Vision-based control of near-obstacle flight

This paper presents a novel control strategy, which we call optiPilot, for autonomous flight in the vicinity of obstacles. Most existing autopilots rely on a complete 6-degree-of-freedom state estimation using a GPS and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and are unable to detect and avoid obstacles. This is a limitation for missions such as surveillance and environment monitoring that may require near-obstacle flight in urban areas or mountainous environments. OptiPilot instead uses optic flow to estimate proximity of obstacles and avoid them. Our approach takes advantage of the fact that, for most platforms in translational flight (as opposed to near-hover flight), the translatory motion is essentially aligned with the aircraft main axis. This property allows us to directly interpret optic flow measurements as proximity indications. We take inspiration from neural and behavioural strategies of flying insects to propose a simple mapping of optic flow measurements into control signals that requires only a lightweight and power-efficient sensor suite and minimal processing power. In this paper, we first describe results obtained in simulation before presenting the implementation of optiPilot on a real flying platform equipped only with lightweight and inexpensive optic computer mouse sensors, MEMS rate gyroscopes and a pressure-based airspeed sensor. We show that the proposed control strategy not only allows collision-free flight in the vicinity of obstacles, but is also able to stabilise both attitude and altitude over flat terrain. These results shed new light on flight control by suggesting that the complex sensors and processing required for 6 degree-of-freedom state estimation may not be necessary for autonomous flight and pave the way toward the integration of autonomy into current and upcoming gram-scale flying platform

Mission Information and Test Systems Summary of Accomplishments, 2011

This annual report covers the activities of the NASA DRFC Mission Information and Test Systems, which includes the Western Aeronautical Test Range, the Simulation Engineering Branch, the Information Services and the Dryden Technical Laboratory (Flight Loads Lab). This report contains highlights, current projects and various awards achieved during in 201

Dynamic Path Planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles under Deadline and Sector Capacity Constraints

The US National Airspace System is currently operating at a level close to its maximum potential. The limitation comes from the workload demand on the air traffic controllers. Currently, the air traffic flow management is based on the flight path requests by the airline operators, whereas the minimum separation assurance between flights is handled strategically by air traffic control personnel. In this paper, we propose a scalable framework that allows path planning for a large number of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) taking into account the deadline and weather constraints. Our proposed solution has a polynomial-time computational complexity that is also verified by measuring the runtime for typical workloads. We further demonstrate that the proposed framework is able to route 80% of the workloads while not exceeding the sector capacity constraints, even under dynamic weather conditions. Due to low computational complexity, our framework is suitable for a fleet of UAVs where decentralizing the routing process limits the workload demand on the air traffic personnel

Integration of UTM and U-Space on Norwegian continental shelf

In this master thesis, we present an overview of the U-Space and Regulations in Europe, while also taking into consideration the progression of the integration of both parts in Norwegian airspace over the Norwegian continental shelf. This thesis is mainly separated into three parts. The first part is taking a look into the European Union's roadmap/plan for establishing an Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) and how they plan to develop their system into a single European sky. The end goal is that essentially every operator of a drone can do so all over Europe without having any issues with crossing borders or different regulations. The second part of the thesis is dedicated to a detailed insight into the technical side of a UTM, the different layers, examples of which systems are the most relevant to be utilized on the Norwegian continental shelf. The third part of this thesis is dedicated to looking at the regulatory side of things, in regards of the UTM system in itself, different factors of drone operations, requirements for every part of an operation. In addition, discussing and concluding about everything we have been though in the thesis. Additionally, there are uses cases where everything comes together to see how it would work in practise and in certain scenarios. In the final part of the thesis the previous parts of the project will be discussed, as well as drawing final conclusions to the project