Global ETD Search

111	MULTI-DRONE COLLABORATION FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSIONS Forsslund, Patrik, Monié, Simon January 2021 (has links) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), also called drones, are used for Search And Rescue (SAR) missions, mainly in the form of a pilot manoeuvring a single drone. However, the increase in labour to cover larger areas quickly would result in a very high cost and time spent per rescue operation. Therefore, there is a need for an easy to use, low-cost, and highly autonomous swarm of drones for SAR missions where the detection and rescue times are kept to a minimum. In this thesis, a Subsumption-based architecture is proposed, which combines multiple behaviours to create more complex behaviours. An investigation of (1) what are the critical aspects of controlling a swarm of drones, (2) how can a combination of different behavioural algorithms increase the performance of a swarm of drones, and (3) what benchmarks are necessary when evaluating the fitness of the behavioural algorithms. The proposed architecture was simulated in AirSim using the SimpleFlight flight controller through experiments that evaluated the individual layers and missions that simulated real-life scenarios. The results validate the modularity and reliability of the architecture, where the architecture has the potential for improvements in future iterations. For the search area of 400×400meters, the swarm consistently produced an average area coverage of at least 99.917% and found all the missing people in all missions, with the slowest average being 563 seconds. Compared to related work, the result produced similar or better times when scaled to the same proportions and higher area coverage. As comparisons of results in SAR missions can be difficult, the introduction of Active time can serve as a benchmark for others in future swarm performance measurements. robotics drone multi-drone robot drones collaborative collaboration ros robot operating system agent subsumption airsim simulation layer behaviour layers behaviours missing sar search and rescue search rescue task allocation task tasks automation quadrotor quadcopter uav unmanned aerial vehicle unmanned vehicle mission missions experiment experiments navigation suppressor inhibitor Robotics Robotteknik och automation Computer Sciences Datavetenskap (datalogi)
112	Criminalisation and obstruction of civil SAR activities : The impact of Decree-Law No. 1 of January 2, 2023, and the distant port policy on civil SAR activities in the Central Mediterranean Sea Schrezenmeier, Stephen January 2023 (has links) In January 2023, the newly elected right-wing government led by Giorgio Meloni approved Decree-Law No. 1/2023 which restricts the work of civil Search and Rescue (SAR) organizations, with the aim to reduce the flow of people reaching the country's shores. Simultaneously, SAR organizations claimed that the Italian government started to deploy a policy of allocating distant ports to the NGO ships for the disembarkation of survivors. This thesis aims to analyse this new twofold approach towards civil sea rescue activities in the Central Mediterranean to answer the question of how it impacts the work of civil SAR organizations. For this purpose, a mixed-methods approach that joins quantitative and qualitative methods is deployed. The quantitative analysis of this thesis draws upon rescue data provided by SAR NGOs, as well as on press reports to understand the impact of the new approach on the disembarkation of survivors and movements of ships. To gain a deeper understanding of the impact on the rescue dynamics in the Mediterranean Sea, the qualitative analysis draws upon the results of semi-structured interviews conducted with staff of civil SAR organizations. In the course of this thesis, I argue that the new Italian approach falls into a larger trend of obstructing the work of SAR NGOs, deployed by the Italian government since the start of the de-governmentalisation of SAR activities in the Central Mediterranean in 2014. While the distant port policy leads to obstruction of SAR activities by delaying the disembarkation of survivors, Decree-Law No. 1/2023 falls into a wider strategy of criminalisation of civil SAR activities. I furthermore argue, that it is the interplay of the two newly introduced policies mentioned above that leads to severe obstruction of civil SAR activities. Finally, I engage theories about humanitarian space to describe the obstruction of civil SAR activities as the shrinking of the humanitarian space in the Mediterranean Sea. Civil search and rescue Central Mediterranean Sea obstruction criminalisation humanitarian space Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Globalisation Studies Globaliseringsstudier Human Geography Kulturgeografi
113	THE CRIMINALISATION OF NGO-LED SAR OPERATIONS : A Contributing Factor Towards Crimes Against Humanity Against Migrants in Libya Kaur, Maanpreet January 2023 (has links) In the perilous waters of the Mediterranean Sea, migrants find themselves facing limited choices when in distress. Their options are stark: either to rely on the lifesaving efforts of Non- Governmental Organisations (NGO) aid workers conducting Search and Rescue (SAR) Operations, to be intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) and subsequently detained in Libya where their human rights are gravely violated, or to face the tragic fate of perishing at sea. Unfortunately, the criminalisation of SAR Operations, spearheaded by NGO aid workers, hinders the rescue of migrants, thereby exacerbating the risks they face and leaving them vulnerable to interception by the LCG. This interception, as argued in this thesis, inevitably leads to the perpetration of Crimes Against Humanity (CAH) against these vulnerable migrants. This thesis sheds light on the issue of Italy’s increasing criminalisation and vilification of humanitarian aid workers engaged in SAR missions in the Mediterranean Sea. It critically examines the consequences of such criminalisation on the lives and rights of migrants, exploring the complex dynamics between SAR Operations, interception by the LCG, and the commission of CAH. Drawing upon a comprehensive lens of interpretation that integrates legal analysis, human rights principles, and the international legal framework, this study concludes that criminalisation of SAR operations is indeed a contributing factor towards the CAH faced by migrants in Libya. Moreover, it identifies the potential liability of Italian State Officials (ISO) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their role in enacting legislations that effectively criminalises SAR operations. Mediterranean Sea migrants distress lifesaving efforts Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Search and Rescue (SAR) Operations Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) detention human rights violations criminalisation NGO aid workers interception risks vulnerable Crimes Against Humanity (CAH) Italy vilification SAR missions consequences rights dynamics international legal framework liability Italian State Officials (ISO) International Criminal Court (ICC) legislations International Criminal Law Law Juridik
114	Asynchronous Event-Feature Detection and Tracking for SLAM Initialization Ta, Tai January 2024 (has links) Traditional cameras are most commonly used in visual SLAM to provide visual information about the scene and positional information about the camera motion. However, in the presence of varying illumination and rapid camera movement, the visual quality captured by traditional cameras diminishes. This limits the applicability of visual SLAM in challenging environments such as search and rescue situations. The emerging event camera has been shown to overcome the limitations of the traditional camera with the event camera's superior temporal resolution and wider dynamic range, opening up new areas of applications and research for event-based SLAM. In this thesis, several asynchronous feature detectors and trackers will be used to initialize SLAM using event camera data. To assess the pose estimation accuracy between the different feature detectors and trackers, the initialization performance was evaluated from datasets captured from various environments. Furthermore, two different methods to align corner-events were evaluated on the datasets to assess the difference. Results show that besides some slight variation in the number of accepted initializations, the alignment methods show no overall difference in any metric. Overall highest performance among the event-based trackers for initialization is HASTE with mostly high pose accuracy and a high number of accepted initializations. However, the performance degrades in featureless scenes. CET on the other hand shows mostly lower performance compared to HASTE. Visual SLAM SLAM Traditional cameras event camera events neuromorphic camera silicon retina dynamic vision sensor Camera motion Illumination variation Rapid camera movement Visual quality degradation Challenging environments Search and rescue Event cameras Temporal resolution Dynamic range Event-based SLAM Asynchronous feature detectors Trackers Pose estimation accuracy Initialization performance Datasets Corner-event alignment HASTE tracker Pose accuracy Featureless scenes CET tracker Initialization acceptance Performance comparison Signal Processing Signalbehandling Robotics Robotteknik och automation Control Engineering Reglerteknik
115	A plm implementation for aerospace systems engineering-conceptual rotorcraft design Hart, Peter Bartholomew 08 April 2009 (has links) The thesis will discuss the Systems Engineering phase of an original Conceptual Design Engineering Methodology for Aerospace Engineering-Vehicle Synthesis. This iterative phase is shown to benefit from digitization of Integrated Product&Process Design (IPPD) activities, through the application of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technologies. Requirements analysis through the use of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and 7 MaP tools is explored as an illustration. A "Requirements Data Manager" (RDM) is used to show the ability to reduce the time and cost to design for both new and legacy/derivative designs. Here the COTS tool Teamcenter Systems Engineering (TCSE) is used as the RDM. The utility of the new methodology is explored through consideration of a legacy RFP based vehicle design proposal and associated aerospace engineering. The 2001 American Helicopter Society (AHS) 18th Student Design Competition RFP is considered as a starting point for the Systems Engineering phase. A Conceptual Design Engineering activity was conducted in 2000/2001 by Graduate students (including the author) in Rotorcraft Engineering at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA. This resulted in the "Kingfisher" vehicle design, an advanced search and rescue rotorcraft capable of performing the "Perfect Storm" mission, from the movie of the same name. The associated requirements, architectures, and work breakdown structure data sets for the Kingfisher are used to relate the capabilities of the proposed Integrated Digital Environment (IDE). The IDE is discussed as a repository for legacy knowledge capture, management, and design template creation. A primary thesis theme is to promote the automation of the up-front conceptual definition of complex systems, specifically aerospace vehicles, while anticipating downstream preliminary and full spectrum lifecycle design activities. The thesis forms a basis for additional discussions of PLM tool integration across the engineering, manufacturing, MRO and EOL lifecycle phases to support business management processes. Teamcenter systems engineering Teamcenter community Teamcenter unified Teamcenter engineering Teamcenter manufacturing CATIA V5 Rotorcraft design Boeing AHS Joint heavy lift VPLM MBOM EBOM Product change control Product definition Configuration management Product structure architecture Design engineering Aerospace engineering System engineering PLM CIE IDE SE Affordability Cost savings Executive helicopter Joint chiefs of staff Marine CAE CAD CAM CAA MDO RSM DOE Consulting Engineering management Perfect storm Engineering software Requirements data management CATIA V4 NX Engineering communications RFP Digitization Air Force Navy Army BAMS FIPER ACSYNT Sikorsky Bell Georgia Tech Engineering methodology Requirements engineering System engineering Search Rescue IDE Integrated digital environment Kingfisher Search and rescue Helicopter Helicopter engineering QFD Legacy design IPPD Quality engineering Defense systems acquisition Coast Guard Decision support systems Rotors (Helicopters) Design Concurrent engineering

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