This thesis presents a new method for improved resolution of stereoscopic 3D terrain mapping by local dense bundling of disparity maps. The Unmanned Systems Lab (USL) at Virginia Tech is designing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) first-response system capable of 3D terrain mapping in the wake of a nuclear event. The UAV is a helicopter, and is equipped with a stereo boom imaging system, GPS, and an inertial measurement system (IMU) for low-altitude aerial mapping. Previous 3D reconstruction algorithms on the project used two-frame rectified stereo correspondence to create a local 3D map, which was geo-located by raw GPS and IMU data. The new local dense bundling algo-rithm combines multiple pairs of stereo images by SURF feature point matching, image rectification, matching of dense points with semi-global block matching, and optimization of camera pose and dense 3D point location using a stereo-constrained local bundle adjustment. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated numerically on synthetic im-agery and qualitatively on real aerial flight data. Results indicate the algorithm produces marked improvement in accuracy and vertical resolution, given a proper helicopter flight path and sufficient image overlap. With synthetic imagery and precise pose supplied, the algorithm shows a 1.2x to 6x reduction in vertical error. / Master of Science

The determination of an aircraft's mass properties is critical during its conceptual design phase. Obtaining reliable mass property information early in the design of an aircraft can prevent design mistakes that can be extremely costly further along in the development process. In this thesis, several methods are presented in order to automatically calculate the mass properties of aircraft structural components and fuel stored in tanks. The first method set forth calculates the mass properties of homogenous solids represented by polyhedral surface geometry. A newly developed method for calculating the mass properties of thin shell objects, given the same type of geometric representation, is derived and explained. A methodology for characterizing the mass properties of fuel in tanks has also been developed. While the concepts therein are not completely original, the synthesis of past research from diverse sources has yielded a new comprehensive approach to fuel mass property analysis during conceptual design. All three of these methods apply to polyhedral geometry, which in many cases is used to approximate NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) surface geometry. This type of approximate representation is typically available in design software since this geometric format is conducive to graphically rendering three-dimensional geometry. The accuracy of each method is within 10% of analytical values. The methods are highly precise (only affected by floating point error) and therefore can reliably predict relative differences between models, which is much more important during conceptual design than accuracy. Several relevant and useful applications of the presented methods are explored, including a methodology for creating a CG (Center of Gravity) envelope graph. / Master of Science

Small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) are plagued by alarmingly high failure rates. Because these systems are small and built at lower cost than full-scale aircraft, high quality components and redundant systems are often eschewed to keep production costs low. This thesis proposes a process to ``design in'' reliability in a cost-effective way. Fault Tree Analysis is used to evaluate a system's (un)reliability and Dempster-Shafer Theory (Evidence Theory) is used to deal with imprecise failure data. Three unique sensitivity analyses highlight the most cost-effective improvement for the system by either spending money to research a component and reduce uncertainty, swap a component for a higher quality alternative, or add redundancy to an existing component. A MATLAB$^{\circledR}$ toolbox has been developed to assist in practical design applications. Finally, a case study illustrates the proposed methods by improving the reliability of a new SUAV design: Virginia Tech's SPAARO UAV. / Master of Science

Autonomous robot missions in unknown environments are challenging. In many cases, the systems involved are unable to use a priori information about the scene (e.g. road maps). This is especially true in disaster response scenarios, where existing maps are now out of date. Areas without GPS are another concern, especially when the involved systems are tasked with navigating a path planned by a remote base station. Scene understanding via robots' perception data (e.g. images) can greatly assist in overcoming these challenges. This dissertation makes three contributions that help overcome these challenges, where there is a focus on the application of autonomously searching for radiation sources with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) in unknown and unstructured environments. The three main contributions of this dissertation are: (1) An approach to overcome the challenges associated with simultaneously trying to understand 2D and 3D information about the environment. (2) Algorithms and experiments involving scene understanding for real-world autonomous search tasks. The experiments involve a UAV and a UGV searching for potentially hazardous sources of radiation is an unknown environment. (3) An approach to the registration of a UGV in areas without GPS using 2D image data and 3D data, where localization is performed in an overhead map generated from imagery captured in the air. / Ph. D. / Autonomous robot missions in unknown environments are challenging. In many cases, the systems involved are unable to use <i>a priori</i> information about the scene (<i>e.g.</i> road maps). This is especially true in disaster response scenarios, where existing maps are now out of date. Areas without GPS are another concern, especially when the involved systems are tasked with navigating a path planned by a remote base station. Scene understanding via robots’ perception data (<i>e.g.</i> images) can greatly assist in overcoming these challenges. This dissertation makes three contributions that help overcome these challenges, where there is a focus on the application of autonomously searching for radiation sources with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) in unknown and unstructured environments. The three main contributions of this dissertation are: (1) An approach to overcome the challenges associated with simultaneously trying to understand 2D and 3D information about the environment. (2) Algorithms and experiments involving scene understanding for real-world autonomous search tasks. The experiments involve a UAV and a UGV searching for potentially hazardous sources of radiation is an unknown environment. (3) An approach to the registration of a UGV in areas without GPS using 2D image data and 3D data, where localization is performed in an overhead map generated from imagery captured in the air.

The rapid increase and popularity of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in civil usage around the world is due to their versatility. With advancement in technology across the globe, there are UAS of different sizes and capabilities in the market. It is imperative to note that the use and operation of UAS have numerous merits and equally, potentially poses serious risks to aviation safety, unlawful interference with States’ security as well as invasion of the privacy of persons. This reality poses a challenge to integration of UAS into the civil airspaces of different States. Accordingly, the international community developed the Chicago Convention that provides the principal framework to address the threefold concerns. At the international level, however, there is lack of a unified system of regulation of UAS. Consequently, the Chicago Convention requires States to develop national institutions and legal frameworks to not only effectively address these concerns, but also create a delicate balance between national security and right to privacy. This thesis evaluates how the legal, institutional and policy frameworks for UAS in the US, South Africa and Kenya have addressed the current needs and challenges in operation and integrating them into regulatory frameworks for civil aviation. It follows that the three States have developed constitutional frameworks, legislation, regulations, policies and strategic plans as they seek to address the challenges that emanate from integrating UAS into the civil aviation airspace. This encompasses ineffective enforcement mechanism of regulations. The thesis maps out experiences of integration in the three countries, emanating from research goals including investigating the extent to which existing international regulatory frameworks address the threefold concerns. The study establishes that the common thread running through UAS regulation is each country’s unique issues and paths to integration. Additionally, that the approach for integration of UAS into civil aviation needs be gradual and pragmatic. For this reason, this thesis recommends the development of institutional capacity, coordination and funding, and increase in regional efforts to revamp UAS integration efforts into civil aviation. / Public, Constitutional, and International Law / LL. D. (Public, Constitutional and International Law)

Thesis (PhD (Electrical and Electronic Engioneering))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology is classified as being disruptive since it has the potential to radically change the utilization of airspace. Most unmanned vehicles are aimed at military applications, yet civilian applications of unmanned aerial vehicle technology could benefit South Africa considerably. At present, the lack of UAV regulations and standards precludes UAVs from being certified to operate on a file and fly basis in un-segregated civilian airspace. The inability for UAVs to be certified because of a lack of standards creates a “chicken and egg” – “stale mate” situation. If principles such as “equivalence”, initially proposed by Eurocontrol are adopted in South Africa, it then follows that equivalent standards used by manned aircraft could be used by UAVs. UAVs must therefore be tested and evaluated in order to prove compliance with equivalent existing manned aircraft regulations in the foreseeable future until UAV regulations and standards become available. It has been suggested that specific UAV missions such as maritime patrol, border control, search & rescue, and cargo transport could fulfil current requirements. Design considerations and possible concepts of UAV operations, maintenance and training that will enable UAVs to satisfy the immediate South African strategic requirements whilst complying with existing airspace and airworthiness regulations have been proposed in this document while further UAV specific standards and regulations are being developed. UAV testing is an essential part of proving the enabling technology, and part of the process of gaining acceptance into wider airspace. Fortunately, flight test methods and procedures applicable to manned aircraft are directly applicable to UAVs, while systems unique to UAVs can be adapted from existing procedures applied to missiles and military UAVs. Once UAVs are developed and tested, it will be necessary to start full scale operations. Some considerations will be necessary during mission planning. Air traffic management regulations however will prohibit some UAVs from operating in all airspace until enabling technology is developed and tested, while some existing UAVs will never be permitted to “file and fly”. This study also analyses existing airspace and UAV platforms in order to identify the airspace and platforms that will have the most chance of being successfully permitted to “file and fly” in civil airspace. For South Africa to advance as a UAV operating and manufacturing nation, it is therefore essential to compile a roadmap that will guide the process of developing, certifying and operating UAVs. The roadmap must include an interim process, as well as stating the end objective, which is “file and fly”. This South African UAV Roadmap proposal is based on international research that uses documentation and lessons learned from elsewhere to guide the process for creating UAV regulations and standards, while allowing existing UAV operations to expand into the existing airspace in order for further UAV research to take place. This roadmap proposal is the conclusion of a 3 year study, and references to the applicable literature are made throughout the document.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A strategy for the design of an effective, practically feasible, robust, computationally efficient autopilot for three dimensional manoeuvre flight control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles is presented. The core feature of the strategy is the design of attitude independent inner loop acceleration controllers. With these controllers implemented, the aircraft is reduced to a point mass with a steerable acceleration vector when viewed from an outer loop guidance perspective. Trajectory generation is also simplified with reference trajectories only required to be kinematically feasible. Robustness is achieved through uncertainty encapsulation and disturbance rejection at an acceleration level. The detailed design and associated analysis of the inner loop acceleration controllers is carried out for the case where the airflow incidence angles are small. For this case it is shown that under mild practically feasible conditions the inner loop dynamics decouple and become linear, thereby allowing the derivation of closed form pole placement solutions. Dimensional and normalised non-dimensional time variants of the inner loop controllers are designed and their respective advantages highlighted. Pole placement constraints that arise due to the typically weak non-minimum phase nature of aircraft dynamics are developed. A generic, aircraft independent guidance control algorithm, well suited for use with the inner loop acceleration controllers, is also presented. The guidance algorithm regulates the aircraft about a kinematically feasible reference trajectory. A number of fundamental basis trajectories are presented which are easily linkable to form complex three dimensional manoeuvres. Results from simulations with a number of different aircraft and reference trajectories illustrate the versatility and functionality of the autopilot. Key words: Aircraft control, Autonomous vehicles, UAV flight control, Acceleration control, Aircraft guidance, Trajectory tracking, Manoeuvre flight control. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: ’n Strategie vir die ontwerp van ’n effektiewe, prakties haalbaar, robuuste, rekenkundig effektiewe outoloods vir drie dimensionele maneuver vlugbeheer van onbemande vliegtuie word voorgestel. Die kerneienskap van die strategie is die ontwerp van oriëntasie-onafhanklike binnelus-versnellingbeheerders. Hierdie beheerders stel die navigasie buitelus in staat om die voertuig as ’n puntmassa met ’n stuurbare versnellingsvektor te beskou. Trajekgenerasie is ook vereenvoudig deurdat verwysingstrajekte slegs kinematies haalbaar hoef te wees. Robuustheid word verkry deur onsekerhede en versteuringsverwerping op ’n versnellingsvlak te hanteer. Die gedetaileerde ontwerp en saamhangende analise van die binnelus versnellingsbeheerders word uitgevoer vir die geval waar die invalshoeke klein is. Dit word aangetoon dat, onder praktiese omstandighede, die binnelus dinamika ontkoppel kan word en lineêr word, wat die afleiding van geslotevorm poolplasingoplossings toelaat. Dimensionele en genormaliseerde, nie-dimensionele tydvariante van die binnelusbeheerders word ontwerp en hul onderskeidelike voordele word uitgewys. Poolplasing beperkings, wat ontstaan as gevolg van die tipiese geringe nie-minimum fasegedrag van voertuigdinamika, word ontwikkel. ’n Gepaste generiese, voertuig onafhanklike navigasiebeheer algoritme vir gebruik saam met die binnelus-versnellingsbeheerders word voorgestel. Die voertuig word om ’n kinematies haalbare verwysingstrajek deur hierdie navigasie algoritme gereguleer. ’n Aantal fundamentele trajekte word voorgestel wat maklik gekombineer kan word om komplekse drie dimensionele maneuvers te vorm. Die veelsydigheid en funksionaliteit van die outoloods word deur simulasieresultate met ’n verskeidenheid voertuie en verwysingstrajekte gedemonstreer.

Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This project started a new research area in rotary-wing °ight control in the Computer and Control group at the University of Stellenbosch. Initial attempts to build a quad-rotor vehicle exposed di±culties which motivated changing to a standard model helicopter as a test vehicle. A JR Voyager E electrically powered model helicopter was instrumented with low-cost, low-weight sensors and a data communication RF link. The total cost of the sensor, communication and microcontroller hardware used is approximately US$ 1000 and the added onboard hardware weighs less than 0:4 kg. The sensors used to control the helicopter include a non-di®erential u-Blox GPS receiver, Analog Devices ADXRS150 rate gyroscopes, Analog Devices ADXL202 accelerometers, a Polaroid ultrasonic range sensor and a Honeywell HMC2003 magnetometer. Successful yaw, height and longitudinal position control was demonstrated. Signi¯cant further work is proposed, based on the literature study performed and the insights and achievements of the ¯rst rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicle project in the group.

Thesis (MScEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis presents the development of an adaptive longitudinal control system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The project forms part of a research effort at Stellenbosch University into different fault-tolerant control techniques for UAVs. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of fault-tolerant adaptive control, the control system was designed to handle damage-induced longitudinal shifts in the centre of gravity (CG) of the aircraft, which are known to have a dramatic effect on the stability of a fixed-wing aircraft. Using a simplified force and moment model, equations were derived which model the effect of longitudinal CG shifts on the behaviour of the aircraft. A linear analysis of the longitudinal dynamics using these equations showed that the short period mode can become unstable for backward CG shifts. An adaptive pitch rate controller with the model reference adaptive control structure was designed to re-stabilise the short period mode when the CG shifts backwards. The adaptive law was designed using Lyapunov stability theory. Airspeed, climb rate and altitude controllers were designed around the pitch rate controller to allow full autonomous control of the longitudinal dynamics of the UAV. These outer loops were designed with constant parameters, since they would be unaffected by CG shifts if the adaptive pitch rate controller performed as desired. Pure software simulations as well as hardware-in-the-loop simulations showed that the adaptive control system is able to handle instantaneous shifts in the centre of gravity which would destabilise a fixed-gain control system. These simulation results were validated in flight tests, where the aircraft was destabilised using positive feedback and re-stabilised by the adaptive control system. Thus the simulation and flight test results showed that an adaptive control can re-stabilise an unstable aircraft without explicit knowledge of the change in the aircraft dynamics, and therefore could be effective as part of an integrated fault-tolerant control system. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis bied die ontwikkeling aan van ’n aanpassende longitudinale beheerstelsel vir ’n onbemande vliegtuig. Die projek is deel van navorsing by die Universiteit van Stellenbosch oor verskillende fout-tolerante beheertegnieke vir onbemande vliegtuie. Om die doeltreffendheid van aanpassende beheer te demonstreer, is die beheerstelsel ontwerp om situasies te kan hanteer waar die vliegtuig só beskadig word dat sy massamiddelpunt agtertoe skuif, wat ’n groot invloed op die stabiliteit van ’n vastevlerk-vliegtuig kan hê. ’n Vereenvoudigde model van die kragte en momente wat op die vliegtuig inwerk is gebruik om vergelykings af te lei wat beskryf hoe die gedrag van die vliegtuig verander as die massamiddelpunt agtertoe verskuif. Hierdie vergelykings is gebruik in ’n lineêre analise van die longitudinale dinamika van die vliegtuig, wat getoon het dat die kortperiode-modus onstabiel kan raak as die massamiddelpunt agtertoe verskuif. ’n Aanpassende heitempobeheerder met die modelverwysings-aanpassende beheerstruktuur is ontwerp om die kortperiode-modus weer te stabiliseer wanneer die massamiddelpunt agtertoe verskuif. Die aanpassingswet is ontwerp deur die gebruik van Lyapunov se stabiliteitsteorie. Lugspoed-, klimtempo- en hoogtebeheerders is rondom die aanpassende heitempobeheerder ontwerp sodat die longitudinale dinamika van die vliegtuig heeltemal outonoom beheer kan word. Hierdie buitelusse is ontwerp met vaste parameters, aangesien hulle nie geraak sal word deur verskuiwings in die massamiddelpunt as die aanpassende heitempobeheerder na wense werk nie. Suiwer sagteware-simulasies, sowel as hardeware-in-die-lus-simulasies, het getoon dat die aanpassende beheerstelsel oombliklike verskuiwings in die massamiddelpunt goed kan hanteer, waar sulke verskuiwings ’n beheerstelsel met vaste parameters onstabiel sou maak. Hierdie simulasie-resultate is bevestig deur vlugtoetse te doen, waar die vliegtuig onstabiel gemaak is deur positiewe terugvoer, en weer deur die aanpassende beheerstelsel stabiel gemaak is. Die simulasie- en vlugtoetsresultate wys dus dat aanpassende beheer ’n onstabiele vliegtuig weer kan stabiliseer sonder eksplisiete kennis van die veranderinge in die dinamika van die vliegtuig. Aanpassende beheer kan dus doeltreffend wees as deel van ’n geïntegreerde fout-tolerante beheerstelsel.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Warfare planners and tacticians are seeking ways to leverage information technology to gain advantage on the battlefield. With the advent of Internet technologies, complex systems are becoming more networked, and access to information is more critical than ever. The increasing utilization of special operations forces in ad hoc, dynamic operations poses a need for adaptable communications to support the unit. Effective communication within the unit and critical information exchange with the command center affect the overall outcome of the mission. An adaptive, mobile network with UAV relays is well-suited to support the ad hoc nature of special operations. The area of research for this thesis is the role of the tactical network operations communication coordinator in mobile UAV networks. The coordinator's purpose is to oversee the management and status of the network and provide feedback to network participants, thus resulting in an effective and well-functioning environment. The tactical network coordinator is an important and integral part of network operations by establishing what is known as network awareness. This thesis will be a model for sharing network awareness, and it will explore the potential benefits of incorporating network performance as a planning objective rather than a constraint. / First Lieutenant, United States Air Force