Trajectory Optimization and Design for a Large Number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Trajectory Optimization and Design for a Large Number of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Author: Jenna Elisabeth Newcomb
Publisher:
Total Pages: 56
Release: 2019
Genre: Electronic dissertations
ISBN:

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarm allows for a more time-efficient method of searching a specified area than a single UAV or piloted plane. There are a variety of factors that affect how well an area is surveyed. We specifically analyzed the effect both vehicle properties and communication had on the swarm search performance. We used non-dimensionalization so the results can be applied to any domain size with any type of vehicle. We found that endurance was the most important factor. Vehicles with good endurance sensed approximately 90% to 100% of the grid, even when other properties were lacking. If the vehicles lacked endurance, the amount of area the vehicles could sense at a given time step became more important and 10% more of the grid was sensed with the increase in sensed area. The maneuverability of the vehicles was measured as the vehicles' radii of turn compared to the search domain size. The maneuverability mattered the most in the middle-range endurance cases. In some cases 30% more of the grid was searched with improving vehicle maneuverability. In addition, we also examined four communication cases with different amounts of information regarding vehicle location. We found communication increased search performance by at least 6.3%. However, increasing the amount of information only changed the performance by 2.3%. We also studied the impact the range of vehicle communication had on search performance. We found that simulations benefited most from increasing the communication range when the amount of area sensed at a given time step was small and the vehicles had good maneuverability. We also extended the optimization to a multi-objective process with the inclusion of target tracking. We analyzed how the different weightings of the objectives affected the performance outcomes. We found that target tracking performance dramatically changes based on the given weighting of each objective and saw an increase of approximately 52%. However, the amount of the grid that was sensed only dropped by approximately 10%.

Design Optimization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Design Optimization of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Author: Athanasios Papageorgiou
Publisher: Linköping University Electronic Press
Total Pages: 99
Release: 2019-11-13
Genre:
ISBN: 917519001X

Over the last years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have gradually become a more efficient alternative to manned aircraft, and at present, they are being deployed in a broad spectrum of both military as well as civilian missions. This has led to an unprecedented market expansion with new challenges for the aeronautical industry, and as a result, it has created a need to implement the latest design tools in order to achieve faster idea-to-market times and higher product performance. As a complex engineering product, UAVs are comprised of numerous sub-systems with intricate synergies and hidden dependencies. To this end, Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (MDO) is a method that can identify systems with better performance through the concurrent consideration of several engineering disciplines under a common framework. Nevertheless, there are still many limitations in MDO, and to this date, some of the most critical gaps can be found in the disciplinary modeling, in the analysis capabilities, and in the organizational integration of the method. As an aeronautical product, UAVs are also expected to work together with other systems and to perform in various operating environments. In this respect, System of Systems (SoS) models enable the exploration of design interactions in various missions, and hence, they allow decision makers to identify capabilities that are beyond those of each individual system. As expected, this significantly more complex formulation raises new challenges regarding the decomposition of the problem, while at the same time, it sets further requirements in terms of analyses and mission simulation. In this light, this thesis focuses on the design optimization of UAVs by enhancing the current MDO capabilities and by exploring the use of SoS models. Two literature reviews serve as the basis for identifying the gaps and trends in the field, and in turn, five case studies try to address them by proposing a set of expansions. On the whole, the problem is approached from a technical as well as an organizational point of view, and thus, this research aims to propose solutions that can lead to better performance and that are also meaningful to the Product Development Process (PDP). Having established the above foundation, this work delves firstly into MDO, and more specifically, it presents a framework that has been enhanced with further system models and analysis capabilities, efficient computing solutions, and data visualization tools. At a secondary level, this work addresses the topic of SoS, and in particular, it presents a multi-level decomposition strategy, multi-fidelity disciplinary models, and a mission simulation module. Overall, this thesis presents quantitative data which aim to illustrate the benefits of design optimization on the performance of UAVs, and it concludes with a qualitative assessment of the effects that the proposed methods and tools can have on both the PDP and the organization.

Robust Trajectory Optimization and Control of a Dynamic Soaring Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Robust Trajectory Optimization and Control of a Dynamic Soaring Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
Author: Tristan Charles Flanzer
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2012
Genre:
ISBN:

A robust trajectory optimization method is formulated using a stochastic collocation based approach and is then applied to the design of periodic dynamic soaring trajectories for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Repetitive control is proposed and evaluated as a means for reducing tracking error for UAVs flying periodic trajectories both in simulation and experimentally. Experiments conducted in an indoor flying laboratory outfitted with a VICON motion capture system demonstrate significant reductions in tracking error even in the presence of large and unknown disturbances.

UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond

UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond
Author: Yong Zeng
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2020-12-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1119575699

Explore foundational and advanced issues in UAV cellular communications with this cutting-edge and timely new resource UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond delivers a comprehensive overview of the potential applications, networking architectures, research findings, enabling technologies, experimental measurement results, and industry standardizations for UAV communications in cellular systems. The book covers both existing LTE infrastructure, as well as future 5G-and-beyond systems. UAV Communications covers a range of topics that will be of interest to students and professionals alike. Issues of UAV detection and identification are discussed, as is the positioning of autonomous aerial vehicles. More fundamental subjects, like the necessary tradeoffs involved in UAV communication are examined in detail. The distinguished editors offer readers an opportunity to improve their ability to plan and design for the near-future, explosive growth in the number of UAVs, as well as the correspondingly demanding systems that come with them. Readers will learn about a wide variety of timely and practical UAV topics, like: Performance measurement for aerial vehicles over cellular networks, particularly with respect to existing LTE performance Inter-cell interference coordination with drones Massive multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) for Cellular UAV communications, including beamforming, null-steering, and the performance of forward-link C&C channels 3GPP standardization for cellular-supported UAVs, including UAV traffic requirements, channel modeling, and interference challenges Trajectory optimization for UAV communications Perfect for professional engineers and researchers working in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, UAV Communications for 5G and Beyond also belongs on the bookshelves of students in masters and PhD programs studying the integration of UAVs into cellular communication systems.

Computational Intelligence for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Communication Networks

Computational Intelligence for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Communication Networks
Author: Mariya Ouaissa
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2022-03-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030971139

This book aims to provide a vision that can combine the best of both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and communication networks for designing the deployment trajectory to establish flexible Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) communication networks.This book will discuss the major challenges that can face deploying unmanned aerial vehicles in emergent networks. It will focus on possible applications of UAV in a Smart City environment where they can be supported by Internet of Things (IoT), wireless sensor networks, as well as 5G, and beyond. This book presents the possible problems and solutions, the network integration of the UAV and compare the communication technologies to be used.This book will be a collection of original contributions regarding state of the art AI/ML based solutions in UAV communication networks which can be used for routing protocol design, transport layer optimization, user/application behaviour prediction, communication network optimization, security, and anomaly detection.

Trajectory Optimization for Target Localization Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Trajectory Optimization for Target Localization Using Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Author: Sameera S. Ponda
Publisher:
Total Pages: 197
Release: 2008
Genre:
ISBN:

(cont.) The UAV trajectory optimization is performed for stationary targets, dynamic targets and multiple targets, for many different scenarios of vehicle motion constraints. The resulting trajectories show spiral paths taken by the UAV, which focus on increasing the angular separation between measurements and reducing the relative range to the target, thus maximizing the information provided by each measurement and improving the performance of the estimation. The main drawback of information based trajectory design is the dependence of the Fisher Information Matrix on the true target location. This issue is addressed in this project by executing simultaneous target location estimation and UAV trajectory optimization. Two estimation algorithms, the Extended Kalman Filter and the Particle Filter are considered, and the trajectory optimization is performed using the mean value of the target estimation in lieu of the true target location. The estimation and optimization algorithms run in sequence and are updated in real-time. The results show spiral UAV trajectories that increase filter convergence and overall estimation accuracy, illustrating the importance of information-based trajectory design for target localization using small UAVs.

Wireless-Powered Communication Networks

Wireless-Powered Communication Networks
Author: Dusit Niyato
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2017
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1107135699

A comprehensive introduction to architecture design, protocol optimization, and application development.

Robust Trajectory Planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Uncertain Environments

Robust Trajectory Planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Uncertain Environments
Author: Brandon Douglas Luders
Publisher:
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2008
Genre:
ISBN:

As unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) take on more prominent roles in aerial missions, it becomes necessary to increase the level of autonomy available to them within the mission planner. In order to complete realistic mission scenarios, the UAV must be capable of operating within a complex environment, which may include obstacles and other no-fly zones. Additionally, the UAV must be able to overcome environmental uncertainties such as modeling errors, external disturbances, and an incomplete situational awareness. By utilizing planners which can autonomously navigate within such environments, the cost-effectiveness of UAV missions can be dramatically improved.This thesis develops a UAV trajectory planner to efficiently identify and execute trajectories which are robust to a complex, uncertain environment. This planner, named Efficient RSBK, integrates previous mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) path planning algorithms with several implementation innovations to achieve provably robust on-line trajectory optimization. Using the proposed innovations, the planner is able to design intelligent long-term plans using a minimal number of decision variables. The effectiveness of this planner is demonstrated with both simulation results and flight experiments on a quadrotor testbed.Two major components of the Efficient RSBK framework are the robust model predictive control (RMPC) scheme and the low-level planner. This thesis develops a generalized framework to investigate RMPC affine feedback policies on the disturbance, identify relative strengths and weaknesses, and assess suitability for the UAV trajectory planning problem. A simple example demonstrates that even with a conventional problem setup, the closed-loop performance may not always improve with additional decision variables, despite the resulting increase in computational complexity. A compatible low-level troller is also introduced which significantly improves trajectory-following accuracy, as demonstrated by additional flight experiments.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Author: Ella Atkins
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 740
Release: 2017-01-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1118866452

UNMANNED AIRCRAF T SYSTEMS UNMANNED AIRCRAF T SYSTEMS An unmanned aircraft system (UAS), sometimes called a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot on board ??? instead, the UAS can be controlled by an operator station on the ground or may be autonomous in operation. UAS are capable of addressing a broad range of applications in diverse, complex environments. Traditionally employed in mainly military applications, recent regulatory changes around the world are leading to an explosion of interest and wide-ranging new applications for UAS in civil airspace. Covering the design, development, operation, and mission profiles of unmanned aircraft systems, this single, comprehensive volume forms a complete, stand-alone reference on the topic. The volume integrates with the online Wiley Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, providing many new and updated articles for existing subscribers to that work. The chapters cover the following items: Airframe configurations and design (launch systems, power generation, propulsion) Operations (missions, integration issues, and airspace access) Coordination (multivehicle cooperation and human oversight) With contributions from leading experts, this volume is intended to be a valuable addition, and a useful resource, for aerospace manufacturers and suppliers, governmental and industrial aerospace research establishments, airline and aviation industries, university engineering and science departments, and industry analysts, consultants, and researchers.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for 5G and Beyond

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for 5G and Beyond
Author: Moataz Shoukry
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2021
Genre:
ISBN:

Aerial platforms and, more precisely, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones augmented with ubiquitous computing, processing, and wireless communication technologies are expected to play an important role in next-generation cellular networks. The flexibility and controllable mobility of UAVs render them suitable to be part of access. Nonetheless, combined terrestrial and UAV communication improving network coverage and Quality of Service by leveraging line-of-sight communication as well as minimizing the delay and age-of-information for UAV-to-ground communication. Despite its numerous advantages, the deployment of UAVs faces different challenges with respect to wireless networks, ranging from radio resource management to UAVs' trajectory under energy limitation constraint and minimal knowledge of the environment. To this end, this dissertation aims to address the challenges in the efficient deployment of UAVs in future networks under various performance metrics. The key goal of this dissertation is to provide the analytical foundations for deployment, learning, in-depth analysis, and optimization of UAV-assisted wireless communication networks. Towards achieving this goal, this dissertation makes significant contributions to several areas of UAV-assisted wireless communication networks within the contexts of static environments as well as high mobility environments. For the deployment of UAVs in static environments such as Internet of Things (IoT) wireless networks, various tools such as optimization theory and machine learning frameworks are employed to enable UAV trajectory design under different scenarios and performance metrics. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed designs. In particular, UAVs adapt their mobility and altitude to enable reliable and energy-efficient communication, to maximize service for IoT applications, and to maintain the freshness of information. For the deployment of UAVs in high mobility environments such as vehicular networks, unique design challenges are considered and carefully handled to guarantee the effective performance of the UAV. Particularly, the high mobility of the vehicles leads to distinct network conditions and changes the network topology. The challenge here is that designing an efficient deployment of UAVs while considering the complex and dynamic network conditions is not a trivial task. This challenge was addressed through comprehensive studies that led to effective, robust, and high-performance solutions. Different performance metrics such as coverage, age of information, throughput, and Quality of Service were evaluated and compared with other approaches. Results shed light on the trade-offs in the vehicular network such as throughput-latency when exploiting UAV mobility for service. The findings in this dissertation highlight key guidelines for the effective design of UAV-assisted wireless communication networks. More insights on the efficient deployment of UAVs in static and high mobility environments are provided in order to assist and enhance communication in future networks while considering the unique features of UAVs such as their flight time, mobility, energy budget, and altitude.