Advances in machine autonomy hold great promise in advancing technology, economic markets, and general societal well-being. For example, the progression of unmanned air systems (UAS) research has demonstrated the effectiveness and reliability of these autonomous systems in performing complex tasks. UAS have shown to not only outperformed human pilots in some tasks, but have also made novel applications not possible for human pilots practical. Nevertheless, human pilots are still favored when performing specific challenging tasks. For example, transportation of suspended (sometimes called slung or sling) loads requires highly skilled pilots and has only been performed by UAS in highly controlled environments. The presented work begins to bridge this autonomy gap by proposing a trajectory optimization framework for operations involving autonomous rotorcraft with suspended loads. The framework generates optimized vehicle trajectories that are used by existing guidance, navigation, and control systems and estimates the state of the non-instrumented load using a downward facing camera. Data collected from several simulation studies and a flight test demonstrates the proposed framework is able to produce effective guidance during autonomous suspended load operations. In addition, variational integrators are extensively studied in this dissertation. The derivation of a stochastic variational integrator is presented. It is shown that the presented stochastic variational integrator significantly improves the performance of the stochastic differential dynamical programming and the extended Kalman filter algorithms. A variational integrator for the propagation of polynomial chaos expansion coefficients is also presented. As a result, the expectation and variance of the trajectory of an uncertain system can be accurately predicted.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(理学) / 甲第22032号 / 理博第4536号 / 新制||理||1651(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院理学研究科地球惑星科学専攻 / (主査)准教授 成瀬 元, 教授 生形 貴男, 准教授 堤 昭人 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

The Odlezelské Lake is a natural, landslide-dammed lake in western Bohemia. Its lake basin is silting intensely and its volume decreases; it will be completely silted in the future. This work aims to evaluate the siltation of the lake primarily by evaluating the suspended load regime of its tributaries and comparison with data from bathymetric measurements. Within this work, data from the station network of the Department of Physical Geography of the Faculty of Science of the Charles University were used, which was statistically processed in order to describe the hydrological and suspended load regime. In addition, flow speeds in the inflow part of the lake were measured during two precipitation-runoff events using ADCP. The results show that most of the suspended load is transported during flood episodes, in contrast to the runoff, there is a significant interannual variability in the suspended load regime. Oppositely, the comparison of the suspended load regime and the bathymetric data proved as impossible due to a high sensitivity of the data.

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This diploma thesis focuses on water management analysis of the Rokytná River and finding suitable precautions usable by municipalities when dealing with drought and lack of water in their administrative district. The short research at the beginning of the thesis summarizes problematic of drought and lack of water in the Czech Republic, including the current state and overall context. Next part focuses on the assessment of current state of the Rokytná River basin, based on performed reconnaissance of the basin and processed analysis of a part of the basin delimited from km 0,0 to km 16,7 of the river, between towns of Ivančice and Moravský Krumlov. This analysis concentrates on finding factors, which can contribute to extent of drought impact in this area. It also contains a suspended load study of the waterway, which writes up granularity characteristics and calculation of the amount of transported material from a suspended load sample, taken from the bed of the Rokytná River. The overview of suitable proceedings and precautions follows, based on findings in previous parts of the diploma thesis. The conclusion of this thesis consists of very suggestion of suitable steps and precautions related to particular localities in the Rokytná River basin. Target is to enhance the retention ability of the region and to minimize the impact of both drought and floods. The result of these actions should be the empowerment of environmental sustainability in this particular area. Conclusions of this thesis can be used by municipalities and other administrative bodies when creating an approach of combating drought and when deciding about the implementation of relevant precautions.

The state of Georgia has two large ports that are accessed by way of navigable entrance channels. One of these ports is located in Brunswick, Georgia, and is maintained by the United States Army Corps of Engineers via periodic dredging. Sediments removed from the channel are typically pumped several miles offshore of Brunswick and placed in dredged material mounds, thus removing the sediment from the littoral cycle. This offshore placement, while being the most economically viable method, often negatively impacts the sediment budget of the coastal region and causes erosion downdrift of the channel, specifically along Jekyll Island. Onshore placement of the dredged material is not feasible due to increased associated costs and the high fraction of fines present in the material; thus, nearshore placement is a potentially viable alternative. Nearshore placement could possibly reduce erosion rates and provide protection to property from waves and storms. The USACE initiated a thorough field data collection campaign in 2002 to study the possibility of beneficial placement of dredged material. The author analyzed the existing data to predict the rate and direction of sediment movement away from an existing dredge mound. These predictions are then compared to bathymetric survey data in an effort to validate the results and methodologies used for sediment transport predictions. The ultimate goal is to use the results of this study along with numerical models currently being developed by the Corps to assess the possibility of sediments being transported toward the shore thus re-entering the littoral cycle and providing a benefit to the coast of Georgia.

The issue of the relationship between water discharge and the suspended sediment loads is a globally highly addressed topic. Knowing the suspended sediment loads in the streams avoids problems with over-filling of water cannons and thus prevents insufficient capacity of water reservoirs. This thesis is partly a follow-up to the bachelor thesis, which extends and introduces new procedures. Neural networks, more specifically multilayer perceptron neural networks, are used to analyse the relationship between water discharge and suspended sediment loads. The results of the networks are then processed in Excel into graphs and evaluated using the coefficient of determination, Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient and RMSE coefficient. The practical application is solved on two profiles - the profile Podhradí nad Dyjí and the profile Židlochovice. Each profile is examined in a different period.