scholarly journals Estimation of Airspeed, Angle of Attack, and Sideslip for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Using a Micro-Pitot Tube

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 2325
Author(s):  
Gennaro Ariante ◽  
Salvatore Ponte ◽  
Umberto Papa ◽  
Giuseppe Del Core

Fixed and rotary-wing unmanned aircraft systems (UASs), originally developed for military purposes, have widely spread in scientific, civilian, commercial, and recreational applications. Among the most interesting and challenging aspects of small UAS technology are endurance enhancement and autonomous flight; i.e., mission management and control. This paper proposes a practical method for estimation of true and calibrated airspeed, Angle of Attack (AOA), and Angle of Sideslip (AOS) for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, up to 20 kg mass, 1200 ft altitude above ground level, and airspeed of up to 100 knots) or light aircraft, for which weight, size, cost, and power-consumption requirements do not allow solutions used in large airplanes (typically, arrays of multi-hole Pitot probes). The sensors used in this research were a static and dynamic pressure sensor (“micro-Pitot tube” MPX2010DP differential pressure sensor) and a 10 degrees of freedom (DoF) inertial measurement unit (IMU) for attitude determination. Kalman and complementary filtering were applied for measurement noise removal and data fusion, respectively, achieving global exponential stability of the estimation error. The methodology was tested using experimental data from a prototype of the devised sensor suite, in various indoor-acquisition campaigns and laboratory tests under controlled conditions. AOA and AOS estimates were validated via correlation between the AOA measured by the micro-Pitot and vertical accelerometer measurements, since lift force can be modeled as a linear function of AOA in normal flight. The results confirmed the validity of the proposed approach, which could have interesting applications in energy-harvesting techniques.

Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Wanngoen ◽  
Saetunand ◽  
Saengphet ◽  
Tantrairatn

The angle of attack (AOA) is an important parameter for estimating aerodynamic parameter the performance and stability of aircraft. Currently, AOA sensors are used in general aircraft. However, there is no a reasonable-price AOA sensor that is compatible to a small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This research aims to designs and constructs angle of attract (AOA) sensor for small fixed-wing unmanned aircraft. Mechanism Design, which is similar to aerodynamic wheatear vane, can operate in airspeed 10–30 m/s. The direction of airfoil aligns with the air flow direction. When the AOA of the UAV changes, the air flow changes the direction, resulting in the change of airfoil direction. The high-resolution rotary encoder, that was used to measure the angle of the airfoil, was installed with the fin airfoil. For experiment, the accuracy of the AOA sensor was validated by comparing the angles obtained from the encoder with the standard rotary table in static and wind tunnel. Finally, the AOA sensor, which was attached on aircraft, was verified and recorded in flight test. As the results of the measurement, the airfoil angles detected by the encoder were in good agreement with the standard angles.


Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1175
Author(s):  
Salvatore Ponte ◽  
Gennaro Ariante ◽  
Umberto Papa ◽  
Giuseppe Del Core

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) with on-board augmentation systems (UAS, Unmanned Aircraft System) have penetrated into civil and general-purpose applications, due to advances in battery technology, control components, avionics and rapidly falling prices. This paper describes the conceptual design and the validation campaigns performed for an embedded precision Positioning, field mapping, Obstacle Detection and Avoiding (PODA) platform, which uses commercial-off-the-shelf sensors, i.e., a 10-Degrees-of-Freedom Inertial Measurement Unit (10-DoF IMU) and a Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), managed by an Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller with Wi-Fi capabilities. The PODA system, designed and tested for a commercial small quadcopter (Parrot Drones SAS Ar.Drone 2.0, Paris, France), estimates position, attitude and distance of the rotorcraft from an obstacle or a landing area, sending data to a PC-based ground station. The main design issues are presented, such as the necessary corrections of the IMU data (i.e., biases and measurement noise), and Kalman filtering techniques for attitude estimation, data fusion and position estimation from accelerometer data. The real-time multiple-sensor optimal state estimation algorithm, developed for the PODA platform and implemented on the Arduino, has been tested in typical aerospace application scenarios, such as General Visual Inspection (GVI), automatic landing and obstacle detection. Experimental results and simulations of various missions show the effectiveness of the approach.


Author(s):  
Анна Николаевна Королева

Беспилотные воздушные суда и беспилотные авиационные системы становятся частью повседневной жизни, в том числе в деятельности органов и учреждений уголовно-исполнительной системы. В статье исследован исторический аспект появления беспилотных воздушных судов в России и зарубежных странах, необходимость, типовые задачи и особенности правового регулирования использования беспилотных воздушных судов в уголовно-исполнительной системе. Однако ряд вопросов до настоящего времени является предметом дискуссии и требуют правового регулирования. Современные технологии позволяют оснастить беспилотные воздушные суда различными приборами, придающими им дополнительные функциональные характеристики: приборами видео- и фотофиксации, тепловизором, громкоговорителем, оружием. В зарубежных странах сложилась разная практика регулирования: от разрешения использования беспилотных воздушных судов с оружием в правоохранительной деятельности и уголовно-исполнительной системе (США, Великобритания и др.) до протестов гражданского общества и требований законодательного запрещения использования беспилотных воздушных судов, способных причинить вред человеку. Не решены вопросы в части регулирования порядка сбора, обработки, передачи и хранения (в том числе длительности хранения) информации, полученной в ходе видео- и фотофиксации, включая передачу информации, содержащей персональные данные гражданина, в частности, его изображение. Обсуждается вопрос о соблюдении прав человека и гражданина, в том числе осужденного, при получении и использовании информации, полученной при помощи беспилотных воздушных судов в деятельности органов и учреждений уголовно-исполнительной системы. Требуется внесение изменений в процессуальное законодательство в части регулирования использования данных, полученных при помощи беспилотных воздушных судов, как доказательств, а также в целом их юридическое значение в административном, уголовном, гражданском (арбитражном) процессе. Необходимо урегулирование вопросов ответственности сотрудников уголовно-исполнительной системы, которые могут превысить полномочия с помощью использования беспилотных воздушных судов. В рамках Национальной технологической инициативы происходит активное развитие рынка АэроНет, поэтому беспилотные воздушные суда в деятельности уголовно-исполнительной системы могут стать частью этого рынка. Unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned aircraft systems are becoming part of everyday life, including in the activities of bodies and institutions of the penal system. The article examines the historical aspect of the appearance of unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia and foreign countries, the need, typical tasks and features of the legal regulation of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the penal system. However, a number of issues are still the subject of discussion and require legal regulation. Modern technologies make it possible to equip unmanned aerial vehicles with various functional characteristics, ranging from video and photo capture, the availability of a thermal imager, a loudspeaker, to weapons. In different countries, different regulatory practices have developed: from allowing unmanned aerial vehicles with weapons in law enforcement and the penal system (USA, UK, etc.) to civil society protests and the requirements of the legislative prohibition on the use of unmanned aircraft that can cause harm to humans. Unresolved issues regarding the regulation of the procedure for collecting, processing, transferring and storing (including the duration of storage) of information obtained during video and photo recording, including the transmission of information containing personal data of a citizen, including its image. The issue of observing the human rights of a citizen, including a convict, is discussed when receiving and using information received by unmanned aerial vehicles in the activities of bodies and institutions of the penal system. Amendments to the procedural legislation are required in terms of regulating the use of data obtained by unmanned aerial vehicles as evidence, as well as in general their legal significance in the administrative, criminal, civil (arbitration) process. It is necessary to resolve the issues of responsibility of employees of the penitentiary system, which may exceed their authority through the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. As part of the National Technological Initiative, the AeroNet market is actively developing, therefore unmanned aerial vehicles in the activities of the penitentiary system can become part of this market.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 391
Author(s):  
Luca Bigazzi ◽  
Stefano Gherardini ◽  
Giacomo Innocenti ◽  
Michele Basso

In this paper, solutions for precise maneuvering of an autonomous small (e.g., 350-class) Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are designed and implemented from smart modifications of non expensive mass market technologies. The considered class of vehicles suffers from light load, and, therefore, only a limited amount of sensors and computing devices can be installed on-board. Then, to make the prototype capable of moving autonomously along a fixed trajectory, a “cyber-pilot”, able on demand to replace the human operator, has been implemented on an embedded control board. This cyber-pilot overrides the commands thanks to a custom hardware signal mixer. The drone is able to localize itself in the environment without ground assistance by using a camera possibly mounted on a 3 Degrees Of Freedom (DOF) gimbal suspension. A computer vision system elaborates the video stream pointing out land markers with known absolute position and orientation. This information is fused with accelerations from a 6-DOF Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to generate a “virtual sensor” which provides refined estimates of the pose, the absolute position, the speed and the angular velocities of the drone. Due to the importance of this sensor, several fusion strategies have been investigated. The resulting data are, finally, fed to a control algorithm featuring a number of uncoupled digital PID controllers which work to bring to zero the displacement from the desired trajectory.


Author(s):  
Isaac Levi Henderson ◽  
Savern L. Reweti ◽  
Robyn Kamira

This chapter examines the role of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the delivery of medical and emergency supplies to remote areas. It outlines a number of potential considerations for operators wishing to use UAVs to deliver medical and emergency supplies to remote areas. These considerations address a number of practicalities in terms of the organisation that is wishing to conduct such operations, the operations themselves, and the technology that is used for such operations. These considerations primarily stem from the nature of the international regulatory framework for unmanned aircraft operations and the peculiarities of using a UAV to deliver medical and emergency supplies. The chapter will outline some of the practicalities that have been worked through or are being worked through during a project to deliver medical and emergency supplies in Northland, New Zealand. This will provide readers with examples of some of the real-world considerations that operators face as well as outline the positive community impact that such operations can provide.


2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Sabatini ◽  
Leopoldo Rodríguez ◽  
Anish Kaharkar ◽  
Celia Bartel ◽  
Tesheen Shaid ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT This paper presents the second part of the research activity performed by Cranfield University to assess the potential of low-cost navigation sensors for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). This part focuses on carrier-phase Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for attitude determination and control of small to medium size UAVs. Recursive optimal estimation algorithms were developed for combining multiple attitude measurements obtained from different observation points (i.e., antenna locations), and their efficiencies were tested in various dynamic conditions. The proposed algorithms converged rapidly and produced the required output even during high dynamics manoeuvres. Results of theoretical performance analysis and simulation activities are presented in this paper, with emphasis on the advantages of the GNSS interferometric approach in UAV applications (i.e., low cost, high data-rate, low volume/weight, low signal processing requirements, etc.). The simulation activities focussed on the AEROSONDE UAV platform and considered the possible augmentation provided by interferometric GNSS techniques to a low-cost and low-weight/volume integrated navigation system (presented in the first part of this series) which employed a Vision-Based Navigation (VBN) system, a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Sensor (MEMS) based Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and code-range GNSS (i.e., GPS and GALILEO) for position and velocity computations. The integrated VBN-IMU-GNSS (VIG) system was augmented using the inteferometric GNSS Attitude Determination (GAD) sensor data and a comparison of the performance achieved with the VIG and VIG/GAD integrated Navigation and Guidance Systems (NGS) is presented in this paper. Finally, the data provided by these NGS are used to optimise the design of a hybrid controller employing Fuzzy Logic and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) techniques for the AEROSONDE UAV.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 12-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Mlezivová

<p class="keywords">Currently increasing UAV operation significantly changes the view of conventional aviation. Unmanned aerial vehicles have become part of air traffic and therefore, its operation should be adequately controlled through related legislative framework and law enforcement procedures. Considering the fact, that single unmanned aircrafts will be soon replaced by swarms, it is necessary to get prepared for all possible UAs applications and define all rules including also emergency and law enforcement procedures in case that public safety is endangered.</p><p class="keywords">This paper summarizes recent regulatory framework for UAVs in EU and US and points out a concealed weakness of legislative requirements. The legislative scope addressed in this paper is limited primarily to civil aviation. The second part stresses the security threat created by an uncontrolled or violently-controlled UA. Aerial vehicles detection and disposal methods are described in the last part of paper.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 237-250
Author(s):  
Nikolay Zagorski

Modern military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are assigned a wide range of functions, for the implementation of which they perform many tasks in various military conflicts. The results of the analysis give them the opportunity to reveal the problems in the use of UAVs, make changes in their functions and tasks and identify areas for further development. At present, this requires the introduction of the achievements of artificial intelligence, the introduction of expert systems and microelectronics on board UAVs, as well as their integration with various other means of conducting armed struggle. At the same time, some of the technological solutions for the creation and improvement of UAVs for military purposes can be applied in the civilian sector.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 265-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Jaromi ◽  
Damian Kordos ◽  
Tomasz Rogalski ◽  
Paweł Rzucidło ◽  
Piotr Szczerba

The work discusses selected elements of research and practical tests of the vision anti-collision system, designed for ultralight and light aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles. At the outset, current formal requirements related to the necessity of installing anti-collision systems on aircraft are presented. The concept of IDAAS (Intruder Detection And collision Avoidance System for light aircraft) and the structure of algorithms related to image processing were presented. The main part of the work is to discuss the selected scenarios implemented during the research.


Author(s):  
I.A. Repina ◽  
M.I. Varentsov ◽  
D.G. Chechin ◽  
A.Yu. Artamonov ◽  
N.E. Bodunkov ◽  
...  

The article is devoted to various aspects of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for the study of the atmospheric boundary layer. The characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer, measured using the UAV, are considered. The types of devices and measuring systems used are presented. The characteristics of measuring systems installed on a fixed-wing aircraft and copter UAVs developed in the A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics RAS (IAP RAS) are presented. A brief overview of a number of the IAP RAS measurement campaigns is given. The prospects of using UAV in meteorology and atmospheric physics are considered


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