Feature-based object tracking in maritime scenes.

A monitoring of presence, location and activity of various objects on the sea is essential for maritime navigation and collision avoidance. Mariners normally rely on two complementary methods of the monitoring: radar and satellite-based aids and human observation. Though radar aids are relatively accurate at long distances, their capability of detecting small, unmanned or non-metallic craft that generally do not reflect radar waves sufficiently enough, is limited. The mariners, therefore, rely in such cases on visual observations. The visual observation is often facilitated by using cameras overlooking the sea that can also provide intensified infra-red images. These systems or nevertheless merely enhance the image and the burden of the tedious and error-prone monitoring task still rests with the operator. This thesis addresses the drawbacks of both methods by presenting a framework consisting of a set of machine vision algorithms that facilitate the monitoring tasks in maritime environment. The framework detects and tracks objects in a sequence of images captured by a camera mounted either on a board of a vessel or on a static platform over-looking the sea. The detection of objects is independent of their appearance and conditions such as weather and time of the day. The output of the framework consists of locations and motions of all detected objects with respect to a fixed point in the scene. All values are estimated in real-world units, i. e. location is expressed in metres and velocity in knots. The consistency of the estimates is maintained by compensating for spurious effects such as vibration of the camera. In addition, the framework continuously checks for predefined events such as collision threats or area intrusions, raising an alarm when any such event occurs. The development and evaluation of the framework is based on sequences captured under conditions corresponding to a designated application. The independence of the detection and tracking on the appearance of the sceneand objects is confirmed by a final cross-validation of the framework on previously unused sequences. Potential applications of the framework in various areas of maritime environment including navigation, security, surveillance and others are outlined. Limitations to the presented framework are identified and possible solutions suggested. The thesis concludes with suggestions to further directions of the research presented

Aeronautical Engineering: A continuing bibliography (supplement 158)

This bibliography lists 499 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in January 1983

Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain

Unmanned Aircraft Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure. The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. This textbook will fully immerse and engage the reader / student in the cyber-security considerations of this rapidly emerging technology that we know as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The first edition topics covered National Airspace (NAS) policy issues, information security (INFOSEC), UAS vulnerabilities in key systems (Sense and Avoid / SCADA), navigation and collision avoidance systems, stealth design, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms; weapons systems security; electronic warfare considerations; data-links, jamming, operational vulnerabilities and still-emerging political scenarios that affect US military / commercial decisions. This second edition discusses state-of-the-art technology issues facing US UAS designers. It focuses on counter unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) – especially research designed to mitigate and terminate threats by SWARMS. Topics include high-altitude platforms (HAPS) for wireless communications; C-UAS and large scale threats; acoustic countermeasures against SWARMS and building an Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) acoustic library; updates to the legal / regulatory landscape; UAS proliferation along the Chinese New Silk Road Sea / Land routes; and ethics in this new age of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI).https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1027/thumbnail.jp

REDESIGNING THE COUNTER UNMANNED SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE

Includes supplementary material. Please contact [email protected] for access.When the Islamic State used Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to target coalition forces in 2014, the use of UAVs rapidly expanded, giving weak states and non-state actors an asymmetric advantage over their technologically superior foes. This asymmetry led the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to spend vast sums of money on counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS). Despite the market density, many C-UAS technologies use expensive, bulky, and high-power-consuming electronic attack methods for ground-to-air interdiction. This thesis outlines the current technology used for C-UAS and proposes a defense-in-depth framework using airborne C-UAS patrols outfitted with cyber-attack capabilities. Using aerial interdiction, this thesis develops a novel C-UAS device called the Detachable Drone Hijacker—a low-size, weight, and power C-UAS device designed to deliver cyber-attacks against commercial UAVs using the IEEE 802.11 wireless communication specification. The experimentation results show that the Detachable Drone Hijacker, which weighs 400 grams, consumes one Watt of power, and costs $250, can interdict adversarial UAVs with no unintended collateral damage. This thesis recommends that the DOD and DHS incorporates aerial interdiction to support its C-UAS defense-in-depth, using technologies similar to the Detachable Drone Hijacker.DASN-OE, Washington DC, 20310Captain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Identification and tracking of marine objects for collision risk estimation.

With the advent of modem high-speed passenger ferries and the general increase in maritime traffic, both commercial and recreational, marine safety is becoming an increasingly important issue. From lightweight catamarans and fishing trawlers to container ships and cruise liners one question remains the same. Is anything in the way? This question is addressed in this thesis. Through the use of image processing techniques applied to video sequences of maritime scenes the images are segmented into two regions, sea and object. This is achieved using statistical measures taken from the histogram data of the images. Each segmented object has a feature vector built containing information including its size and previous centroid positions. The feature vectors are used to track the identified objects across many frames. With information recorded about an object's previous motion its future motion is predicted using a least squares method. Finally a high-level rule-based algorithm is applied in order to estimate the collision risk posed by each object present in the image. The result is an image with the objects identified by the placing of a white box around them. The predicted motion is shown and the estimated collision risk posed by that object is displayed. The algorithms developed in this work have been evaluated using two previously unseen maritime image sequences. These show that the algorithms developed here can be used to estimate the collision risk posed by maritime objects

Aeronautical Engineering. A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 156

This bibliography lists 288 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in December 1982

Mobile Robots Navigation

Mobile robots navigation includes different interrelated activities: (i) perception, as obtaining and interpreting sensory information; (ii) exploration, as the strategy that guides the robot to select the next direction to go; (iii) mapping, involving the construction of a spatial representation by using the sensory information perceived; (iv) localization, as the strategy to estimate the robot position within the spatial map; (v) path planning, as the strategy to find a path towards a goal location being optimal or not; and (vi) path execution, where motor actions are determined and adapted to environmental changes. The book addresses those activities by integrating results from the research work of several authors all over the world. Research cases are documented in 32 chapters organized within 7 categories next described

DRONE DELIVERY OF CBNRECy – DEW WEAPONS Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD)

Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD) is our sixth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs and UUVs. Our textbook takes on a whole new purview for UAS / CUAS/ UUV (drones) – how they can be used to deploy Weapons of Mass Destruction and Deception against CBRNE and civilian targets of opportunity. We are concerned with the future use of these inexpensive devices and their availability to maleficent actors. Our work suggests that UASs in air and underwater UUVs will be the future of military and civilian terrorist operations. UAS / UUVs can deliver a huge punch for a low investment and minimize human casualties.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1046/thumbnail.jp

Planning under uncertainty for dynamic collision avoidance

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2011.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-169).We approach dynamic collision avoidance problem from the perspective of designing collision avoidance systems for unmanned aerial vehicles. Before unmanned aircraft can fly safely in civil airspace, robust airborne collision avoidance systems must be developed. Instead of hand-crafting a collision avoidance algorithm for every combination of sensor and aircraft configurations, we investigate automatic generation of collision avoidance algorithms given models of aircraft dynamics, sensor performance, and intruder behavior. We first formulate the problem within the Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) framework, and use generic MDP/POMDP solvers offline to compute vertical-only avoidance strategies that optimize a cost function to balance flight-plan deviation with risk of collision. We then describe a second framework that performs online planning and allows for 3-D escape maneuvers by starting with possibly dangerous initial flight plans and improving them iteratively. Experimental results with four different sensor modalities and a parametric aircraft performance model demonstrate the suitability of both approaches.by Selim Temizer.Ph.D

Identification and tracking of maritime objects for collision risk estimation

With the advent of modem high-speed passenger ferries and the general increase in maritime traffic, both commercial and recreational, marine safety is becoming an increasingly important issue. From lightweight catamarans and fishing trawlers to container ships and cruise liners one question remains the same. Is anything in the way? This question is addressed in this thesis. Through the use of image processing techniques applied to video sequences of maritime scenes the images are segmented into two regions, sea and object. This is achieved using statistical measures taken from the histogram data of the images. Each segmented object has a feature vector built containing information including its size and previous centroid positions. The feature vectors are used to track the identified objects across many frames. With information recorded about an object's previous motion its future motion is predicted using a least squares method. Finally a high-level rule-based algorithm is applied in order to estimate the collision risk posed by each object present in the image. The result is an image with the objects identified by the placing of a white box around them. The predicted motion is shown and the estimated collision risk posed by that object is displayed. The algorithms developed in this work have been evaluated using two previously unseen maritime image sequences. These show that the algorithms developed here can be used to estimate the collision risk posed by maritime objects.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo