This master thesis investigates the problem of making an unmanned aerial vehicle(uav) follow a person or a group of persons while keeping a fixed distance tothe chosen target. The purpose of this thesis is to give a proof of concept prototypeof how such a system would work to achieve that task. The main problemconsists of controlling the uav based on visual input from a camera. With thehelp of a visual object detection and tracking system, the image coordinates ofthe targets can be found. An algorithm was developed to calculate the target’sworld position based on its image coordinates and the world position and orientationof the uav. A control system was implemented that uses that uses thepositional information to set the velocity of the uav, if its position needs to bechanged. Several strategies for handling groups of targets were investigated. Inaddition a simulator was developed that can be used to simulate the image coordinatesof a target when the world position of the target is known. The systemwas tested during live flights, using a high precision motion capture system forreference. The results were mainly positive in showing proof of concept and evenshowing a relatively high level of precision.

ITC/USA 2005 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-First Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2005 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Underwater acoustic (UWA) telemetry requires wideband waveforms for anti-multipath which are simultaneously easy to equalize and demodulate. The Walsh/m-sequence waveforms proposed here are robust to multipath and with appropriate time-guard bands do not require equalization. For example, in the UCSB prototype acoustic modem, a data rate of 133 bps is achieved using 8-ary Walsh signaling with an 11.2 msec. symbol duration. Demodulation is performed using noncoherent detection, and hence accurate phase tracking, which is difficult to achieve in the UWA channel, is not required. However, telemetry from unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) is more problematic due to large Doppler shifts resulting from platform motion. A new receiver algorithm based on Matching Pursuits is proposed which combines channel and Doppler shift estimation. Symbol-error rate (SER) simulation results are presented for the UWA modem under realistic Doppler/multipath conditions.

The project presented in this report is a master's thesis performed at Scania CV. The main purpose is to develop an algorithm that estimates the offset of the values that the steering wheel angle sensor reports in a truck or tractor, and also to investigate the possibility to estimate the steering wheel angle in real-time. The developed algorithm successfully estimates the offset to an accuracy on the order of degrees, and the uncertainty of the estimate is ultimately determined by the backlash in the steering system, which may range up to approximately 15 degrees or more depending on service standards. The investigation also shows that two general approaches to estimate the steering wheel angle in real-time can produce unbiased estimates only when the vehicle is cornering at low speeds.

published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Monitoring the limiting reactant concentration is a key question to maximize the productivity and to guarantee the safety of exothermic fed-batch processes. However in most applications, the concentration cannot be measured in real-time since suitable devices do not exist or are too expensive; the concentrations are then measured by off-line analyses. In this context monitoring the concentrations via software sensors, or state observer based estimators, is an attractive option. The presence of model uncertainties is a major limitation when applying state observers to real processes. More precisely, in fed-batch exothermic reactors the bad knowledge of both the reaction kinetics and the heat transfer may prevent the use of classical observers. In this study, we propose two different approaches to estimate the concentration of the limiting reactant in a class of single phase exothermic fed-batch reactors with uncertain kinetics and heat transfer. The first approach is based on a finite time converging observer that provides an estimate for the reaction rate via the reactor energy balance equation. The concentration is then computed from the reaction rate estimate via a material balance equation. The main contribution of this approach is the use of a finite time observer to limit the reconstruction error by guaranteeing a small convergence time interval for the reaction rate estimate. The second approach is based on an interval observer that provides two bounds for the concentration by considering uncertainties related to both the heat transfer and the reaction kinetics. The final estimate is then computed as the mean of the bounds. A systematic tuning procedure has been developed for each of both estimation techniques. Both estimators have then been tested and validated with real data coming from the production of different kinds of resins carried out in 10 tons reactors.

Ce texte constitue une synthèse de mes travaux de recherche menés depuis 2000 en statistique mathématique. Ces travaux s'articulent autour de 4 thèmes: la statistique non paramétrique pour les processus de diffusion, efficacité au second ordre pour l'estimation semiparamétrique, agrégation par des poids exponentiels et réduction de dimension pour la régression non paramétrique. <br />Le premier chapitre contient une description générale des résultats obtenus en les replaçant dans un contexte historique et en présentant les motivations qui nous ont animées pour étudier ces problèmes. J'y décris également de façon informelle les idées clés des démonstrations. <br /><br />Au second chapitre, je présente les définitions principales nécessaires pour énoncer de façon rigoureuse les résultats les plus importants. Ce chapitre contient également une discussion plus formelle permettant de mettre en lumière certains aspects théoriques et pratiques de nos résultats.