SwarMAV: A Swarm of Miniature Aerial Vehicles

As the MAV (Micro or Miniature Aerial Vehicles) field matures, we expect to see that the platform's degree of autonomy, the information exchange, and the coordination with other manned and unmanned actors, will become at least as crucial as its aerodynamic design. The project described in this paper explores some aspects of a particularly exciting possible avenue of development: an autonomous swarm of MAVs which exploits its inherent reliability (through redundancy), and its ability to exchange information among the members, in order to cope with a dynamically changing environment and achieve its mission. We describe the successful realization of a prototype experimental platform weighing only 75g, and outline a strategy for the automatic design of a suitable controller

UltraSwarm: A Further Step Towards a Flock of Miniature Helicopters

We describe further progress towards the development of a MAV (micro aerial vehicle) designed as an enabling tool to investigate aerial flocking. Our research focuses on the use of low cost off the shelf vehicles and sensors to enable fast prototyping and to reduce development costs. Details on the design of the embedded electronics and the modification of the chosen toy helicopter are presented, and the technique used for state estimation is described. The fusion of inertial data through an unscented Kalman filter is used to estimate the helicopter’s state, and this forms the main input to the control system. Since no detailed dynamic model of the helicopter in use is available, a method is proposed for automated system identification, and for subsequent controller design based on artificial evolution. Preliminary results obtained with a dynamic simulator of a helicopter are reported, along with some encouraging results for tackling the problem of flocking

Modeling and position control of a new quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle with tilt-wing mechanism

In this work a dynamic model of a new quadrotor aerial vehicle that is equipped with a tilt-wing mechanism is presented. The vehicle has the capabilities of vertical take-off/landing (VTOL) like a helicopter and flying horizontal like an airplane. Dynamic model of the vehicle is derived both for vertical and horizontal flight modes using Newton-Euler formulation. An LQR controller for the vertical flight mode has also been developed and its performance has been tested with several simulations

Dynamic model and control of a new quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle with tilt-wing mechanism

In this work a dynamic model of a new quadrotor aerial vehicle that is equipped with a tilt-wing mechanism is presented. The vehicle has the capabilities of vertical take-off/landing (VTOL) like a helicopter and flying horizontal like an airplane. Dynamic model of the vehicle is derived both for vertical and horizontal flight modes using Newton-Euler formulation. An LQR controller for the vertical flight mode has also been developed and its performance has been tested with several simulations

Decentralized Hybrid Formation Control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper presents a decentralized hybrid supervisory control approach for a team of unmanned helicopters that are involved in a leader-follower formation mission. Using a polar partitioning technique, the motion dynamics of the follower helicopters are abstracted to finite state machines. Then, a discrete supervisor is designed in a modular way for different components of the formation mission including reaching the formation, keeping the formation, and collision avoidance. Furthermore, a formal technique is developed to design the local supervisors decentralizedly, so that the team of helicopters as whole, can cooperatively accomplish a collision-free formation task

A resource need and availability view of the make or ally choice: evidence from the worldwide aircraft industry 1945-2000

This paper investigates why firms choose to undertake product expansion through alliances with competitors rather than on their own.alliance; governance; resource; competence; expansion; growth

Do scale alliances with competitors improve product performace? A study of the Aircraft industry, 1949-2000

This paper investigates the performance impact of undertaking activities through scale alliances with competitors rather than undertaking these activities autonomously.strategy; governance; alliance; cooperation; performance; scale economies; aircraft

Urban Air Mobility Market Study

The Booz Allen Team explored market size and potential barriers to Urban Air Mobility (UAM) by focusing on three potential markets – Airport Shuttle, Air Taxi, and Air Ambulance. We found that the Airport Shuttle and Air Taxi markets are viable, with a significant total available market value in the U.S. of $500 billion, for a fully unconstrained scenario. In this unconstrained best-case scenario, passengers would have the ability to access and fly a UAM at any time, from any location to any destination, without being hindered by constraints such as weather, infrastructure, or traffic volume. Significant legal and regulatory, weather, certification, public perception, and infrastructure constraints exist, which reduce the market potential for these applications to only about 0.5$2.5 billion, in the near term. However, we determined that these constraints can be addressed through ongoing intra-governmental partnerships, government and industry collaboration, strong industry commitment, and existing legal and regulatory enablers. We found that the Air Ambulance market is not a viable market if served by electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles due to technology constraints but may potentially be viable if a hybrid VTOL aircraft are utilized

Aerospace Medicine and Biology: A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 165, March 1977

This bibliography lists 198 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in February 1977