Multi-UAV Specification and Control with a Single Pilot-in-the-Loop

2020 ◽  
Vol 08 (04) ◽  
pp. 269-277
Author(s):  
Patricio Moreno ◽  
Santiago Esteva ◽  
Ignacio Mas ◽  
Juan I. Giribet
Keyword(s):  
Remote Control ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Simulated Environment ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Space Formulation ◽  
Trajectory Following ◽  
And Control ◽  
Multi Uav

This work presents a multi-unmanned aerial vehicle formation implementing a trajectory-following controller based on the cluster-space robot coordination method. The controller is augmented with a feed-forward input from a control station operator. This teleoperation input is generated by means of a remote control, as a simple way of modifying the trajectory or taking over control of the formation during flight. The cluster-space formulation presents a simple specification of the system’s motion and, in this work, the operator benefits from this capability to easily evade obstacles by means of controlling the cluster parameters in real time. The proposed augmented controller is tested in a simulated environment first, and then deployed for outdoor field experiments. Results are shown in different scenarios using a cluster of three autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles.

Modeling and control of a quadrotor tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicles

2021 ◽  
pp. 095965182110504
Author(s):  
Hongbo Xin ◽  
Yujie Wang ◽  
Xianzhong Gao ◽  
Qingyang Chen ◽  
Bingjie Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Control System ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Euler Angle ◽  
Level Flight ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Flight Mode ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Hover Flight ◽  
And Control

The tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicles have the advantages of multi-rotors and fixed-wing aircrafts, such as vertical takeoff and landing, long endurance and high-speed cruise. These make the tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicle capable for special tasks in complex environments. In this article, we present the modeling and the control system design for a quadrotor tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicle whose main structure consists of a traditional quadrotor with four wings fixed on the four rotor arms. The key point of the control system is the transition process between hover flight mode and level flight mode. However, the normal Euler angle representation cannot tackle both of the hover and level flight modes because of the singularity when pitch angle tends to [Formula: see text]. The dual-Euler method using two Euler-angle representations in two body-fixed coordinate frames is presented to couple with this problem, which gives continuous attitude representation throughout the whole flight envelope. The control system is divided into hover and level controllers to adapt to the two different flight modes. The nonlinear dynamic inverse method is employed to realize fuselage rotation and attitude stabilization. In guidance control, the vector field method is used in level flight guidance logic, and the quadrotor guidance method is used in hover flight mode. The framework of the whole system is established by MATLAB and Simulink, and the effectiveness of the guidance and control algorithms are verified by simulation. Finally, the flight test of the prototype shows the feasibility of the whole system.

scholarly journals Design and Analysis of Collaborative Unmanned Surface-Aerial Vehicle Cruise Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man Zhu ◽  
Yuan-Qiao Wen
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Command And Control ◽  
Collaborative Model ◽  
Weighting Method ◽  
Unmanned Surface Vehicle ◽  
Control Networks ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
And Control

With the increasing application of unmanned surface vehicle-unmanned aerial vehicles (USV-UAVs) in maritime supervision, research on their deployment and control is becoming vitally important. We investigate the application of USV-UAVs for synergistic cruising and evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed collaborative model. First, we build a collaborative model consisting of the cruise vehicles and communication, detection, and command-and-control networks for the USV-UAV. Second, based on an analysis of the problems faced by collaborative USV-UAV systems, we establish a model to evaluate the effectiveness of such synergistic cruises. Third, we propose a weighting method for each evaluation factor. Finally, a model consisting of one UAV and four USVs is employed to validate our synergistic cruise model.

scholarly journals Mission Planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Voronoi Diagram-Tabu Genetic Algorithm

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Wei Tan ◽  
Yong-jiang Hu ◽  
Yue-fei Zhao ◽  
Wen-guang Li ◽  
Xiao-meng Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Voronoi Diagram ◽  
Pso Algorithm ◽  
Mission Planning ◽  
Cooperative System ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Rendezvous Problem ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Multi Uav

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly used in different military missions. In this paper, we focus on the autonomous mission allocation and planning abilities for the UAV systems. Such abilities enable adaptation to more complex and dynamic mission environments. We first examine the mission planning of a single unmanned aerial vehicle. Based on that, we then investigate the multi-UAV cooperative system under the mission background of cooperative target destruction and show that it is a many-to-one rendezvous problem. A heterogeneous UAV cooperative mission planning model is then proposed where the mission background is generated based on the Voronoi diagram. We then adopt the tabu genetic algorithm (TGA) to obtain multi-UAV mission planning. The simulation results show that the single-UAV and multi-UAV mission planning can be effectively realized by the Voronoi diagram-TGA (V-TGA). It is also shown that the proposed algorithm improves the performance by 3% in comparison with the Voronoi diagram-particle swarm optimization (V-PSO) algorithm.

scholarly journals A hierarchical vision-based localization of rotor unmanned aerial vehicles for autonomous landing

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 155014771880065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haiwen Yuan ◽  
Changshi Xiao ◽  
Supu Xiu ◽  
Wenqiang Zhan ◽  
Zhenyi Ye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Feature Detection ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Measurement Range ◽  
Autonomous Landing ◽  
Detection Range ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Vision Based Localization

The vision-based localization of rotor unmanned aerial vehicles for autonomous landing is challenging because of the limited detection range. In this article, to extend the vision detection and measurement range, a hierarchical vision-based localization method is proposed for unmanned aerial vehicle autonomous landing. In such a hierarchical framework, the landing is defined into three phases: “Approaching,”“Adjustment,” and “Touchdown,” in which visual artificial features at different scales can be detected from the designed object pattern for unmanned aerial vehicle pose recovery. The corresponding feature detection and pose estimation algorithms are also presented. In the end, typical simulation and field experiments have been carried out to illustrate the proposed method. The results show that our hierarchical vision-based localization has the ability to a consecutive unmanned aerial vehicle localization in a wider working range from far to near, which is significant for autonomous landing.

The Human Challenges of Command and Control with Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

2005 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce P. Hunn
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Vehicle Operation ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Remote Sites ◽  
Unmanned System ◽  
Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
And Control ◽  
Direct Feedback ◽  
Display Systems

The unmanned aerial vehicle represents a significant challenge to its operators since they are literally out of touch with the system they control. Operating from remote sites miles from the vehicle they control, they are isolated by space and time from a direct connection to the machine they operate. While the pilot of a manned aircraft can always receive some type of direct feedback from the machine they operate, even if they lose all their control and display systems, they can still perceive many qualities of that machine's system state merely from their senses. However, in contrast, the unmanned system is based solely on an electronic link connecting the operator to their vehicle. This paper will review the historical trends in remote vehicle operation and discuss state-of-the-art in remote control systems as they apply to single or multiple unmanned aerial vehicles.

scholarly journals Autonomous Vision-Based Aerial Grasping for Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (15) ◽  
pp. 3410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lishan Lin ◽  
Yuji Yang ◽  
Hui Cheng ◽  
Xuechen Chen
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Target Object ◽  
Robotic Arm ◽  
Support Vector ◽  
Control Laws ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
And Control ◽  
High Computational Efficiency

Autonomous vision-based aerial grasping is an essential and challenging task for aerial manipulation missions. In this paper, we propose a vision-based aerial grasping system for a Rotorcraft Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to grasp a target object. The UAV system is equipped with a monocular camera, a 3-DOF robotic arm with a gripper and a Jetson TK1 computer. Efficient and reliable visual detectors and control laws are crucial for autonomous aerial grasping using limited onboard sensing and computational capabilities. To detect and track the target object in real time, an efficient proposal algorithm is presented to reliably estimate the region of interest (ROI), then a correlation filter-based classifier is developed to track the detected object. Moreover, a support vector regression (SVR)-based grasping position detector is proposed to improve the grasp success rate with high computational efficiency. Using the estimated grasping position and the UAV?Äôs states, novel control laws of the UAV and the robotic arm are proposed to perform aerial grasping. Extensive simulations and outdoor flight experiments have been implemented. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed vision-based aerial grasping system can autonomously and reliably grasp the target object while working entirely onboard.

scholarly journals From the Eye of the Storm: An IoT Ecosystem Made of Sensors, Smartphones and UAVs

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 3814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Milan Erdelj ◽  
Borey Uk ◽  
David Konam ◽  
Enrico Natalizio
Keyword(s):  
Remote Control ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
System Architecture ◽  
Multimedia Communications ◽  
Data Streaming ◽  
On Demand ◽  
Communication Environment ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Network Communications ◽  
Multi Uav

The development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) along with the ubiquity of Internet of Things (IoT) enables the creation of systems that, leveraging 5G enhancements, can provide real-time multimedia communications and data streaming. However, the usage of the UAVs introduces new constraints, such as unstable network communications and security pitfalls. In this work, the experience of implementing a system architecture for data and multimedia transmission using a multi-UAV system is presented. The system aims at creating an IoT ecosystem to bridge UAVs and other types of devices, such as smartphones and sensors, while coping with the fallback in an unstable communication environment. Furthermore, this work proposes a detailed description of a system architecture designed for remote drone fleet control. The proposed system provides an efficient, reliable and secure system for multi-UAV remote control that will offer the on-demand usage of available sensors, smartphones and unmanned vehicle infrastructure.

scholarly journals Obstacle avoidance and distance measurement for unmanned aerial vehicles using monocular vision

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 3504
Author(s):  
Aswini N ◽  
Uma S V
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Obstacle Avoidance ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Scale Invariant ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Complex Automation ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Scale Invariant Feature ◽  
And Control

<span lang="EN-US">Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or commonly known as drones are better suited for "dull, dirty, or dangerous" missions than manned aircraft. The drone can be either remotely controlled or it can travel as per predefined path using complex automation algorithm built during its development. In general, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is the combination of Drone in the air and control system on the ground. Design of an UAV means integrating hardware, software, sensors, actuators, communication systems and payloads into a single unit for the application involved. To make it completely autonomous, the most challenging problem faced by UAVs is obstacle avoidance. In this paper, a novel method to detect frontal obstacles using monocular camera is proposed. Computer Vision algorithms like Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Speeded Up Robust Feature (SURF) are used to detect frontal obstacles and then distance of the obstacle from camera is calculated. To meet the defined objectives, designed system is tested with self-developed videos which are captured by DJI Phantom 4 pro.</span>

A constraint-based approach for planning unmanned aerial vehicle activities

2016 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 486-497
Author(s):  
Christophe Guettier ◽  
François Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
User Acceptance ◽  
Mission Planning ◽  
Planning Problem ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Mission Duration ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Global Planning ◽  
And Control

AbstractUnmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) represent a major advantage in defense, disaster relief and first responder applications. UAV may provide valuable information on the environment if their Command and Control (C2) is shared by different operators. In a C2 networking system, any operator may request and use the UAV to perform a remote sensing operation. These requests have to be scheduled in time and a consistent navigation plan must be defined for the UAV. Moreover, maximizing UAV utilization is a key challenge for user acceptance and operational efficiency. The global planning problem is constrained by the environment, targets to observe, user availability, mission duration and on-board resources. This problem follows previous research works on automatic mission Planning & Scheduling for defense applications. The paper presents a full constraint-based approach to simultaneously satisfy observation requests, and resolve navigation plans.

scholarly journals A Flow Analysis Using a Water Tunnel of an Innovative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 5772
Author(s):  
Dawid Lis ◽  
Adam Januszko ◽  
Tadeusz Dobrocinski
Keyword(s):  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Lift Coefficient ◽  
Flow Analysis ◽  
Water Tunnel ◽  
Dual Use ◽  
Aerial Vehicles ◽  
Aerial Vehicle ◽  
Technical Construction

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss the results of a non-standard unnamed aerial vehicle construction with a constant cross-section square-shaped avionic profile. Based on the model’s in-air observed maneuverability, the research of avionic construction behavior was carried out in a water tunnel. The results show the model’s specific lift capabilities in comparison to classical avionic constructions. The characteristic results of the lift coefficient showed that the unmanned aerial vehicle presents favorable features than classic avionic constructions. The model was created with the prospect of using it in the future for dual-use purposes, where unmanned aerial vehicles are currently experiencing very rapid development. When creating the prototype, the focus was on low production cost, as well as convenience in operation. The development of this type of breakthrough avionic solution, which shows extraordinary maneuverability, may contribute to increasing the popularity and, above all, the availability of unmanned aerial vehicles for the largest possible group of recipients because of high avionic properties in relation to the technical construction complexity.

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