We study the problem of Reinforcement Learning (RL) for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) navigation with the smallest number of real world samples possible. This work is motivated by applications of learning autonomous navigation for aerial robots in structural inspec- tion. A naive RL implementation suffers from curse of dimensionality in large continuous state spaces. Gaussian Processes (GPs) exploit the spatial correlation to approximate state- action transition dynamics or value function in large state spaces. By incorporating GPs in naive Q-learning we achieve better performance in smaller number of samples. The evalua- tion is performed using simulations with an aerial robot. We also present a Multi-Fidelity Reinforcement Learning (MFRL) algorithm that leverages Gaussian Processes to learn the optimal policy in a real world environment leveraging samples gathered from a lower fidelity simulator. In MFRL, an agent uses multiple simulators of the real environment to perform actions. With multiple levels of fidelity in a simulator chain, the number of samples used in successively higher simulators can be reduced. / Master of Science

<p>Nya typer av krigföring, så som COIN-operationer (Counter insurgency), ställer nya krav på flygstridskrafterna. Utvecklingen av det bemannade stridsflyget har, om man jämför med UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), trots detta stått relativt stilla. Obemannat stridsflyg har samtidigt utvecklat förmågor som gör funktionen till en värdig konkurrent på det moderna slagfältet. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida obemannat stridsflyg kan överta det bemannade stridsflygets plats inom ramen för COIN-operationer. Detta avser jag uppnå genom att undersöka hur väl de båda funktionerna svarar uppmot de krav som ställs på ett stridsflygplan i en operation med inslag av COIN. Utifrån detta kommer jag bedöma vilka uppdragstyper som kan samt eventuellt inte kan lösas av en obemannad respektive bemannad flygfarkost. Resultatet i uppsatsen visar att bemannat stridsflyg är bättre anpassat till att genomföra markmålsoperationer inom ramen för COIN-operationer. Främst på grund av en bättre omvärldsuppfattning. Vid uppdragstyper kopplade till flygunderrätteleinhämtning är dock det obemannade stridsflyget bättre anpassat. Främst på grund av en längre uthållighet. Vad det gäller kostnadsaspekten så visar analysen att brukskostnaderna för det obemannade stridsflyget är betydligt lägre än hos det bemannade stridsflyget. Den höga anskaffningskostnaden för ett nytt UAV-system talar dock till dess nackdel. Skyddet som är integrerat i de obemannade plattformarna är sämre än hos den bemannade konkurrenten. UAV får i mångt och mycket lita till sin storlek för skydd. Slutsatsen jag kan dra av arbetet är att bemannat stridsflyg fortfarande har en plats på slagfältet inom ramen för COIN-operationer. Om utvecklingen fortsätter i samma takt och system som förbättrar omvärldsuppfattning för operatören på UAV samt möjliggör ett bättre självskydd kopplat till plattformen kan resultatet snart vara ett annat.</p> / <p>New types of warfare, such as COIN (Counter Insurgency), operations, mean new requirements for the Air Force. The development of the manned combat aircraft has, in comparison with the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), shown relativly slow progress. Unmanned combat aircraft has on the other hand developed capabilities that make it a worthy competitor on the modern battlefield. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether unmanned combat aircraft can outrival the manned combat aircraft, in COIN-operations. I will achieve this by studying how well the two functions are responding to the demands of a combat aircraft in an operation with elements of COIN. From this, I will assess the mission types that can and can not possibly besolved by an unmanned, or a manned combat aircraft. The results of this paper show that the manned fighter is better suited to carry out counter land operations within thescope of COIN-operations, mainly due to a better situational awareness. Due to longer endurance, the unmanned combat aircraft is better suited to carry out missions like reconnaissance and surveillance. In the cost aspect, the analysis shows that the cost of using the unmanned combat aircraft is much lower than that of the manned combat aircraft. The high purchase cost of a new UAV-system, however, speaks against it. The protection that is integrated into the unmanned platforms is worse than for its rival. UAVs must largely rely on their size for protection. The conclusion I can draw from this paper is that manned fighter aircraft still has a place on the battlefield as a part of COIN-operations. If the development continues at this pace and systems that improve the situational awareness of the operator of UAVs, and allows for better self protection linked to the platform, the result may soon be another.</p>

Nya typer av krigföring, så som COIN-operationer (Counter insurgency), ställer nya krav på flygstridskrafterna. Utvecklingen av det bemannade stridsflyget har, om man jämför med UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), trots detta stått relativt stilla. Obemannat stridsflyg har samtidigt utvecklat förmågor som gör funktionen till en värdig konkurrent på det moderna slagfältet. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka huruvida obemannat stridsflyg kan överta det bemannade stridsflygets plats inom ramen för COIN-operationer. Detta avser jag uppnå genom att undersöka hur väl de båda funktionerna svarar uppmot de krav som ställs på ett stridsflygplan i en operation med inslag av COIN. Utifrån detta kommer jag bedöma vilka uppdragstyper som kan samt eventuellt inte kan lösas av en obemannad respektive bemannad flygfarkost. Resultatet i uppsatsen visar att bemannat stridsflyg är bättre anpassat till att genomföra markmålsoperationer inom ramen för COIN-operationer. Främst på grund av en bättre omvärldsuppfattning. Vid uppdragstyper kopplade till flygunderrätteleinhämtning är dock det obemannade stridsflyget bättre anpassat. Främst på grund av en längre uthållighet. Vad det gäller kostnadsaspekten så visar analysen att brukskostnaderna för det obemannade stridsflyget är betydligt lägre än hos det bemannade stridsflyget. Den höga anskaffningskostnaden för ett nytt UAV-system talar dock till dess nackdel. Skyddet som är integrerat i de obemannade plattformarna är sämre än hos den bemannade konkurrenten. UAV får i mångt och mycket lita till sin storlek för skydd. Slutsatsen jag kan dra av arbetet är att bemannat stridsflyg fortfarande har en plats på slagfältet inom ramen för COIN-operationer. Om utvecklingen fortsätter i samma takt och system som förbättrar omvärldsuppfattning för operatören på UAV samt möjliggör ett bättre självskydd kopplat till plattformen kan resultatet snart vara ett annat. / New types of warfare, such as COIN (Counter Insurgency), operations, mean new requirements for the Air Force. The development of the manned combat aircraft has, in comparison with the UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), shown relativly slow progress. Unmanned combat aircraft has on the other hand developed capabilities that make it a worthy competitor on the modern battlefield. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether unmanned combat aircraft can outrival the manned combat aircraft, in COIN-operations. I will achieve this by studying how well the two functions are responding to the demands of a combat aircraft in an operation with elements of COIN. From this, I will assess the mission types that can and can not possibly besolved by an unmanned, or a manned combat aircraft. The results of this paper show that the manned fighter is better suited to carry out counter land operations within thescope of COIN-operations, mainly due to a better situational awareness. Due to longer endurance, the unmanned combat aircraft is better suited to carry out missions like reconnaissance and surveillance. In the cost aspect, the analysis shows that the cost of using the unmanned combat aircraft is much lower than that of the manned combat aircraft. The high purchase cost of a new UAV-system, however, speaks against it. The protection that is integrated into the unmanned platforms is worse than for its rival. UAVs must largely rely on their size for protection. The conclusion I can draw from this paper is that manned fighter aircraft still has a place on the battlefield as a part of COIN-operations. If the development continues at this pace and systems that improve the situational awareness of the operator of UAVs, and allows for better self protection linked to the platform, the result may soon be another.

Geospatialt data kan samlas in på en mängd olika sätt, där laserskanning och flygfotografering är några av dem. Genom de antal tekniker som möjliggör insamlingen av geospatialt data existerar lösningar såsom användning av Global Navigation Satellite System, Light Detection and Rangning, Structure-from-Motion m.fl. I och med dessa teknologier kan datamängder som höjdmodeller, punktmoln och ortofoton produceras. Inom Sverige finns det en mängd datakällor som kommuner kan använda sig av, där bl.a. Lantmäteriet är en av dem. Då det finns en risk av en fördröjning i uppdatering av data går kommuner runt om i landet potentiellt miste om uppdaterat data. En av de möjliga lösningarna för att få tillgång till uppdaterat data är att kommuner själva samlar in data. I och med denna studie undersöks om drönare är ett lämpligt alternativ till andra datakällor. Vid undersökningen utvärderades skillnader mellan datamängder som var georefererat med markkontrollpunkter och utan i relation till Lantmäteriets data. De datamängder som skapades baserat på drönarens flygbilder varierade i kvalité i kontrast till de inställningar som användes i Agisoft. Genom beräkning av kvadratisk medelavvikelse, differens, punktavstånd och punktäthet identifierades skillnader i kvalité i de skapade datamängder: höjdmodeller, punktmoln och ortofoton. Resultaten av detta visade att data som var georeferat med markkontrollpunkter hade högst lägesnoggrannhet och högre än Lantmäteriets data. Ytterligare hade de skapade datamängder i denna studie högre upplösning (ortofoton &amp; höjdmodeller) samt punktäthet och punktantal (punktmoln). Genom resultaten visar en av slutsatserna i denna studie att lämpligheten för att samla in data på eget bevåg av tillräcklig god kvalité är möjlig och att detaljgraden i relation till Lantmäteriets data är högre / Spatial data can be collected in a variety of ways, where laser scanning and aerial photography are some of them. With the use different technologies such as Global Navigation Satellite System, Light Detection and Ranging, Structure-from-Motion and more, enables the collection of spatial data. With these technologies, datasets such as elevation models, point clouds and orthophotos can be produced. Within Sweden, there are several data sources that municipalities can use, where Lantmäteriet is one of them. Since there is a risk of a delay in updating data, municipalities around the country are potentially losing out on updated data. The possible solutions for accessing updated data is that municipalities themselves collect data. This study will investigate whether drones are a suitable alternative to other data sources. In the survey, differences between data sets that were georeferenced with ground control points and without in relation to data from Lantmäteriet were evaluated. The amounts of data that were created based on the drone's aerial images varied in quality in contrast to the settings used in Agisoft. By calculating root mean square error, difference, point distance and point density, differences in quality were identified in the datasets created: elevation models, point clouds and orthophotos. The results showed that data georeferenced with ground control points had the highest positional accuracy and higher than the data from Lantmäteriet. Further, the datasets created in this study had higher resolution (orthophotos &amp; elevation models) as well as point density and number of points (point clouds). Through the results, one of the conclusions of this study shows that the suitability for collecting data on municipalities own accord of sufficiently good quality is possible and that the degree of detail in relation to data from Lantmäteriet is higher.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 20-23, 2003 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is developing the Remote Internet Protocol Communication (RIPCom) system, which is a wireless communication system that makes an aircraft look like a network node in the sky. RIPCom provides an Ethernet to Radio Frequency (RF) connection solution for real-time data transmission, and its design allows the end points of the communication system to become nodes on a network with assigned IP addresses. RIPCom’s design is especially suitable for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications, and its versatility makes it valuable for many systems that require a high speed, digital wireless network.

After many years of successful operation in military domains, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) are generating significant interest amongst civilian operators in sectors such as law enforcement, search and rescue, aerial photography and mapping. To maximise the benefits brought by UASs to sectors such as these, a high level of autonomy is desirable to reduce the need for highly skilled operators. Highly autonomous UASs require a high level of situation awareness in order to make appropriate decisions. This is of particular importance to civilian UASs where transparency and equivalence of operation to current manned aircraft is a requirement, particularly in the terminal area immediately surrounding an airfield. This thesis presents an artificial situation awareness system for an autonomous UAS capable of comprehending both the current continuous and discrete states of traffic vehicles. This estimate forms the basis of the projection element of situation awareness, predicting the future states of traffic. Projection is subject to a large degree of uncertainty in both continuous state variables and in the execution of intent information by the pilot. Both of these sources of uncertainty are captured to fully quantify the future positions of traffic. Based upon the projection of future traffic positions a self separation system is designed which allows an UAS to quantify its separation to traffic vehicles up to some future time and manoeuvre appropriately to minimise the potential for conflict. A high fidelity simulation environment has been developed to test the performance of the artificial situation awareness and self separation system. The system has demonstrated good performance under all situations, with an equivalent level of safety to that of a human pilot.

The thesis deals with the armed conflict phenomenon of past several years - unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Despite the fact that the present deployment of UAVs is often presented as a revolutionary, it is possible to track down the roots of remotely controlled planes without crew on board back to the years short after the Second World War. Today's versions of UAVs represent this historical concept brought to perfection thanks to the modern technologies. Their deployments raise legitimate considerations whether they may represent prohibited mean of warfare in terms of humanitarian law or whether their usage is not in contrary to law of armed conflict. This thesis aims to identify those differences between UAVs and traditional piloted aircrafts that may cause different legal classification of the UAVs to the traditional piloted aircrafts. First chapter includes short historical background which may bring interesting connections with political atmosphere after Second World War. It is also pointed out that the concept of unmanned aircrafts is not new. This chapter also includes technical facts and details about current modern UAVs like Predator, Reaper or Global Hawk which may serve for an easier legal analysis. Second chapter deals with the definitions and differences between two main types of armed...

Thesis advisor: Kenneth Himes / This thesis responds to two distinct claims about drone (or remotely piloted aircraft) pilots. The first is the general claim that the martial virtues function as a kind of role morality for soldiers; the second, that drone pilots, based on the absence of personal risk and their distance from the battlefield, are unable to meet the demands of such a role morality. Chapter One explains what is meant by role morality, and determines whether the martial virtues do in fact function in a role morality capacity. The second chapter applies this general conception of a role morality for soldiers to military drone pilots in particular. This investigation finds that, insofar as "soldier" is in fact a role that generates a role morality, military drone pilots are as capable of meeting the demands of such a role morality as other military members. The second half of the thesis challenges the premise that drone pilots do not face personal risk. Chapter Three identifies psychological risk among drone pilots and seeks to determine how this kind of non-physical risk may affect the cultivation of the martial virtues. The fourth chapter argues that by placing military drone pilots within domestic territory, drone-capable militaries (such as the US military) have redrawn the battlespace such that it includes the drone operators, wherever they may be, and that as a result, drone pilots do in fact face some physical risk. Finally, in closing, this thesis presents a positive account of the martial virtues that enables military ethicists and strategists to bring centuries of philosophical investigation to bear on contemporary military issues. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Desde o início do século XX que há registros do uso de Veículos Aéreos Não Tripulados (VANTs) utilizados com finalidade militar. Mas esta não é a única forma que se pode utilizá-los, o ambiente civil também é próspero em possíveis utilizações deste tipo de aeronave. Faltam ainda estudos e comprovações de que a integração dos VANTs no espaço aéreo juntamente com a aviação tripulada convencional não vá trazer alterações nos níveis de segurança já estabelecidos. Juntam-se a este desafio alguns outros, tais como padronizações de normas, classificações e legislação que regulamente o vôo das aeronaves não tripuladas. A presente dissertação faz uma coletânea de alguns modelos relacionados a cálculos de níveis de segurança no vôo de VANTs, bem como compara esses modelos entre si visando o estabelecimento de um método de escolha do modelo mais adequado para aplicação em alguns cenários civis de utilização. Esse trabalho ainda faz a aplicação desse método considerando os modelos relacionados à segurança dos VANTs. / There are records of the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) used for military activities since the beginning of the 20th century. But that is not the only way to use it; the civil environment is also promising as to the use of this kind of aircraft. More studies and validations have to be performed about the alterations in the safety levels with the integration of UAVs in the air space with classic manned air vehicles. There are others challenges such as the standardization of norms, classification and legislation to regulate the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle flights. This dissertation presents some models related to the calculation of the safety levels in UAVs flight, it compares them to establish a method for choosing the most suitable model to apply in some civil scenarios. This work also brings the application of this method considering the models related to the safety of UAVs.

An instrumented unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was developed and employed to observe the full range of turbulent motions that exist within the inertial subrange of atmospheric surface layer turbulence. The UAV was host to a suite of pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind sensors which provide the necessary data to calculate the variety of turbulent statistics that characterize the flow. Flight experiments were performed with this aircraft, consisting of a large square pattern at an altitude of 100 m above ground level. In order to capture the largest turbulent scales it was necessary to maximize the size of the square pattern. The smallest turbulent scales, on the other hand, were measured through the use of a fast response constant temperature hot wire anemometer. The results demonstrates that the UAV system is capable of directly measuring the full inertial subrange of the atmospheric surface layer with high resolution and allowing for the turbulence dissipation rate to be calculated directly.