Design and Test of an Autonomy Monitoring Service to Detect Divergent Behaviors on Unmanned Aerial Systems

Operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) support many critical missions in the United State Air Force (USAF). Monitoring abnormal behavior is one of many responsibilities of the operator during a mission. Some behaviors are hard to be detect by an operator, especially when flying one or more autonomous vehicles; as such, detections require a high level of attention and focus to flight parameters. In this research, a monitoring system and its algorithm are designed and tested for a target fixed-wing UAV. The Autonomy Monitoring Service (AMS) compares the real vehicle or simulated Vehicle with a similar simulated vehicle using Software in the Loop (SITL).It is hypothesized that the resulting design has the potential to reduce monotonous monitoring, reduce risk of losing vehicles, and increase mission effectiveness. Performance of the prototyped AMS model was examined by several measures, including divergence detection rate, synchronization time, and Upper Control Limit (UCL) of aircraft location variability in different scenarios. Results showed 100 rate of divergence detection out of all divergent events occurred. The weighted mean of AMS synchronization time was 4.02 seconds, and the weighted mean for aircraft location variability was 44.8 meters. The overarching AMS functionality was achieved. AMS supports the concept that humans and machines should be designed to complement each other by sharing responsibilities and behaviors effectively, making final system safer and more reliable

NL4Py: Agent-Based Modeling in Python with Parallelizable NetLogo Workspaces

NL4Py is a NetLogo controller software for Python, for the rapid, parallel execution of NetLogo models. NL4Py provides both headless (no graphical user interface) and GUI NetLogo workspace control through Python. Spurred on by the increasing availability of open-source computation and machine learning libraries on the Python package index, there is an increasing demand for such rapid, parallel execution of agent-based models through Python. NetLogo, being the language of choice for a majority of agent-based modeling driven research projects, requires an integration to Python for researchers looking to perform statistical analyses of agent-based model output using these libraries. Unfortunately, until the recent introduction of PyNetLogo, and now NL4Py, such a controller was unavailable. This article provides a detailed introduction into the usage of NL4Py and explains its client-server software architecture, highlighting architectural differences to PyNetLogo. A step-by-step demonstration of global sensitivity analysis and parameter calibration of the Wolf Sheep Predation model is then performed through NL4Py. Finally, NL4Py's performance is benchmarked against PyNetLogo and its combination with IPyParallel, and shown to provide significant savings in execution time over both configurations

Building an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for Humanitarian Aid Delivery

When an emergency occurs, immediate responses are needed for the affected areas. Conventional means of transportation often face difficulties carrying supplies to the location in need, especially in severely damaged areas.In this project, a small semi-autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was designed and constructed to undertake a representative humanitarian aid mission. The system has a novel hex-rotor design with overlapping propellers. Half of the motors have been turned upside down with a slight overlap between each propeller, hence reducing the total dimension of the system without losing its efficiency. The system is also equipped with a new lightweight servo activated two ring release system, allowing it to carry and release two kilograms of payloads with only small physical force needed.Overall, the system is capable to operate automatically while performing a series of tasks such as navigate waypoints and deliver payloads before returning to base. the system created in this project could deliver two individual payloads of 1 kg each to the pre-destinated target almost autonomously. The system provided promising results that encourage the utilization of UAV for delivering Humanitarian Aid

Document Maintenance With Multiple Access Strategy

This thesis should yield a system that is capable of providing access to documents. Such documents and the file access thereto are of central importance. The access to these documents should not be limited by a single interface or access manner. Databases and database management systems (DBMS) using the Structured Query Language (SQL) and following the ACID paradigm are commonly used to manage data. Such databases are robust and performant but minimize flexibility regarding the data structure, as it has to be determined at the creation of a system and should not be changed over time. Additionally, the data can only be accessed by the database management system (DBMS). Hence, the data cannot be accessed if the database management system is not running, because in major systems like MySQL, PostgreSQL or DB2 the data is stored in a binary manner to increase performance. As this thesis aims to provide a system wherein access is independent of single components, especially of the database server such traditional SQL servers cannot be used. Moreover, single data attributes can not be inserted, in performance-oriented SQL servers, even if the DBMS was not running as it would require knowledge over the internal database structure, as well as complex insertion and modification methods, whereas the focus should lie on the documents, their consistency, rather than on the meta information. In consideration of these goals, the implementation of a system with multiple access strategy and easy modification will be discussed in the following chapters of this thesis

CuriPilot

The drone industry has rapidly grown over the last three years and many large companies have determined that the phenomenon is worth investing in. Recently, Intel has shown interest in this growing industry. Intel developed a next generation processor to be used in drones in addition to investing in the Chinese drone hardware company, Yuneec. Contracted by Intel, the CuriPilot team laid the foundation for linking the hardware and software layers of Intel\u27s drone technology by designing the stabilization control system for the next generation of processors and drones. The CuriPilot team built a foundation for future drone development and gave Intel valuable feedback on both the hardware and software being used with the Curie processor. Looking forward, future development can easily be started with the new EarHart boards and existing drone frames. The elusive system bugs have been fixed and the EarHart board provides a stable environment to continue autopilot development

Chipper: Capacitive Bed Occupancy Sensing for an Intelligent Alarm Clock

What if your alarm clock knew when you got out—and stayed out—of bed? Current alarm clocks happily let you go back to bed after turning them off. In this project, I build an alarm which only stops ringing when you get out bed, and starts ringing again if you lie back in bed. This project uses capacitance to detect bed occupancy. A person on or near the bed creates a tiny, picofarads level increase in capacitance, as seen by a sensor placed under the mattress. A microprocessor interprets this signal, and also drives an audio alarm. Shielding of the sensor and automatic calibration of the sensor ensures the system works for any room and bed

Definition, technology readiness, and development cost of the orbit transfer vehicle engine integrated control and health monitoring system elements

An Integrated Control and Health Monitoring (ICHM) system was conceived for use on a 20 Klb thrust baseline Orbit Transfer Vehicle (OTV) engine. Considered for space used, the ICHM was defined for reusability requirements for an OTV engine service free life of 20 missions, with 100 starts and a total engine operational time of 4 hours. Functions were derived by flowing down requirements from NASA guidelines, previous OTV engine or ICHM documents, and related contracts. The elements of an ICHM were identified and listed, and these elements were described in sufficient detail to allow estimation of their technology readiness levels. These elements were assessed in terms of technology readiness level, and supporting rationale for these assessments presented. The remaining cost for development of a minimal ICHM system to technology readiness level 6 was estimated. The estimates are within an accuracy range of minus/plus 20 percent. The cost estimates cover what is needed to prepare an ICHM system for use on a focussed testbed for an expander cycle engine, excluding support to the actual test firings

Fire Detection and Suppression Drone

The goal of this Major Qualifying Project (MQP) is to create a drone equipped with an automatic flame sensing and water spraying system to overcome the major problems faced during firefighting. These problems faced by firefighting include lack of knowledge about the building construction, fire intensity, and knowing about the building tenability and victim viability. Work on the drone deals with the proof of concept, exhibiting the scalability of this system for large scale fires. During testing of heights 10 feet or below, the drone performed most effectively. The drone that we built was capable of suppressing small fires at a distance of 4 feet from the fire. This is achieved with a custom-designed spraying system controlled by a flame sensor