O advento dos veículos aéreos não tripulados (VANTs) representa uma quebra de paradigma no ramo aeronáutico. São revisados os conceitos de projeto envolvidos no desenvolvimento de VANTs e levantadas as suas potenciais aplicações. São também analisadas as características de sua operação e discutidas as questões regulatórias envolvidas na certificação e integração dos VANTs ao tráfego aéreo civil. Dentre as várias características singulares dos VANTs, enfatiza-se a sua necessidade de realizar vôos a grande altitude e com longa autonomia. Isso leva ao emprego de materiais mais leves e configurações com asas de grande alongamento, que provocam menor arrasto induzido. É feita uma revisão sobre materiais compósitos, que são materiais de uso crescente no ramo aeronáutico por sua leveza e resistência, e que por sua característica de anisotropia, são suscetíveis à otimização estrutural. Métodos e ferramentas de otimização estrutural de compósitos laminados ainda são pouco empregados, por suas características discretas e pelo grande número de parâmetros envolvidos. Um método eficiente e adequado à otimização de um problema desse tipo é o método dos algoritmos genéticos (AG). Assim foi desenvolvida uma sub-rotina de otimização baseada em algoritmos genéticos, usando a linguagem de programação Fortran. A sub-rotina desenvolvida trabalha em conjunto com um programa comercial de análise estrutural baseado no método dos elementos finitos, o Ansys. Foi também proposta uma configuração de asa de um VANT típico, de grande alongamento e fabricada com materiais compósitos reforçados com fibras (CRF). A asa proposta teve o número e a orientação das camadas do laminado otimizadas com o uso da sub-rotina desenvolvida, e resultados satisfatórios foram encontrados. Foram também analisados os efeitos da variação dos parâmetros dos operadores do AG, como probabilidades de mutação, cruzamento, tipo de escalonamento, entre outros, no desempenho do mesmo. Também foram feitas otimizações no mesmo modelo de asa proposto, empregando outros métodos disponíveis no próprio programa de análise estrutural. Os resultados das otimizações através desses métodos foram comparados com os resultados obtidos com a sub-rotina desenvolvida / The advent of the unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) represents a paradigm break in the aeronautical field. The project concepts involved in the development of UAVs are revised and its potential applications are rose. Also the issues related to UAVs operation are assessed and the regulatory questions involved in their certification and integration to the civil air space are argued. Amongst many singular characteristics of the UAV, its necessity of performing flights at high altitudes and with long endurance is emphasized. This leads to the employment of lighter materials and to configurations with high aspect ratio wings that cause minor induced drag. A revision on composite materials, which are of increasing use in the aeronautical field for their lightness and strength, and that are appropriate for being optimized due to their anisotropy characteristics, is made. Methods and tools of structural optimization of laminated composites are still seldom employed, due to their discrete nature and to the large number of parameters involved. An efficient and suitable method for the optimization of this kind of problem is the genetic algorithm (GA). Thus, an optimization sub-routine based on genetic algorithms was developed, using FORTRAN programming language. The developed sub-routine works in combination with Ansys, a structural analysis commercial program based on the finite elements method. A configuration of a typical UAV wing, made from composite reinforced plastics (CRP) was also proposed. The proposed wing had the number of plies and the orientations of its layers optimized using the developed sub-routine, and satisfactory results had been found. Also the effect of the variation of AG’s operator parameters in its performance, as mutation probabilities, crossover probabilities, fitness scaling, among others, have been assessed. The same wing model considered was also optimized using other build-in methods of the structural analysis program. The results of these optimizations have been compared with the results obtained with the developed sub-routine

No description available.

With the recent development of reliable autonomous technologies for small unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), the algorithms utilizing teams of these vehicles are becoming an increasingly important research area. Unfortunately, there is no unified framework into which all (or even most) cooperative control problems fall. Five factors that affect the development of cooperative control algorithms are objective coupling, communication, completeness, robustness, and efficiency. We classify cooperative control algorithms by these factors and then present three algorithms with application to target and perimeter surveillance and a method for decentralized algorithm design. The primary contributions of this research are the development and analysis of decentralized algorithms for perimeter and target surveillance. We pose the cooperative perimeter surveillance problem and offer a decentralized solution that accounts for perimeter growth (expanding or contracting) and insertion/deletion of team members. By identifying and sharing the critical coordination information and by exploiting the known communication topology, only a small communication range is required for accurate performance. Convergence of the algorithm to the optimal configuration is proven to occur in finite-time. Simulation and hardware results are presented that demonstrate the applicability of the solution. For single target surveillance, a team of UAVs angularly spaced (i.e. in the splay state configuration) provides the best coverage of the target in a wide variety of circumstances. We propose a decentralized algorithm to achieve the splay state configuration for a team of UAVs tracking a moving target and derive the allowable bounds on target velocity to generate a feasible solution as well as show that, near equilibrium, the overall system is exponentially stable. Monte Carlo simulations indicate that the surveillance algorithm is asymptotically stable for arbitrary initial conditions. We conclude with high fidelity simulation and actual flight tests to show the applicability of the splay state controller to unmanned air systems.

The design, analysis, construction and flight testing of a miniature Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) tail-sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) prototype is presented in detail. Classic aircraft design methods were combined with numerical analysis to estimate the aircraft performance and flight characteristics. The numerical analysis employed a propeller blade-element theory coupled with momentum equations to predict the influence of a propeller slipstream on the freestream flow field, then the aircraft was analyzed using 3-D vortex lifting-line theory to model finite wings immersed in the flow field. Four prototypes were designed, built, and tested and the evolution of these prototypes is presented. The final prototype design is discussed in detail. A method for sizing control surfaces for a tail-sitter was defined. The final prototype successfully demonstrated controllability both in horizontal flight and vertical flight. Significant contributions included the development of a control system that was effective in hover as well as descending vertical flight, and the development of a strong but light weight airframe. The aircraft had a payload weight fraction of 14.5% and a maximum dimension of one meter, making it the smallest tail-sitter UAV to carry a useful payload. This project is expected to provide a knowledge base for the future design of small electric VTOL tail-sitter aircraft and to provide an airframe for future use in tail-sitter research.

No description available.

Though multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become widely used during the past decade, challenges in autonomy have prevented their widespread use when moving vehicles act as their base stations. Emerging use cases, including maritime surveillance, package delivery and convoy support, require UAVs to autonomously operate in this scenario. This thesis presents improved solutions to both the state estimation and control problems that must be solved to enable robust, autonomous landing of multirotor UAVs onto moving vehicles.Current state-of-the-art UAV landing systems depend on the detection of visual fiducial markers placed on the landing target vehicle. However, in challenging conditions, such as poor lighting, occlusion, or extreme motion, these fiducial markers may be undected for significant periods of time. This thesis demonstrates a state estimation algorithm that tracks and estimates the locations of unknown visual features on the target vehicle. Experimental results show that this method significantly improves the estimation of the state of the target vehicle while the fiducial marker is not detected.This thesis also describes an improved control scheme that enables a multirotor UAV to accurately track a time-dependent trajectory. Rooted in Lie theory, this controller computes the optimal control signal based on an error-state formulation of the UAV dynamics. Simulation and hardware experiments of this control scheme show its accuracy and computational efficiency, making it a viable solution for use in a robust landing system.

No description available.

This dissertation presents shape and structural optimization studies on flapping wings for micro air vehicles. The design space of the optimization includes the wing planform and the structural properties that are relevant to the wing model being analyzed. The planform design is parameterized using a novel technique called modified Zimmerman, which extends the concept of Zimmerman planforms to include four ellipses rather than two. Three wing types are considered: rigid, plate-like deformable, and membrane. The rigid wing requires no structural design variables. The structural design variables for the plate-like wing are the thickness distribution polynomial coefficients. The structural variables for the membrane wing control the in-plane distributed forces which modulate the structural deformation of the wing. The rigid wing optimization is performed using the modified Zimmerman method to describe the wing. A quasi-steady aerodynamics model is used to calculate the thrust and input power required during the flapping cycle. An assumed inflow model is derived based on lifting-line theory and is used to better approximate the effects of the induced drag on the wing. A multi-objective optimization approach is used since more than one aspect is considered in flapping wing design. The the epsilon-constraint approach is used to calculate the Pareto optimal solutions that maximize the cycle-average thrust while minimizing the peak input power and the wing mass. An aeroelastic model is derived to calculate the aerodynamic performance and the structural response of the deformable wings. A linearized unsteady vortex lattice method is tightly coupled to a linear finite element model. The model is cost effective and the steady-state solution is solved by inverting a matrix. The aeroelastic model is used to maximize the thrust produced over one flapping cycle while minimizing the input power. / Ph. D.

Air corridors are an integral part of the advanced air mobility infrastructure. They are the virtual highways in the sky for transportation of people and cargo in the controlled airspace at an altitude of around 1000 ft. to 2000 ft. above the ground level. This paper presents fundamental insights into the design of air corridors with high operational efficiency as well as zero collisions. It begins with the definitions of air cube, skylane or track, intersection, vertiport, gate, and air corridor. Then, a multi-layered air corridor model is proposed. Traffic at intersections is analyzed in detail with examples of vehicles turning in different directions. The concept of capacity of an air corridor is introduced along with the nature of distribution of locations of vehicles in the air corridor and collision probability inside the corridor are discussed. Finally, the results of simulations of traffic flows are presented.

ITC/USA 2011 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Seventh Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 24-27, 2011 / Bally's Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper concentrates on aircraft specific issues and impacts of utilizing a "C" band telemetry system on a new or existing instrumentation system.