Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / An autonomously guided rocket-powered delivery vehicle has been under development at the Naval Postgraduate School. Designed to eventually counter UAV swarm attacks, the vehicle made advances toward reaching a target in the sky. These advances reduced the time needed to launch, modify, and relaunch the rocket, while adding capabilities such as data transfer along the vehicle axis and the rapid download of flight data. Improving the vehicle included reconfiguring the guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) strategy. Advancements included the design, implementation, and evaluation of electronic servo control, actuating fins, and the mechanical coupling design. The forward compartment in the vehicle’s nose cone was structurally modified for the GNC equipment and to support electronics under high-g launch conditions. Modifications included innovative designs for managing heat transfer requirements. Using off-the-shelf subsystem components kept the advancements fiscally mindful. After implementing the design features, two final test launches were performed: one demonstrated a control spin rate of 8.5 rad/sec; the other showed the vehicle’s ability to execute pitch maneuvers on a single axis. The test results can be used to improve the GNC software and servo control parameters. Continued development will allow the system to become a viable option for countering UAV swarms. / Ensign, United States Navy

Thesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Unmanned aerial vehicles with vertical take-off and landing capabilities have received extensive attention worldwide in the last decade. Their low detectability, high manoeuvrability in confined spaces, and their capability for out-of-sight operations make them practical solutions for an array of military and civilian missions. The main advantage of shrouded rotors in hover and low speed conditions is the decreased blade tip induced drag when the tip gap is small enough. A well-designed shroud augments the rotor thrust in hover and low axial flight conditions. It also provides noise reduction and safety. A contra-rotating rotor system eliminates the need for separate anti-torque devices, thus producing a smaller footprint and a more compact vehicle. In this study a more efficient coaxial rotor for the ducted coaxial rotor system as published by (Lee 2010) was developed. The first phase of the design process consisted of the selection and numerical analysis of the best suited parent airfoils for the rotors by using XFOIL and XFLR 5. The second phase dealt with the design of a counter-rotating rotor system for the existing cambered shroud as published by (Lee, 2010), using the DFDC-070ES2a two dimensional code, specifically written for ducted rotor optimization. The final phase of the study dealt with the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) verification of the design in ANSYS-CFX 15.07. A comparison between the CFX predictions of the newly designed rotor system and the reference design indicates a 33% improvement in hover thrust at the design power input. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Onbemande lugvaartuie met vertikale opstyg en landings vermoëns het uitgebreide aandag wêreldwyd in die laaste dekade geniet. Hul lae waarneembaarheid, hoë beweegbaarheid in beperkte ruimtes, en hul vermoë om buite-sig operasies uit te voer maak dat hulle praktiese oplossings vir 'n verskeidenheid van militêre en burgerlike missies is. Die grootste voordeel van gehulde rotors in hangvlug en lae spoed omstandighede is die afname in die lem punt sleepkrag wanneer die lem punt gaping klein genoeg is. 'n Goed ontwerpde omhulsel dra by tot die rotor stukrag in hangvlug en lae aksiale vlug omstandighede. Dit bied ook geraasreduksie en veiligheid. 'n Kontra-roterende rotorstelsel skakel die vereiste van afsonderlike anti-wringkrag toestelle uit, wat lei tot 'n kleiner voetspoor en 'n meer kompakte voertuig. In hierdie studie is 'n meer doeltreffende koaksiale rotor vir die gehulde koaksiale rotor stelsel soos gepubliseer deur (Lee 2010) ontwikkel. Die eerste fase van die ontwerp-proses het bestaan uit die seleksie en numeriese analise van die mees geskikte lemprofiele vir die rotors deur die gebruik van XFOIL en XFLR 5. Fase twee het die ontwerp van 'n teen-roterende rotor stelsel vir die bestaande omhulsel soos gebruik in (Lee, 2010) se publikasie behels. Die ontwerp is met behulp van DFDC-070ES2a, ‘n twee dimensionele kode wat spesifiek vir gehul-rotor optimering geskryf is, gedoen. Die verifikasie van die nuwe ontwerp is in die finale fase met behulp van die berekeings vloeidinamika sagteware, ANSYS-CFX 15.07 gedoen. ‘n Vergelyking tussen die CFX prestasie voorspelling vir die nuwe rotorstelsel en die gepubliseerde data van (Lee, 2010) toon ‘n 33% toename in hangvlug stukrag by die ontwerpsdrywing.

Performance of inflatable wings was investigated through laboratory, wind tunnel and flight-testing. Three airfoils were investigated, an inflatable-rigidazable wing, an inflatable polyurethane wing and a fabric wing restraint with a polyurethane bladder. The inflatable wings developed and used within this research had a unique outer airfoil profile. The airfoil surface consisted of a series of chord-wise \bumps.andamp;quot; The effect of the bumps or \surface perturbationsandamp;quot; on the performance of the wings was of concern and was investigated through smoke-wire flow visualization. Aerodynamic measurements and predictions were made to determine the performance of the wings at varying chord based Reynolds Numbers and angles of attack. The inflatable baffes were found to introduce turbulence into the free-stream boundary layer, which delayed separation and improved performance. Another area of concern was aeroelasticity. The wings contain no solid structural members and thus rely exclusively on inflation pressure for stiffness. Inflation pressure was varied below the design pressure in order to examine the effect on wingtip twist and bending. This lead to investigations into wing deformation due to aerodynamic loading and an investigation of wing flutter. Photogrammetry and laser displacement sensors were used to determine the wing deflections. The inflatable wings exhibited wash-in deformation behavior. Alternately, as the wings do not contain structural members, the relationship between stiffness and inflation pressure was exploited to actively manipulate wing through wing warping. Several warping techniques were developed and employed within this re-search. The goal was to actively influence the shape of the inflatable wings to affect the flight dynamics of the vehicle employing them. Researchers have developed inflatable beam theory and models to analyze torsion and bending of inflatable beams and other inflatable structures. This research was used to model the inflatable wings to predict the performance of the inflatable wings during flight. Design elements of inflatable wings incorporated on the UAVs used within this research are also discussed. Finally, damage resistance of the inflatable wings is shown from results of flight tests.

Dependable communication links for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are crucial to operational reliability and mission success. This study is focused on evaluating the probability of successful communication links for small UAVs. A program based on the Friis Transmission Equation was developed to calculate the power received in a line-of-sight communication link. The program was used to evaluate the probability of success for a variety of flight pa

The task of railroad inspection is a tedious one. It requires a lot of skilled experts and long hours of frequent on-field inspection. Automated ground equipment systems that have been developed to address this problem have the drawback of blocking the rail service during inspection process. As an alternative, using aerial imagery from a UAV, Computer Vision and Machine Learning based techniques were developed in this thesis to analyze two kinds of defects on the rail tracks. The defects targeted were missing spikes on tie plates and cracks on ties. In order to perform this inspection, the rail region was identified in the image and then the tie plate and tie regions on the track were detected. These steps were performed using morphological operations, filtering and intensity analysis. Once the tie plate was localized, the regions of interest on the plate were used to train a machine learning model to recognize missing spikes. Classification using SVM resulted in an accuracy of around 96% and varied greatly based on the tie plate illumination and ROI alignment for Lampasas and Chickasha subdivision datasets. Also, many other different classifiers were used for training and testing and an ensemble method with majority vote scheme was also explored for classification. The second category of learning model used was a multi-layered neural network. The major drawback of this method was, it required a lot of images for training. However, it performed better than feature based classifiers with availability of larger training dataset. As a second kind of defect, tie conditions were analyzed. From the localized tie region, the tie cracks were detected using thresholding and morphological operations. A machine learning classifier was developed to predict the condition of a tie based on training examples of images with extracted features. The multi-class classification accuracy obtained was around 83% and there were no misclassifications seen between two extreme classes of tie condition on the test data. / 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.

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.

The University of Arizona's Aerial Robotics Club (ARC) sponsored two senior design teams to compete in the 2011 AUVSI Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) competition. These teams successfully design and built a UAV platform in-house that was capable of autonomous flight, capturing aerial imagery, and filtering for target recognition but required excessive computational hardware and software bugs that limited the systems capability. A new multi-discipline team of undergrads was recruited to completely redesign and optimize the system in an attempt to reach true autonomous real-time target recognition with reasonable COTS hardware.

The paper describes major features of an unmanned aerial vehicle, designed undersafety and performance requirements for missions of aerial photography and remotesensing in precision agriculture. Unmanned aerial vehicles have vast potential asobservation and data gathering platforms for a wide variety of applications. The goalof the project was to develop a small, low cost, electrically powered, unmanned aerialvehicle designed in conjunction with a payload of imaging equipment to obtainremote sensing images of agricultural fields. The results indicate that this conceptwas feasible in obtaining high quality aerial images.