This thesis focuses on the design of the hexacopter construction for photographic purposes with maximum load of 4 kg. When constructing a hexacopter it is necessary to take into account a number of factors. For the actual construction the correct dimensioning of the supporting frame is important as well as the locomotor system. The main concept of this thesis includes three-axis gimbal for camera control. The verification of the structure strength was performed using FEM analysis. This work describes also the selection of individual components and their wiring. The end is dedicated to safety and different procedures for reducing operation risks.

Since the dawn of the space race, satellites have grown rapidly in complexity and shrunk equally rapidly in size. Most of them contain an Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) on board for pointing and detumbling manoeuvres. These intricate systems are designed for an outer space environment, hence, phenomenon otherwise abscent in space, such as gravity and aerodynamic drag present a challenge in validating these systems on Earth. The gimbal suspension testbed aims to provide a 3 Degree of Freedom (DoF) suspension where the mounted satellite under test can rotate about either axis. The suspension induces disturbance torques that must be modeled in order for the testbed to be characterized. This is accomplished by formulating the necessary gimbal dynamics, bearing friction, aerodynamic and Center of Mass (CoM) displacement torque model. This yields a relationship from which all torques present in the system can be expressed in terms of the angles, angular velocities and angular accelerations of the gimbal frames. By measuring the angles and obtaining the velocities and accelerations through numerical differentiation, the torques that correspond to a certain motion can be calculated. Furthermore, the thesis covers the iterative design of the gimbal suspension and all of its constituents, the angular measurement method and a Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation to estimate deformations. The result is presented in terms of a simulation that validates the models by predicting its behaviour for certain movement. The final result is a series of characterization plots that tells the user of the gimbal testbed how much torque must be produced by the CubeSat ADCS in order to operate it. / Sedan begynnelsen av rymdkapplöpningen har satelliter snabbt ökat i komplexitet och lika snabbt minskat i storlek. De flesta satelliter har ett attitydsbestänings- och kontrollsystem (ADCS) ombord för att kunna utföra vissa manövrar. Dessa system är designade för rymdmiljön, därför kan fenomen som annars är frånvarande i rymden, så som gravitation och luftmotstånd, innebära en utmaning då man önskar att validera systemet på jorden. Gimbalupphängningen förmedlar rotation med tre frihetsgrader där satelliten under test kan rotera kring alla tre axlar. Upphängningen inducerar störmoment som måste modelleras för att den ska bli ordentligt karaktäriserad. Detta åstadkoms genom att formulera gimbalens dynamiska förhållanden, kullagerfriktion, luftmotstånd och masscenterförflyttning. Dessa samband kopplar samman alla moment som är närvarande i systemet som funktion av gimbalramarnas vinklar, vinkelhastigheter och vinkelaccelerationer. Genom att mäta vinklarna och erhålla vinkelhastigheter och vinkelacceleration genom numerisk derivering kan momenten som motsvarar den uppmätta rörelsen beräknas. Dessutom presenteras den iterativa designen av gimbalupphängningen och alla dess beståndsdelar, vinkelmätningsmetoden och en finita elementmetodssimulering för att uppskaffa deformationer. Resultatet presenteras i form av simuleringar som validerar modellen genom att förutspå dess beteende för viss rörelse. Det slutgiltiga resultatet är en serie av karaktäriseringsgrafer som förmedlar till användaren just hur mycket moment dess CubeSats ADCS måste producera för att kunna använda gimbalupphängingen.

På senare år har tjuvjakten på noshörningar resulterat i ett kritiskt lågt bestånd. Detta examensarbete är en del av ett initiativ för att stoppa denna utveckling. Målet är att använda en UAV, utrustad med GPS och attitydsensorer, samt en värmekamera placerad på en gimbal, till att övervaka vilda djur. Genom att använda en värmekamera kan djuren lätt detekteras eftersom de antas vara varmare än sin omgivning. En modell av marken vid testområdet har använts för att möjliggöra positionering av detekterade djur, samt analys av vilka områden på marken som ses av kameran. Termen övervakning inkluderar detektion av djur, målföljning och planering av rutt för UAV:n. UAV:n ska kunna söka av ett område efter djur. För att göra detta krävs planering av trajektoria för UAV:n samt hur gimbalen ska förflyttas. Flera metoder för detta har utvärderats. UAV:n ska även kunna målfölja djur som har detekterats. Till detta har ett partikelfilter använts. För att associera mätningar till spår har Nearest Neighbor-metoden använts. Djuren detekteras genom att bildbehandla på videoströmmen som ges från värmekameran. För bildbehandlingen har flertalet metoder testats. Dessutom presenteras en omfattande beskrivning av hur en UAV fungerar och är uppbyggd. I denna beskrivs även nödvändiga delar för ett UAV-system. På grund av begränsningar i budgeten har ingen UAV inköpts. Istället har tester utförts från en gondol i Kolmården. Gondolen åker runt i testområdet med en konstant hastighet. Djur kunde lätt detekteras och målföljas givet en kall bakgrund. Då solen värmer upp marken är det svårare att särskilja djuren från marken och fler feldetektioner görs av bildbehandlingen / In recent years, the poaching of rhinoceros has decreased its numbers to critical levels. This thesis project is a part of an initiative to stop this development. The aim of this master thesis project is to use a UAV equipped with positioning and attitude sensors as well as a thermal camera, placed onto a gimbal, to perform wildlife surveillance. By using a thermal camera, the animals are easily detected as they are assumed to be warmer than the background. The term wildlife surveillance includes detection of animals, tracking, and planning of the UAV. The UAV should be able to search an area for animals, for this planning of the UAV trajectory and gimbal attitude is needed. Several approaches for this have been tested, both online and offline planning. The UAV should also be able to track the animals that are detected, for this a particle filter has been used. Here a problem of associating measurements to tracks arises. This has been solved by using the Nearest Neighbor algorithm together with gating. The animals are detected by performing image processing on the images received from the thermal camera. Multiple approaches have been evaluated. Furthermore, a thoroughly worked description of how a UAV is working as well as how it is built up is presented. Here also necessary parts to make up a full unmanned aerial system are described. This chapter can be seen as a good guide for beginners, to the UAV field, interested in knowing how a UAV works and the most common parts of such a system. A ground model of Kolmården, where the testing has been conducted, has been used in this thesis. The use of this enables positioning of the detected animals and checking if an area is occluded for the camera. Unfortunately, due to budget limitations, no UAV was purchased. Instead, testing has been conducted from a gondola in Kolmården traveling across the test area with a constant speed. To use the gondola as the platform, for the sensors and the thermal camera, is essentially the same as using a UAV as both alternatives are located in the air above the animals, both are traveling around the map and both are stable for good weather conditions. The animals could easily be detected and tracked given a cold background. When the sun heats up the ground, it is harder to distinguish the animals in the thermal video, and more false detections in the image processing appear.

This thesis presents some existing gimbal and UAV control algorithms as well as novel algorithms developed as the extensions of the existing ones. The existing image-based visual servoing algorithms for both gimbal and UAV require the depth information to the object of interest. The depth information is not measurable when only a monocular camera is used for tracking. This thesis is the result of contemplation to the question: how can the necessity for a depth measurement be removed? A novel gimbal algorithm using adaptive control is developed and presented with simulation and hardware results. Although the estimated depth using the algorithm cannot be used as reliable depth information, the target tracking objective is met. Also, a new UAV control algorithm for target following is developed and presented with simulation results. This algorithm does not require the depth to the target or the UAV altitude to be measured because it exploits the unit vectors to the target and to the optical axis.

Two-axis gimbals are frequently used to point cameras and telescopes at various points of interest for surveillance, science, and art. The rotation of a two-axis gimbal system is governed by nonlinear angular momentum equations of motion. This paper presents a method for slewing a telescope in space with a gimbaled sensor attached to a nominally non-rotating spacecraft using two seventh order polynomial input functions to characterize torques. To accomplish this task, picking the optimal coefficients of the seventh order polynomial was necessary. It was also desired to use constraint equations to limit the excursion, angular velocity, angular acceleration, and jerk of the gimbal. A Matlab code was developed for this purpose. Matlab’s fmincon was used to do the optimization, and a comparison to a previously validated one-degree-of-freedom (DOF) model was presented for validation of the nonlinear, two-degree-of-freedom model. Results for a fully constrained 2 DOF slew maneuver were also shown. This thesis demonstrates that seventh order polynomial torques can be used to accurately slew a telescope in space using nonlinear equations of motion.

Linear covariance analysis has been utilized in a wide variety of applications. Historically, the theory has made significant contributions to navigation system design and analysis. More recently, the theory has been extended to capture the combined effect of navigation errors and closed-loop control on the performance of the system. These advancements have made possible rapid analysis and comprehensive trade studies of complicated systems ranging from autonomous rendezvous to vehicle ascent trajectory analysis. Comprehensive trade studies are also needed in the area of gimbaled pointing systems where the information needs are different from previous applications. It is therefore the objective of this research to extend the capabilities of linear covariance theory to analyze the closed-loop navigation and control of a gimbaled pointing system. The extensions developed in this research include modifying the linear covariance equations to accommodate a wider variety of controllers. This enables the analysis of controllers common to gimbaled pointing systems, with internal states and associated dynamics as well as actuator command filtering and auxiliary controller measurements. The second extension is the extraction of power spectral density estimates from information available in linear covariance analysis. This information is especially important to gimbaled pointing systems where not just the variance but also the spectrum of the pointing error impacts the performance. The extended theory is applied to a model of a gimbaled pointing system which includes both flexible and rigid body elements as well as input disturbances, sensor errors, and actuator errors. The results of the analysis are validated by direct comparison to a Monte Carlo-based analysis approach. Once the developed linear covariance theory is validated, analysis techniques that are often prohibitory with Monte Carlo analysis are used to gain further insight into the system. These include the creation of conventional error budgets through sensitivity analysis and a new analysis approach that combines sensitivity analysis with power spectral density estimation. This new approach resolves not only the contribution of a particular error source, but also the spectrum of its contribution to the total error. In summary, the objective of this dissertation is to increase the utility of linear covariance analysis for systems with a wide variety of controllers and for whom the spectrum of the errors is critical to performance.

This thesis is a part of the SIREOS project at Swedish Defence Research Agency which aims at developing a sensor system consisting of infrared and video sensors and an integrated navigation system. The sensor system is placed in a camera gimbal and will be used on moving platforms, e.g. UAVs, for surveillance and reconnaissance. The gimbal is a device that makes it possible for the sensors to point in a desired direction. In this thesis the sensor pointing problem is studied. The problem is analyzed and a system design is proposed. The major blocks in the system design are gimbal trajectory planning and gimbal motion control. In order to develop these blocks, kinematic and dynamic models are derived using techniques from robotics. The trajectory planner is based on the kinematic model and can handle problems with mechanical constraints, kinematic singularity, sensor placement offset and reference signal transformation. The gimbal motion controller is tested with two different control strategies, PID and LQ. The challenge is to perform control that responds quickly, but do not excite the damping flexibility too much. The LQ-controller uses a linearization of the dynamic model to fulfil these requirements.

<p>This thesis is a part of the SIREOS project at Swedish Defence Research Agency which aims at developing a sensor system consisting of infrared and video sensors and an integrated navigation system. The sensor system is placed in a camera gimbal and will be used on moving platforms, e.g. UAVs, for surveillance and reconnaissance. The gimbal is a device that makes it possible for the sensors to point in a desired direction. </p><p>In this thesis the sensor pointing problem is studied. The problem is analyzed and a system design is proposed. The major blocks in the system design are gimbal trajectory planning and gimbal motion control. In order to develop these blocks, kinematic and dynamic models are derived using techniques from robotics. The trajectory planner is based on the kinematic model and can handle problems with mechanical constraints, kinematic singularity, sensor placement offset and reference signal transformation. </p><p>The gimbal motion controller is tested with two different control strategies, PID and LQ. The challenge is to perform control that responds quickly, but do not excite the damping flexibility too much. The LQ-controller uses a linearization of the dynamic model to fulfil these requirements.</p>

Telepresence describes technologies that allow users to remotely experience the sensation of being present at an event without being physically present. An avatar exists to represent the user whilst in a remote location and is tasked to collect stimuli from its immediate surroundings to be delivered to the user for consumption. With the advent of recent developments in Virtual Reality technology, viz., head-mounted displays (HMDs), new possibilities have been enabled in the field of Telepresence. The main focus of this thesis is to develop a solution for visual Telepresence, where an HMD is used to control the direction of a camera‟s viewpoint, such that the user‟s head is tracked by the avatar, while providing visual feedback to the user. The design and development of the device follows a mechatronic approach, where a real time operating system (RTOS) is used in conjunction with a microcontroller for mechanical actuator control. The first-generation prototype, HOG-1 (HMD-Operated Gimbal, rev. 1), developed for this thesis serves as a foundation for study; the implementation and analysis of the prototype contributes to the state of the art by providing a clearer glimpse of hardware and software requirements that are necessary to construct an improved model. Additionally, qualitative and quantitative measurements are developed in the process of this research.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 25-28, 1999 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Transportable Range Augmentation and Control System (TRACS), Mobile Telemetry System (MTS), is a versatile system capable of supporting anywhere when called upon. The MTS is designed to operate anywhere on land. It is unknown how the system will perform on a floating platform without a stabilizing gimbal. The operation of a tracking system at sea generally require the use of a three-axis pedestal. The MTS is a two-axis pedestal. This paper is a report on how the MTS responds to simulated ocean-motion. Testing the system on a body of water is very expensive, especially out in the desert. The MTS was tested in the desert area of Las Cruces, New Mexico in the parking lot of EMI Technologies, prime contractor, using two forklifts to simulate ship motion in the pitch and yaw planes. The location is perfect for crossover dynamics tests. The tests conducted were for the purpose of determining if the MTS could auto-track a moving signal in space while it also moves due to “simulated ocean swells” that increase the generated tracking error signal levels in an opposite or in addition to the ones generated from the space vehicle. There is no gyroscopic correction. Successful results of the tests could preclude the use of a gyroscopically stabilized gimbaled platform necessary to keep the tracking system steady for auto-tracking a target during “6 degrees of freedom” disturbances. Several thousand dollars can be saved if the concept can be proven.