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.

A common problem in existing Search And Rescue (SAR) systems is that they must be activated by the missing person in order to work. This requires an awareness of the the risk of becoming distressed, which in many cases is not feasible. Furthermore, most of the localization systems require specialized hardware.In this thesis, the victim is assumed to wear a cellphone that could be located using readily available consumer electronics. A method of estimating the position of a transmitter, given radio signal measurements at different locations, is developed and verified with real and simulated data. A proof-of-concept system is built in which several users can jointly collect received signal strength data at different locations using mobile phones. The system analyzes the data in real-time and guides the users in the search by estimating the origin of the signal.An outdoor field test is conducted in which the searchers using the system are able to locate the hidden target phone without prior knowledge regarding the position. We are able to localize the victim with an accuracy of 10-20 meters in a timely manner using android smartphones. This shows the potential of a similar system in \abbrSAR scenarios. However, more work is needed to make the system viable in real scenarios and to remove some of the delimitations of the current implementation.

UAVs are becoming an accepted tool for sensing. The benefits of deployable wings allow smaller transportation enclosures such as soldier back packs up to large rocket launched extraterrestrial UAVs. The packing of soft inflatable wings and Hybrid inflatable with rigid section wings is being studied at the University of Kentucky. Rigid wings are volume limited while inflatable wings are mass limited. The expected optimal wing design is a hybrid approach. Previous wing designs have been packed into different configurations in an attempt to determine the optimal stowed configurations. A comparison of rigid, hybrid, and inflatable wings will be presented. Also a method for simulating optimally packed wings with respect to geometric constraints will be presented. A code has been written to study soft wing packing and verified the soft wing packing results. This code can be used during initial wing design to help predict wing size and packing configurations. In this thesis, an over view of the packing configurations as well as packing observations will be covered such , packing inefficiencies, wing mounting limits, long term storage, and scaling of packing.

Inflatable wings provide an innovative solution to unmanned aerial vehicles requiring small packed volumes, such as those used for military reconnaissance or extra-planetary exploration. There is desire to implement warping actuation forces to change the shape of the wing during flight to allow for greater control of the aircraft. In order to quickly and effectively analyze the effects of wing warping strategies on an inflatable wing, a finite element model is desired. Development of a finite element model which includes woven fabric material properties, internal pressure loading, and external wing loading is presented. Testing was performed to determine material properties of the woven fabric, and to determine wing response to static loadings. The modeling process was validated through comparison of simplified inflatable cylinder models to experimental test data. Wing model response was compared to experimental response, and modeling changes including varying material property models and mesh density studies are presented, along with qualitative wing warping simulations. Finally, experimental and finite element modal analyses were conducted, and comparisons of natural frequencies and mode shapes are presented.

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.

Over the last decade, research into unmanned and autonomous vehicles has greatly increased. With applications ranging from science and exploration to humanitarian and military efforts, the rising need for autonomous vehicles demands constant innovation and growth. The Intelligent Dependable Embedded Architectures (IDEA) lab at the University of Kentucky is continually launching research oriented programs [1]. A few key projects focus on the development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Through this research, at the University of Kentucky, the need to develop a reliable, lightweight, node based hardware for use in light UAVs and other unmanned and autonomous vehicles became apparent. This paper addresses the design and implementation of a network processing node for light UAVs. This system utilizes a Controller Area Network (CAN) noise tolerant communications bus, a low power ZigBee Wireless Network for expanded inner plane communications and Silicon Laboratories C8051F041 microcontrollers to provide the necessary inputs/output and data processing. The final result will be a flight ready light UAV featuring distributed processing nodes to handle the servo communications and controls.

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.

Orientador: Kamal Abdel Radi Ismail / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T00:17:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Matsuo_CarolinaAkemiSepulveda_M.pdf: 9560878 bytes, checksum: cc02ac79665887e2f83f47e4a06e3d8c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Os Veículos Aéreos Não Tripulados (VANT's) possuem uma variedade de aplicações, seja monitoramento de incêndios florestais, linhas de energia, tráfego, aglomerações humanas, como também ser usado de alvo aéreo em aplicações militares. Mesmo que ainda seja um pouco restrita à aplicação civil por falta de regulamentação, tais veículos estão sendo desenvolvidos e estudados em âmbito acadêmico. A particularidade deste trabalho é o desenvolvimento de um Veículo Aéreo Não Tripulado para o uso em pulverização aeroagrícola visando reduzir os riscos de operação de vôo tripulado agrícola. Dessa maneira, é apresentada a metodologia usada para desenvolver o projeto, descrevendo o procedimento utilizado para determinar a razão peso-potência e carga alar, e as características geométricas do VANT. Os cálculos da aerodinâmica, desempenho e da estabilidade longitudinal estática do veículo são feitos analiticamente, sendo que na etapa de projeto aerodinâmico, é feita a otimização do aerofólio NACA 4415, e calculado os parâmetros aerodinâmicos do veículo completo. Além disso, por ser não tripulado, é feita a seleção do Sistema de Controle de Vôo de forma a atender os requisitos da missão. Nos cálculos do projeto são usadas as normas técnicas de homologação como a RBHA (Requisitos Brasileiros de Homologação de Aeronaves) a qual remetem às principais normas internacionais: FAR (Federal Aircraft Regulation), dos Estados Unidos da América, e a norma JAR (Joint Airworthiness Regulation). Por ser utilizado na pulverização de defensivos agrícolas é apresentada a tecnologia de aplicação dos mesmos utilizados em aeronaves tripuladas, e feito a escolha do sistema de pulverização para o veículo / Abstract: The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) have a variety of applications, wether monitoring of forest fires, power lines, traffic, crowds, but also can be used for aerial target military applications. Even though it is still somewhat restrict to civil application because of lack of regulation, such vehicles are being developed and studied in the academic sphere. The particularity of this work is the development of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for use in aerial spraying to reduce the risks of manned agricultural operation. Thus, It is presented the methodology used to determine the thrust to weight ratio and wing loading, and geometric characteristics of the UAV. Analytical calculus of aerodynamic and vehicle performance are made, and in the step aerodynamic design is made the optimization of the airfoil NACA 4415 and calculated the aerodynamic parameters of the whole vehicle. Moreover, being unmanned, it is made the selection of the Flight Control System to attend mission requirements. Technical standards for approval are used to design calculations as the RBHA (Brazilian Requirements for Approval of Aircraft) wich refer to the main international standards: FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation) of United States of America, and JAR (Joint Airworthiness Regulation).Whereas is used in the spraying of pesticides, it is presented the technology of application used in manned aircraft, and the choice of the spray system for vehicle / Mestrado / Termica e Fluidos / Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

In Abisko National Park there are a numberof weather stations. To be able toretrieve the data from the nodes in thefuture a Quadrocopter-prototype has beendeveloped during this master thesisproject as a first step. A quadrocopter isa helicopter with four rotors placed in across formation. The quadrocopter cannavigate autonomous between different GPSpositionsthat are updated during flighttrough Xbee-modules. All levels fromsources code, design of the electronics todevelopment of the chassis was performedduring the project. During GPS-navigationthe quadrocopter can achieve a stationaryposition with a mean stationary offset ofless than 0.5 meters even in light winds. / I Abisko Nationalpark finns det ett antal väderstationer. För att på sikt kunna läsa av väderdata från dessa har en quadrocopter-prototyp utvecklats i detta examensarbete. En quadrocopter är en helikopter med fyra rotorer placerade i ett kryss. Quadrocoptern kan navigera autonomt mellan olika GPS-positioner som ges trådlöst via Xbee-moduler. Alla nivåer från källkod, design av elektronik till utformning och tillverkning av chassit har gjorts inom detta projekt. Vid GPS-navigering kan quadrocoptern uppnå en stationär position med en medelvärdesavvikelse mindre än 0.5 meter trots lättare vindar.

Visual surveillance of human crowds in a dynamic environment has attracted a great amount of computer vision research efforts in recent years. Moving object detection, which conventionally includes motion segmentation and optionally, object classification, is the first major task for any visual surveillance application. After detecting the targets, estimation of their geo-locations is needed to create the same reference coordinate system for them for higher-level decision-making. Depending on the required fidelity of decision, multi-target data association may be also needed at higher levels to differentiate multiple targets in a series of frames. Applying all these vision-based algorithms to a crowd surveillance system (a major application studied in this dissertation) using a team of cooperative unmanned vehicles (UVs), introduces new challenges to the problem. Since the visual sensors move with the UVs, and thus the targets and the environment are dynamic, it adds to the complexity and uncertainty of the video processing. Moreover, the limited onboard computation resources require more efficient algorithms to be proposed. Responding to these challenges, the goal of this dissertation is to design and develop an effective and efficient visual surveillance system based on dynamic data driven application system (DDDAS) paradigm to be used by the cooperative UVs for autonomous crowd control and border patrol. The proposed visual surveillance system includes different modules: 1) a motion detection module, in which a new method for detecting multiple moving objects, based on sliding window is proposed to segment the moving foreground using the moving camera onboard the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); 2) a target recognition module, in which a customized method based on histogram-of-oriented-gradients is applied to classify the human targets using the onboard camera of unmanned ground vehicle (UGV); 3) a target geo-localization module, in which a new moving-landmark-based method is proposed for estimating the geo-location of the detected crowd from the UAV, while a heuristic method based on triangulation is applied for geo-locating the detected individuals via the UGV; and 4) a multi-target data association module, in which the affinity score is dynamically adjusted to comply with the changing dispersion of the detected targets over successive frames. In this dissertation, a cooperative team of one UAV and multiple UGVs with onboard visual sensors is used to take advantage of the complementary characteristics (e.g. different fidelities and view perspectives) of these UVs for crowd surveillance. The DDDAS paradigm is also applied toward these vision-based modules, where the computational and instrumentation aspects of the application system are unified for more accurate or efficient analysis according to the scenario. To illustrate and demonstrate the proposed visual surveillance system, aerial and ground video sequences from the UVs, as well as simulation models are developed, and experiments are conducted using them. The experimental results on both developed videos and literature datasets reveal the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed modules and their promising performance in the considered crowd surveillance application.