Development and evaluation of a collision avoidance system for supervisory control of a micro aerial vehicle

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-108).Recent technological advances have enabled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) to become increasingly prevalent in a variety of domains. From military surveillance to disaster relief to search-and-rescue tasks, these systems have the capacity to assist in difficult or dangerous tasks and to potentially save lives. To enable operation by minimally trained personnel, the control interfaces require increased usability in order to maintain safety and mission effectiveness. In particular, as these systems are used in the real world, the operator must be able to navigate around obstacles in unknown and unstructured environments. In order to address this problem, the Collision and Obstacle Detection and Alerting (CODA) display was designed and integrated into a smartphone-based MAV control interface. The CODA display uses a combination of visual and haptic alerts to warn the operator of potential obstacles in the environment to help the operator navigate more effectively and avoid collisions. To assess the usability of this system, a within-subjects experiment was conducted in which participants used the mobile interface to pilot a MAV both with and without the assistance of the CODA display. The task consisted of navigating though a simulated indoor environment and locating visual targets. Metrics for the two conditions examined performance, control strategies, and subjective feedback from each participant. Overall, the addition of the CODA display resulted in higher performance, lowering the crash rate and decreasing the amount of time required to complete the tasks. Despite increasing the complexity of the interface, adding the CODA display did not significantly impact usability, and participants preferred operating the MAV with the CODA display. These results demonstrate that the CODA display provides the basis for an effective alerting tool to assist with MAV operation for exploring unknown environments. Future work should explore expansion to three-dimensional sensing and alerting capabilities as well as validation in an outdoor environment.by Kimberly F. Jackson.S.M

Technology applications

A summary of NASA Technology Utilization programs for the period of 1 December 1971 through 31 May 1972 is presented. An abbreviated description of the overall Technology Utilization Applications Program is provided as a background for the specific applications examples. Subjects discussed are in the broad headings of: (1) cancer, (2) cardiovascular disease, (2) medical instrumentation, (4) urinary system disorders, (5) rehabilitation medicine, (6) air and water pollution, (7) housing and urban construction, (8) fire safety, (9) law enforcement and criminalistics, (10) transportation, and (11) mine safety

Design of monopoles antenna for on-body communication links at 2.45 GHz

Numerous researches have been devoted to the development of the wearable antenna for its functionalities in on-body communications. The printed monopole antenna fulfils the requirements as well as having wideband matching characteristics, omnidirectional radiation patterns and compact size. Transforming wearable antennas into a compact antenna for wireless on-body communication which operates at 2.45 GHz and to investigate their performances on the body are the objectives of the research. In this research, three types of printed monopole antennas with different configurations are proposed. A microstrip patch antenna is selected as the basic design and modifications on the radiating patch for these three antennas were tested on movements of normal activities of a human in an office environment using Computer System Technology (CST). To verify the performance of the proposed antenna, return loss was simulated using CST and measured with network analyser. Path loss measurement for five on-body channels which are belt-to-chest, belt-to-wrist, belt-to-head, belt-to-back and belt-to-ankle was measured with vector network analyser. For the antenna performance on the body, the belt-to-head body channels gave the best result for the path loss measurement with highest path loss mean values about -30 dB. It was also found that the developed antennas can perform well at 2.45 GHz with good return loss below than -10 dB, and both simulated and measured results were in agreement. These proposed antennas worked well with wide operating bandwidth about 17~32%. However, each of these antennas has its own superior feature based on the configuration that could enhance the compactness of the antenna

Applications of aerospace technology in the public sector

Current activities of the program to accelerate specific applications of space related technology in major public sector problem areas are summarized for the period 1 June 1971 through 30 November 1971. An overview of NASA technology, technology applications, and supporting activities are presented. Specific technology applications in biomedicine are reported including cancer detection, treatment and research; cardiovascular diseases, diagnosis, and treatment; medical instrumentation; kidney function disorders, treatment, and research; and rehabilitation medicine

WiMax - a critical view of the technology and its economics

University of the Witwatersrand Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment School of Information and Electrical EngineeringMobile Broadband is now more of a necessity than a luxury, especially amongst the younger generation, irrespective of where they live. Mobile WiMax and LTE, the latest and fastest Mobile Broadband technologies, mark significant improvements over 3G networks because they use IP (Internet Protocol) end-to-end. To end-users, this means faster network speeds, better quality services, and increased coverage area. To the Network Operators, this means simplified network architectures, efficient use of resources, and improved security. In this report, the different issues and challenges related to deploying Mobile WiMax (802.16e or 802.16m) in rural South Africa, were identifed and explored. In this project, Atoll, SONAR, and Touch Point analysis tools were used to determine which Mobile Broadband technology is economically and technically suited for rural South Africa. It was found that LTE yields superior performance results than WiMax, which in turn yields superior performance results to all other existing 3G technologies. However it will take time for LTE to reach rural areas therefore WiMax can be considered as a solution to extend Broadband services to rural South Africa and thus assist in bridging the digital divide. Recommendations on how best to deploy Mobile WiMax are made based on observations made from the experimental work.MT201

Proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC 1990)

Presented here are the proceedings of the Second International Mobile Satellite Conference (IMSC), held June 17-20, 1990 in Ottawa, Canada. Topics covered include future mobile satellite communications concepts, aeronautical applications, modulation and coding, propagation and experimental systems, mobile terminal equipment, network architecture and control, regulatory and policy considerations, vehicle antennas, and speech compression