Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations on Air, Sea, Land

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land is our fourth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS). (Nichols R. K., 2018) (Nichols R. K., et al., 2019) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020)The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS systems. Our title shows our concern for growth and unique cyber security unmanned vehicle technology and operations for unmanned vehicles in all theaters: Air, Sea and Land – especially maritime cybersecurity and China proliferation issues. Topics include: Information Advances, Remote ID, and Extreme Persistence ISR; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & How They Can Augment Mesonet Weather Tower Data Collection; Tour de Drones for the Discerning Palate; Underwater Autonomous Navigation & other UUV Advances; Autonomous Maritime Asymmetric Systems; UUV Integrated Autonomous Missions & Drone Management; Principles of Naval Architecture Applied to UUV’s; Unmanned Logistics Operating Safely and Efficiently Across Multiple Domains; Chinese Advances in Stealth UAV Penetration Path Planning in Combat Environment; UAS, the Fourth Amendment and Privacy; UV & Disinformation / Misinformation Channels; Chinese UAS Proliferation along New Silk Road Sea / Land Routes; Automaton, AI, Law, Ethics, Crossing the Machine – Human Barrier and Maritime Cybersecurity.Unmanned Vehicle 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. Unmanned Vehicle (UV) Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land discusses state-of-the-art technology / issues facing U.S. UV system researchers / designers / manufacturers / testers. We trust our newest look at Unmanned Vehicles in Air, Sea, and Land will enrich our students and readers understanding of the purview of this wonderful technology we call UV.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1035/thumbnail.jp

The Hierarchic treatment of marine ecological information from spatial networks of benthic platforms

Measuring biodiversity simultaneously in different locations, at different temporal scales, and over wide spatial scales is of strategic importance for the improvement of our understanding of the functioning of marine ecosystems and for the conservation of their biodiversity. Monitoring networks of cabled observatories, along with other docked autonomous systems (e.g., Remotely Operated Vehicles [ROVs], Autonomous Underwater Vehicles [AUVs], and crawlers), are being conceived and established at a spatial scale capable of tracking energy fluxes across benthic and pelagic compartments, as well as across geographic ecotones. At the same time, optoacoustic imaging is sustaining an unprecedented expansion in marine ecological monitoring, enabling the acquisition of new biological and environmental data at an appropriate spatiotemporal scale. At this stage, one of the main problems for an effective application of these technologies is the processing, storage, and treatment of the acquired complex ecological information. Here, we provide a conceptual overview on the technological developments in the multiparametric generation, storage, and automated hierarchic treatment of biological and environmental information required to capture the spatiotemporal complexity of a marine ecosystem. In doing so, we present a pipeline of ecological data acquisition and processing in different steps and prone to automation. We also give an example of population biomass, community richness and biodiversity data computation (as indicators for ecosystem functionality) with an Internet Operated Vehicle (a mobile crawler). Finally, we discuss the software requirements for that automated data processing at the level of cyber-infrastructures with sensor calibration and control, data banking, and ingestion into large data portals.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Path planning and collision avoidance for autonomous surface vehicles I: a review

Autonomous surface vehicles are gaining increasing attention worldwide due to the potential benefits of improving safety and efficiency. This has raised the interest in developing methods for path planning that can reduce the risk of collisions, groundings, and stranding accidents at sea, as well as costs and time expenditure. In this paper, we review guidance, and more specifically, path planning algorithms of autonomous surface vehicles and their classification. In particular, we highlight vessel autonomy, regulatory framework, guidance, navigation and control components, advances in the industry, and previous reviews in the field. In addition, we analyse the terminology used in the literature and attempt to clarify ambiguities in commonly used terms related to path planning. Finally, we summarise and discuss our findings and highlight the potential need for new regulations for autonomous surface vehicles

Development of Modeling and Simulation Platform for Path-Planning and Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles in Three-Dimensional Spaces

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) operating in deep sea and littoral environments have diverse applications including marine biology exploration, ocean environment monitoring, search for plane crash sites, inspection of ship-hulls and pipelines, underwater oil rig maintenance, border patrol, etc. Achieving autonomy in underwater vehicles relies on a tight integration between modules of sensing, navigation, decision-making, path-planning, trajectory tracking, and low-level control. This system integration task benefits from testing the related algorithms and techniques in a simulated environment before implementation in a physical test bed. This thesis reports on the development of a modeling and simulation platform that supports the design and testing of path planning and control algorithms in a synthetic AUV, representing a simulated version of a physical AUV. The approach allows integration between path-planners and closed-loop controllers that enable the synthetic AUV to track dynamically feasible trajectories in three-dimensional spaces. The dynamical behavior of the AUV is modeled using the equations of motion that incorporate the effects of external forces (e.g., buoyancy, gravity, hydrodynamic drag, centripetal force, Coriolis force, etc.), thrust forces, and inertial forces acting on the AUV. The equations of motion are translated into a state space formulation and the S-function feature of the Simulink and MATLAB scripts are used to evolve the state trajectories from initial conditions. A three-dimensional visualization of the resulting AUV motion is achieved by feeding the corresponding position and orientation states into an animation code. Experimental validation is carried out by performing integrated waypoint planner (e.g., using the popular A* algorithm) and PD controller implementations that allow the traversal of the synthetic AUV in two-dimensional (XY, XZ, YZ) and three-dimensional spaces. An underwater pipe-line inspection task carried out by the AUV is demonstrated in a simulated environment. The simulation testbed holds a potential to support planner and controller design for implementation in physical AUVs, thereby allowing exploration of various research topics in the field