Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Investigating The Stability Of Observed Low Semi-Major Axis Exoplanetary Systems With Hypothetical Outer Planets Using The Program Mercury6, Kendall Butler

Honors College

This project investigates the stability of observed planetary systems, and whether this stability remains in the presence of additional outer planets. This made use of the program Mercury6, an n-body integrator that computes the changes in planetary orbits over time. The Systems HD 136352, GJ 9827, and HD 7924 were studied with initial conditions taken from the available observational data. This information was curated using the online NASA Exoplanet archive of confirmed exoplanets. With these initial conditions, Mercury6 computed the changing planetary orbits of each system for 5 million years. For each of these systems, a single outer planet, which …

Uav 6dof Simulation And Kalman Filter For Localizing Radioactive Sources, John G. Goulet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) expand the available mission-space for a wide range of budgets. Using MATLAB, this project has developed a six degree of freedom (6DOF) simulation of UAV flight, an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), and an algorithm for localizing radioactive sources using low-cost hardware. The EKF uses simulated low-cost instruments in an effort to estimate the UAV state throughout simulated flight.

The 6DOF simulates aerodynamics, physics, and controls throughout the flight and provides outputs for each time step. Additionally, the 6DOF simulation offers the ability to control UAV flight via preset waypoints or in realtime via keyboard input.

Using …

Integrated Environment And Proximity Sensing For Uav Applications, Shawn S. Brackett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), or “drone” applications expand, new methods for sensing, navigating and avoiding obstacles need to be developed. The project applies an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to a simulated quadcopter vehicle though Matlab in order to estimate not only the vehicle state but the world state around the vehicle. The EKF integrates multiple sensor readings from range sensors, IMU sensors, and radiation sensors and combines this information to optimize state estimates. The result is an estimated world map to be used in vehicle navigation and obstacle avoidance.

The simulation handles the physics behind the vehicle flight. As …