Evolution of Control Programs for a Swarm of Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rapidly becoming a critical military asset. In the future, advances in miniaturization are going to drive the development of insect size UAVs. New approaches to controlling these swarms are required. The goal of this research is to develop a controller to direct a swarm of UAVs in accomplishing a given mission. While previous efforts have largely been limited to a two-dimensional model, a three-dimensional model has been developed for this project. Models of UAV capabilities including sensors, actuators and communications are presented. Genetic programming uses the principles of Darwinian evolution to generate computer programs to solve problems. A genetic programming approach is used to evolve control programs for UAV swarms. Evolved controllers are compared with a hand-crafted solution using quantitative and qualitative methods. Visualization and statistical methods are used to analyze solutions. Results indicate that genetic programming is capable of producing effective solutions to multi-objective control problems

Missile Modeling and Simulation of Nominal and Abnormal Scenarios Resulting from External Damage

This thesis presents the development of a six-degree-of-freedom flight simulation environment for missiles and the application thereof to investigate the flight performance of missiles when exposed to external damage. The simulation environment was designed to provide a realistic representation of missile flight dynamics including aerodynamic effects, flight control systems, and self-guidance. The simulation environment was designed to be modular, expandable, and include realistic models of external damage to the missile body obtained by adversarial counteraction. The primary objective of this research was to examine missile flight performance when subjected to unspecified external damage, including changes in trajectory, stability, and controllability, and to provide a basis for the future development of fault tolerant control laws to improve target tracking and overall flight performance when experiencing abnormal conditions. To accomplish this, a variety of scenarios were developed to simulate damage to different parts of the missile, such as the fuselage, wings, and control surfaces. Three types of damage are considered: arbitrary failures which affect the major overall missile dynamic force and moment coefficients, structural failures including wings and fin breakage, and stuck fin failures where a given fin is arbitrarily fixed to a specified deflection. The missile behavior in response to these scenarios was analyzed and compared to the baseline behavior of an undamaged missile. The results of this research demonstrate how simulated missiles behave during flight, under both nominal and abnormal scenarios resulting from external damage. The simulation environment is shown to be a useful tool in examining the performance of missiles under real-world scenarios, such as during combat, in the event of an accident, or when exposed to other adversarial counteractions. This is done by producing envelopes for mission success for each tested scenario and analyzing the results. The results of this research can be used to assist in and improve the design and performance of missiles and enhance their survivability in the field. These results can also be used to determine the amount of damage necessary to prevent a given missile from reaching its target

Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2004

This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems and Engineering Management, Operational Sciences, and Engineering Physics

Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2016

This Research Report presents the FY16 research statistics and contributions of the Graduate School of Engineering and Management (EN) at AFIT. AFIT research interests and faculty expertise cover a broad spectrum of technical areas related to USAF needs, as reflected by the range of topics addressed in the faculty and student publications listed in this report. In most cases, the research work reported herein is directly sponsored by one or more USAF or DOD agencies. AFIT welcomes the opportunity to conduct research on additional topics of interest to the USAF, DOD, and other federal organizations when adequate manpower and financial resources are available and/or provided by a sponsor. In addition, AFIT provides research collaboration and technology transfer benefits to the public through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs)