffic Control (ATC) sector data. Much of this data, however, is not directly available. This thesis considers the development of two such data products: the 4D trajectory (latitude, longitude, altitude, and time) of aircraft, and the anticipated airspace utilization and communication demand within an ATC sector. Data predictions are treated as a time …

Monte-Carlo-Based Analysis Of Traffic Flow For Urban Air Mobility Vehicles, Sara Ghayouraneh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The research conducted in this dissertation is focused on developing a simulation tool that can predict the traffic flow patterns of the Urban Air Mobility vehicles to alleviate some of the challenges related to their traffic management. First, an introduction to the concept of Urban Air Mobility is given, the usage of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast systems for Urban Air Mobility vehicles is suggested and dynamic addressing concept is introduced as an answer to a part of air traffic management and address scarcity challenge for Urban air Mobility vehicles. Next, in order to simulate the traffic flow patterns of the Urban …

Air Traffic Controllers’ Occupational Stress And Performance In The Future Air Traffic Management, Hui Wang

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As demand for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operations increases, it is vital to understand its effects on air traffic controllers and the safety of the national airspace system. This study’s primary purpose is to determine how UAVs that operate in controlled airspace would influence air traffic controllers’ occupational stress and performance. In a within-subject experimental research design, 24 participants sampled from a university’s undergraduate Air Traffic Management (ATM) program completed three different air traffic control (ATC) scenarios on an en route ATC simulation system. The degree of UAV automation and control were varied in each scenario. The participants’ stress levels, …

A Cyber Threat Taxonomy And A Viability Analysis For False Injections In The Tcas, John W. Hannah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provided background information on the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). Additionally, the thesis developed a threat taxonomy for TCAS, resulting in the determination that a false injection attack presents the most comprehensive risk. Moreover, the thesis presents the development of a program to determine what ranges, altitudes, and relative bearings are most vulnerable to a false injection attack. The program includes test for all requirements of a successful false injection. Furthermore, the thesis presents an analysis of results and creates threat maps as situational awareness tools. Lastly, the thesis discusses potential solutions to the false injection attack, covers …