The health sector is evolving at a rapid pace with a growing task force of health workers ready to defend us from various diseases. Emergency Medical Services(EMS) have therefore become extremely important to empower the health workers. In order to facilitate them to deliver the fast treatment to patients the fast transit of patients to the hospital and access to the right equipment is extremely crucial to save lives. UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) or drone is a promising candidate for the current problem. However, these drones are prone to be attacked by intruders with a few lines of code. This literature review will shed light on the security threat in the EMS to analyze the risk to UAVs.

One of the vital processes for the maintenance of infrastructure is the collection of information about the inventory and current state of the infrastructure. Such activities are mostly done manually by the inspector in the field. However, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) offer the possibilities to improving the accuracy, precision, and efficiency of those tasks. The present dissertation focusses on the evaluation of the requirements and possibilities for the incorporation of UAV in the assessment of port infrastructure, with an emphasis on pavement infrastructure. The first step to reach the goal of the research was the elaboration of an extensive literature review where the leading practices and trends for the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) were identified. Based on the literature review, it was possible to propose a roadmap for the implementation of the UAS in the assessment of port infrastructure. The roadmap was implemented in a case study for the Norvik port in Stockholm while the restrictions and information allowed. This research produced several key findings. First, it was possible to recognize the lack of precise definitions in the pavement assessment, the faults in the current manual collection of pavement distresses and the voids in an investigation regarding the recognition of pavement defects different than cracking as some of the critical problems in the area. Additionally, the current applications like bridge and structural inspection, and available technologies like LiDAR or visual sensors were identified along with its improvement opportunities and restrictions. The key steps for the implementation of a UAS for assessing infrastructure were formulated as the identification of the needs and critical parameters, the selection of the UAS components, mainly the UAV and sensor, and the postprocessing of the data. The main conclusion drawn from the research is that it is possible to use UAS to assess the state of the infrastructure. However, not all UAS are suitable for all situations or necessities. The selection of the UA, according to the needs and limitations of the project, plays a vital role regarding the viability of implementation of a UAS for monitoring port infrastructure. The sufficiency of a UAS is closely related on its capability to acquire the information of the selected structures, with the required quality, and overcome the limitations, challenges, and restrictions of the site of application. As a way forward, the most important element to address is the implementation of Machine Learning (ML) techniques and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to extract the relevant features of the data automatically.

This thesis studies real-time reference ramping of human input for remotely operated vehicles and its effect on system control, power usage, and user experience. The implementation, testing, and evaluation were done on the remotely operated Blueye Pioneer underwater drone. The developed method uses minimum jerk trajectories for transitioning between varying target velocities with a constant end jerk target. It has a low computational cost and runs in real-time on the Blueye Pioneer underwater drone. The presented method produces a well-defined reference with continuous position, velocity, and acceleration states that can be used in the feedback loop. Experiments and simulations show that the method produces a smoother and more predictable motion path for the user. The motions are better suited for video recordings and remote navigation, compared to the direct usage of human input velocity. The smoother reference reduces the controller tracking error, the peak control input, and the energy usage. The introduced acceleration reference state is used for feedforward control on the system. It improves the feeling of controlling the drone by reducing the system lag, the position tracking error, and the rise time for velocity changes.

With the increasing usage of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)s and the prediction of becoming applicable to more industries within the next decade there is a need for a controlling authority in the lower airspace. An Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Man- agement (UTM) provides multiple solutions to how such a system should operate and what services it should provide. This makes a UTM a key infrastructure that will need to withstand potential cyberattacks and ensure safe communication channels with sensitive information. This thesis will provide an analysis of what key areas need protection and show an example of how to implement it in UTM50.  Possible vulnerabilities were identified by performing a risk analysis based on the Con- trolled Object-Oriented Risk Assessment (CORAS) model, and a comparison was made between similar communication systems to compare what challenges they face. To handle the vulnerabilities, countermeasures were implemented in UTM50 using coding libraries such as ZeroMQ and CurveZMQ. The implementation was tested to ensure its effective- ness against possible cyber attacks, and the traffic was monitored using Wireshark.  Finally, this thesis presents a few areas that require further research to ensure full safety and security across all communication channels.

In present road traffic system, drone-network based traffic monitoring using the Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) is a promising solution. However, camera-based traffic monitoring does not collect complete data, cover all areas, provide quick medical services, or take vehicle follow-ups in case of an incident. Drone-based system helps to derive important information (such as commuter's behavior, traffic patterns, vehicle follow-ups) and sends this information to centralized or distributed authorities for making traffic diversions or necessary decisions as per laws. The present approaches fail to meet the requirements such as (i) collision free, (ii) drone navigation, and (iii) less computational and communicational overheads. This work has considered the collision-free drone-based movement strategies for road traffic monitoring using Software Defined Networking (SDN). The SDN controllable drone network results in lesser overhead over drones and provide efficient drone-device management. In simulation, two case studies are simulated using JaamSim simulator. Results show that the zones-based strategy covers a large area in few hours and consume 5 kWs to 25 kWs energy for 150 drones (Case study 1). Zone-less based strategies (case study-2) show that the energy consumption lies between 5 kWs to 18 kWs for 150 drones. Further, the use of SDN-based drones controller reduces the overhead over drone-network and increases the area coverage with a minimum of 1.2% and maximum of 2.6%. Simulation (using AnyLogic simulator) shows the 3D view of successful implementation of collision free strategies.

Nitrogen run-off from agriculture have been linked to human health problems on a global level. Large-scale conventional producers struggle to redefine themselves as sustainable because reducing nitrogen (N) inputs without justification or validation may lead to severe profit losses. Small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) sensing may allow for decreased N runoff. Failure to address this problem will exacerbate already excessive N runoff into the Mississippi River and beyond. The purpose of this study was to reduce fertilizer N input using sUAS technology to assess crop canopy needs. In 2020 and 2021, variable rate nitrogen (VRN) side-dress N application maps were calculated on early corn and cotton crops sensed with MicaSense® technology. The SCCCI and FENDVI VIs most often were highly related by SEq to early corn and cotton canopy N status. VariRite™ technology was successfully implemented in producer’s fields using VI calibrated imagery captured from sUAS.

As increasingly sophisticated personal-use technologies like drones and home surveillance systems become more common, so too will interpersonal privacy conflicts. Given the nature of these new personal-use technologies, privacy conflicts will increasingly occur in public spaces. Tort law is one area of the Canadian legal system that can address interpersonal conflict and rights-infringements between people with no other legal relationship. However, building on a historical association between privacy and private property, the common and statutory law privacy torts in Canada fail to respond to such conflicts, I argue inappropriately. Privacy is an important dimension of public space, and the social interactions and relationships that arise in public spaces. Failing to recognize public space privacy in tort law leads to an overly narrow understanding of privacy, and can be considered contrary to binding precedent that says that the common law should evolve in line with (or at a minimum, not contrary to) Charter values. The Charter values of privacy, substantive equality, and expressive freedom support various reforms to the judicial understanding of the privacy torts in Canada. Privacy, also understood as "private affairs" or "private facts" in tort, should not be predicated on property, and can sometimes take on greater value in public spaces. Privacy interests should be assessed through a normative lens, with a view to the long-term implications of a precedent for both privacy and substantive equality. Courts should assess privacy through a subjective-objective lens that allows for consideration of the lived experiences and expertise of the parties, their relative power, and their relationships. Adopting these principles into the statutory and common law torts would permit tort law to serve as a legal mechanism for addressing interpersonal, technology-mediated privacy conflicts arising in public spaces. This will be a socially valuable development as such conflicts become increasingly common and potentially litigated.

To remove the dependency on external structure for drone positioning in GPS-denied environments, it is desirable to estimate the ego-motion of drones on-board. Visual positioning systems have been studied for quite some time and the literature on the area is diligent. The aim of this project is to investigate the currently available methods and implement a visual odometry system for drones which is capable of giving continuous estimates with a lightweight solution. In that manner, the state of the art systems are investigated and a visual odometry system is implemented based on the design decisions. The resulting system is shown to give acceptable estimates. / För att avlägsna behovet av extern infrastruktur så som GPS, som dessutominte är tillgänglig i många miljöer, är det önskvärt att uppskatta en drönares rörelse med sensor ombord. Visuella positioneringssystem har studerats under lång tid och litteraturen på området är ymnig. Syftet med detta projekt är att undersöka de för närvarande tillgängliga metodernaoch designa ett visuellt baserat positioneringssystem för drönare. Det resulterande systemet utvärderas och visas ge acceptabla positionsuppskattningar.

In present road traffic system, drone-network based traffic monitoring using the Internet of Vehicles (IoVs) is a promising solution. However, camera-based traffic monitoring does not collect complete data, cover all areas, provide quick medical services, or take vehicle follow-ups in case of an incident. Drone-based system helps to derive important information (such as commuter's behavior, traffic patterns, vehicle follow-ups) and sends this information to centralized or distributed authorities for making traffic diversions or necessary decisions as per laws. The present approaches fail to meet the requirements such as (i) collision free, (ii) drone navigation, and (iii) less computational and communicational overheads. This work has considered the collision-free drone-based movement strategies for road traffic monitoring using Software Defined Networking (SDN). The SDN controllable drone network results in lesser overhead over drones and provide efficient drone-device management. In simulation, two case studies are simulated using JaamSim simulator. Results show that the zones-based strategy covers a large area in few hours and consume 5 kWs to 25 kWs energy for 150 drones (Case study 1). Zone-less based strategies (case study-2) show that the energy consumption lies between 5 kWs to 18 kWs for 150 drones. Further, the use of SDN-based drones controller reduces the overhead over drone-network and increases the area coverage with a minimum of 1.2% and maximum of 2.6%. Simulation (using AnyLogic simulator) shows the 3D view of successful implementation of collision free strategies.

In recent time, drones are everywhere. While commercial drones have shown great potential for hobby enthusiasts, it has shown a greater potential in military use and safeguarding. Currently, a significant amount of drones are being used for malicious means, such as espionage and warfare. Because of this, these drones has to be combated. One way to combat them is to use countermeasure drones. In this thesis, the objective is to implement and evaluate the security capabilities of SROS2 in a simulated environment. The thesis goal is to create a simulated environment along with two “ally” drones with secure communication and one “enemy” drone that will try to eavesdrop on their communication. Completing the thesis work was done by configuring a drone network using ROS2’s subscriber-publisher model and the use of evaluating methods such as Wireshark, tcpdump, and overhead performance tests to better understand and form a clearer picture of the inner-workings of the security capabilities offered by SROS2. The result yielded a simulated environment with three drones, where the “ally” drones successfully communicated with each other and the “enemy” drone failed in eavesdropping on the data travelling between them. SROS2’s security offered security but also showcased a decrease in latency and throughput performance, compared to a non-configured SROS2 network. / Nu för tiden finns drönare överallt. Medan kommersiella drönare har visat stor potential för hobbyentusiaster så har de också visat en större potential inom militär användning och skydd. Under en senare tid så har drönare används för skadliga ändamål, såsom spionage och krig. På grund av detta så måste dessa drönare bekämpas. Ett sätt att bekämpa dem är att använda skydds-drönare. I detta examensarbete är målet att implementera och utvärdera säkerhetsförmågan hos SROS2 i en simulerad miljö. Målet är att skapa en simulerad miljö tillsammans med två ”allierade” drönare med säker kommunikation och en ”fiende” drönaresom ska försöka avlyssna deras meddelanden. Examensarbetet gick till väga i form av konfigurering av ett drönarnätverk med ROS2:s subscriber-publisher-modell och utvärderingsmetoder som Wireshark, tcpdump, och “overhead” prestanda tester föratt bättre förstå och få en bättre bild av säkerhetsfunktionerna som erbjuds av SROS2. Resultatet blev en simulerad miljö med tre drönare, där de ”allierade” drönarna framgångsrikt kommunicerade med varandra och ”fiende” drönare misslyckades medatt avlyssna data som färdades mellan dem. SROS2 erbjuder säkerhet men också visar en minskning i latens och genomströmnings-prestanda jämfört med en okonfigurerad SROS2 nätverk.