scholarly journals A Survey of Small-Scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Recent Advances and Future Development Trends

2014 ◽  
Vol 02 (02) ◽  
pp. 175-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guowei Cai ◽  
Jorge Dias ◽  
Lakmal Seneviratne
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Ground Control ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Dynamics Modeling ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Ground Control Station ◽  
Military Applications

This paper provides a brief overview on the recent advances of small-scale unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from the perspective of platforms, key elements, and scientific research. The survey starts with an introduction of the recent advances of small-scale UAV platforms, based on the information summarized from 132 models available worldwide. Next, the evolvement of the key elements, including onboard processing units, navigation sensors, mission-oriented sensors, communication modules, and ground control station, is presented and analyzed. Third, achievements of small-scale UAV research, particularly on platform design and construction, dynamics modeling, and flight control, are introduced. Finally, the future of small-scale UAVs' research, civil applications, and military applications are forecasted.

Ergonomic and General Ground Control Station Design for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

2013 ◽  
Vol 390 ◽  
pp. 388-392
Author(s):  
Ai Zhi Liu ◽  
Bao An Li ◽  
An Min Xi
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Ground Control ◽  
Hardware Platform ◽  
Gigabit Ethernet ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Control Console ◽  
General Ground ◽  
Ground Control Station ◽  
Standard Interface

In the view of the existing design for Ground Control Station(GCS) of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV) lacking of generality and ergonomics, a kind of ergonomic and general GCS is designed; the architecture of GCS system, which is general open and distributed, is constructed based on Gigabit Ethernet; a standard and general hardware platform is designed; software follows Standard Interface of STANAG 4586; the Shelter and Flight Control Console(FCC) are designed based on Ergonomics; that is an exploration for the design of GCS.

Development of an Unmanned Coaxial Rotorcraft for the DARPA UAVForge Challenge

2013 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 211-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Lin ◽  
Kevin Z. Y. Ang ◽  
Fei Wang ◽  
Ben M. Chen ◽  
Tong H. Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flight Control ◽  
Obstacle Detection ◽  
Flight Behavior ◽  
Ground Control ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Dynamics Modeling ◽  
Swash Plate ◽  
Single Person ◽  
Ground Control Station ◽  
Aerial Vehicle

In this paper, we present a comprehensive design for a fully functional unmanned rotorcraft system: GremLion. GremLion is a new small-scale unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) concept using two contra-rotating rotors and one cyclic swash-plate. It can fit within a rucksack and be easily carried by a single person. GremLion is developed with all necessary avionics and a ground control station. It has been employed to participate in the 2012 UAVForge competition. The proposed design of GremLion consists of hardware construction, software development, dynamics modeling and flight control design, as well as mission algorithm investigation. A novel computer-aided technique is presented to optimize the hardware construction of GremLion to realize robust and efficient flight behavior. Based on the above hardware platform, a real-time flight control software and a ground control station (GCS) software have been developed to achieve the onboard processing capability and the ground monitoring capability respectively. A GremLion mathematical model has been derived for hover and near hover flight conditions and identified from experimental data collected in flight tests. We have combined H∞ technique, a robust and perfect tracking (RPT) approach, and custom-defined flight scheduling to design a comprehensive nonlinear flight control law for GremLion and successfully realized the automatic control which includes take-off, hovering, and a variety of essential flight motions. In addition, advanced mission algorithms have been presented in the paper, including obstacle detection and avoidance, as well as target following. Both ground and flight experiments of the complete system have been conducted including autonomous hovering, waypoint flight, etc. The test results have been presented in this paper to verify the proposed design methodology.

scholarly journals A Robot Operating System Framework for Secure UAV Communications

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1369
Author(s):  
Hyojun Lee ◽  
Jiyoung Yoon ◽  
Min-Seong Jang ◽  
Kyung-Joon Park
Keyword(s):  
Operating System ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Ground Control ◽  
Unmanned Aerial System ◽  
Security Framework ◽  
Security Vulnerabilities ◽  
Robot Operating System ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Ground Control Station

To perform advanced operations with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), it is crucial that components other than the existing ones such as flight controller, network devices, and ground control station (GCS) are also used. The inevitable addition of hardware and software to accomplish UAV operations may lead to security vulnerabilities through various vectors. Hence, we propose a security framework in this study to improve the security of an unmanned aerial system (UAS). The proposed framework operates in the robot operating system (ROS) and is designed to focus on several perspectives, such as overhead arising from additional security elements and security issues essential for flight missions. The UAS is operated in a nonnative and native ROS environment. The performance of the proposed framework in both environments is verified through experiments.

Immersive Ground Control Station for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

2017 ◽  
pp. 595-604
Author(s):  
Glesio Garcia de Paiva ◽  
Diego Roberto Colombo Dias ◽  
Marcelo de Paiva Guimarães ◽  
Luis Carlos Trevelin
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Ground Control ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Ground Control Station

scholarly journals On-Board Real-Time Trajectory Planning for Fixed Wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Extreme Environments

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (19) ◽  
pp. 4085 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Schellenberg ◽  
Tom Richardson ◽  
Arthur Richards ◽  
Robert Clarke ◽  
Matt Watson
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Long Range ◽  
Extreme Environments ◽  
Ground Control ◽  
Raspberry Pi ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Ground Control Station ◽  
Summit Region

A team from the University of Bristol have developed a method of operating fixed wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) at long-range and high-altitude over Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala for the purposes of volcanic monitoring and ash-sampling. Conventionally, the mission plans must be carefully designed prior to flight, to cope with altitude gains in excess of 3000 m, reaching 9 km from the ground control station and 4500 m above mean sea level. This means the climb route cannot be modified mid-flight. At these scales, atmospheric conditions change over the course of a flight and so a real-time trajectory planner (RTTP) is desirable, calculating a route on-board the aircraft. This paper presents an RTTP based around a genetic algorithm optimisation running on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+, the first of its kind to be flown on-board a UAV. Four flights are presented, each having calculated a new and valid trajectory on-board, from the ground control station to the summit region of Volcań de Fuego. The RTTP flights are shown to have approximately equivalent efficiency characteristics to conventionally planned missions. This technology is promising for the future of long-range UAV operations and further development is likely to see significant energy and efficiency savings.

scholarly journals A method for using unmanned aerial vehicles for emergency investigation of single geo-hazards and sample applications of this method

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 1961-1979 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haifeng Huang ◽  
Jingjing Long ◽  
Wu Yi ◽  
Qinglin Yi ◽  
Guodong Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Route Planning ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Site Investigation ◽  
Three Gorges Reservoir Area ◽  
Ground Control ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Fast Processing ◽  
Key Techniques

Abstract. In recent years, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become widely used in emergency investigations of major natural hazards over large areas; however, UAVs are less commonly employed to investigate single geo-hazards. Based on a number of successful investigations in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, China, a complete UAV-based method for performing emergency investigations of single geo-hazards is described. First, a customized UAV system that consists of a multi-rotor UAV subsystem, an aerial photography subsystem, a ground control subsystem and a ground surveillance subsystem is described in detail. The implementation process, which includes four steps, i.e., indoor preparation, site investigation, on-site fast processing and application, and indoor comprehensive processing and application, is then elaborated, and two investigation schemes, automatic and manual, that are used in the site investigation step are put forward. Moreover, some key techniques and methods – e.g., the layout and measurement of ground control points (GCPs), route planning, flight control and image collection, and the Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry processing – are explained. Finally, three applications are given. Experience has shown that using UAVs for emergency investigation of single geo-hazards greatly reduces the time, intensity and risks associated with on-site work and provides valuable, high-accuracy, high-resolution information that supports emergency responses.

scholarly journals Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Wildland Fires: Sensing, Perception, Cooperation and Assistance

Drones ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Moulay A. Akhloufi ◽  
Andy Couturier ◽  
Nicolás A. Castro
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Wildland Fire ◽  
Fire Intensity ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Wildland Fires ◽  
Natural Risk ◽  
Aerial Vehicles

Wildfires represent a significant natural risk causing economic losses, human death and environmental damage. In recent years, the world has seen an increase in fire intensity and frequency. Research has been conducted towards the development of dedicated solutions for wildland fire assistance and fighting. Systems were proposed for the remote detection and tracking of fires. These systems have shown improvements in the area of efficient data collection and fire characterization within small-scale environments. However, wildland fires cover large areas making some of the proposed ground-based systems unsuitable for optimal coverage. To tackle this limitation, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) were proposed. UAVs have proven to be useful due to their maneuverability, allowing for the implementation of remote sensing, allocation strategies and task planning. They can provide a low-cost alternative for the prevention, detection and real-time support of firefighting. In this paper, previous works related to the use of UAV in wildland fires are reviewed. Onboard sensor instruments, fire perception algorithms and coordination strategies are considered. In addition, some of the recent frameworks proposing the use of both aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) for a more efficient wildland firefighting strategy at a larger scale are presented.

scholarly journals Virtual Electric Dipole Field Applied to Autonomous Formation Flight Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (13) ◽  
pp. 4540
Author(s):  
Leszek Ambroziak ◽  
Maciej Ciężkowski
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Flight Control ◽  
Electric Dipole ◽  
Potential Field ◽  
Control Algorithm ◽  
Formation Flight ◽  
Potential Fields ◽  
Dipole Potential ◽  
Aerial Vehicles

The following paper presents a method for the use of a virtual electric dipole potential field to control a leader-follower formation of autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The proposed control algorithm uses a virtual electric dipole potential field to determine the desired heading for a UAV follower. This method’s greatest advantage is the ability to rapidly change the potential field function depending on the position of the independent leader. Another advantage is that it ensures formation flight safety regardless of the positions of the initial leader or follower. Moreover, it is also possible to generate additional potential fields which guarantee obstacle and vehicle collision avoidance. The considered control system can easily be adapted to vehicles with different dynamics without the need to retune heading control channel gains and parameters. The paper closely describes and presents in detail the synthesis of the control algorithm based on vector fields obtained using scalar virtual electric dipole potential fields. The proposed control system was tested and its operation was verified through simulations. Generated potential fields as well as leader-follower flight parameters have been presented and thoroughly discussed within the paper. The obtained research results validate the effectiveness of this formation flight control method as well as prove that the described algorithm improves flight formation organization and helps ensure collision-free conditions.

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