Methods for autonomous wristband placement with a search-and-rescue aerial manipulator

A new robotic system for Search And Rescue (SAR) operations based on the automatic wristband placement on the victims’ arm, which may provide identification, beaconing and remote sensor readings for continuous health monitoring. This paper focuses on the development of the automatic target localization and the device placement using an unmanned aerial manipulator. The automatic wrist detection and localization system uses an RGB-D camera and a convolutional neural network based on the region faster method (Faster R-CNN). A lightweight parallel delta manipulator with a large workspace has been built, and a new design of a wristband in the form of a passive detachable gripper, is presented, which under contact, automatically attaches to the human, while disengages from the manipulator. A new trajectory planning method has been used to minimize the torques caused by the external forces during contact, which cause attitude perturbations. Experiments have been done to evaluate the machine learning method for detection and location, and for the assessment of the performance of the trajectory planning method. The results show how the VGG-16 neural network provides a detection accuracy of 67.99%. Moreover, simulation experiments have been done to show that the new trajectories minimize the perturbations to the aerial platform.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Security, privacy and safety evaluation of dynamic and static fleets of drones

Inter-connected objects, either via public or private networks are the near future of modern societies. Such inter-connected objects are referred to as Internet-of-Things (IoT) and/or Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). One example of such a system is based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The fleet of such vehicles are prophesied to take on multiple roles involving mundane to high-sensitive, such as, prompt pizza or shopping deliveries to your homes to battlefield deployment for reconnaissance and combat missions. Drones, as we refer to UAVs in this paper, either can operate individually (solo missions) or part of a fleet (group missions), with and without constant connection with the base station. The base station acts as the command centre to manage the activities of the drones. However, an independent, localised and effective fleet control is required, potentially based on swarm intelligence, for the reasons: 1) increase in the number of drone fleets, 2) number of drones in a fleet might be multiple of tens, 3) time-criticality in making decisions by such fleets in the wild, 4) potential communication congestions/lag, and 5) in some cases working in challenging terrains that hinders or mandates-limited communication with control centre (i.e., operations spanning long period of times or military usage of such fleets in enemy territory). This self-ware, mission-focused and independent fleet of drones that potential utilises swarm intelligence for a) air-traffic and/or flight control management, b) obstacle avoidance, c) self-preservation while maintaining the mission criteria, d) collaboration with other fleets in the wild (autonomously) and e) assuring the security, privacy and safety of physical (drones itself) and virtual (data, software) assets. In this paper, we investigate the challenges faced by fleet of drones and propose a potential course of action on how to overcome them.Comment: 12 Pages, 7 Figures, Conference, The 36th IEEE/AIAA Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC'17

La configuració U-space impacta en la seguretat, capacitat i flexibilitat

El present treball de final de grau està enfocat a l'estudi del concepte U-space, els seus actuals i futurs serveis i procediments per a permetre l'accés de UAVs a l'espai aeri de manera segura, eficient i flexible, i l'anàlisi dels resultats de simulacions estudiant com a diferents configuracions de l'espai aeri impacten en la flexibilitat i capacitat del sistemaEl presente trabajo de final de grado está enfocado al estudio del concepto U-space, sus actuales y futuros servicios y procedimientos para permitir el acceso de UAVs al espacio aéreo de forma segura, eficiente y flexible, y el análisis de los resultados de simulaciones estudiando como diferentes configuraciones del espacio aéreo impactan en la flexibilidad y capacidad del sistemaThe present final degree study is focused on the exploration of the U-space concept, its current and future services and procedures to allow the access of UAVs to the airspace in a safe, efficient and flexible way, and the analysis of the results of simulations studying how different airspace configurations impact on the flexibility and capacity of the syste

Using Drones in Internal and External Audits: An Exploratory Framework

Recently the FAA relaxed restrictions on the use of drones or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) for commercial purposes. Markets for commercial drone use are in the technology trigger phase of the Gartner Group’s Hyper Cycle, with developments occurring rapidly in real estate, agriculture (farming), the film industry, insurance, and other areas. Examination and inspection applications of drones have been proposed in heavy industry and cell tower inspection. Previous research suggests an incremental structure for implementing technological innovations such as continuous auditing (CA). In this paper these proposals are expanded to include the additional requirements to add drone technologies. This structure is extended here by (1) defining the use of drones in audit environments, with emphasis on the continuous versus occasional use of drone technologies, (2) extending the technical adoption architecture to include the use of drones, and (3) considering the types of drone usages amenable to both internal and external audits. A specific architecture is proposed here to prototype inventory counts in large warehouses or open-air inventories and that satisfies the suggested requirements. Additionally, this proposal adds value to the current research by extending the discussion of technology adoption in the Alles, Kogan, and Vasarhelyi (2008) paper to include the use of drones in many different audit environments by enumerating the usage types of drones in audit settings and by considering the prototype of such a system

Internet of Drones Simulator: Design, Implementation, and Performance Evaluation

The Internet of Drones (IoD) is a networking architecture that stems from the interplay between Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and wireless communication technologies. Networked drones can unleash disruptive scenarios in many application domains. At the same time, to really capitalize their potential, accurate modeling techniques are required to catch the fine details that characterize the features and limitations of UAVs, wireless communications, and networking protocols. To this end, the present contribution proposes the Internet of Drones Simulator (IoD-Sim), a comprehensive and versatile open source tool that addresses the many facets of the IoD. IoD-Sim is a Network Simulator 3 (ns-3)-based simulator organized in a 3-layer stack, composed by (i) the Underlying Platform, which provides the telecommunication primitives for different standardized protocol stacks, (ii) the Core, that implements all the fundamental features of an IoD scenario, and (iii) the Simulation Development Platform, mainly composed by a set of tools that speeds up the graphical design for every possible use-case. In order to prove the huge potential of this proposal, three different scenarios are presented and analyzed from both a software perspective and a telecommunication standpoint. The peculiarities of this open-source tool are of interest for researchers in academia, as they will be able to extend to model upcoming specifications, including, but not limited to, mobile networks and satellite communications. Still, it will certainly be of relevance in industry to accelerate the design phase, thus improving the time-to-market of IoD-based services.Comment: in IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 202

Real-time Aerial Detection and Reasoning on Embedded-UAVs

We present a unified pipeline architecture for a real-time detection system on an embedded system for UAVs. Neural architectures have been the industry standard for computer vision. However, most existing works focus solely on concatenating deeper layers to achieve higher accuracy with run-time performance as the trade-off. This pipeline of networks can exploit the domain-specific knowledge on aerial pedestrian detection and activity recognition for the emerging UAV applications of autonomous surveying and activity reporting. In particular, our pipeline architectures operate in a time-sensitive manner, have high accuracy in detecting pedestrians from various aerial orientations, use a novel attention map for multi-activities recognition, and jointly refine its detection with temporal information. Numerically, we demonstrate our model's accuracy and fast inference speed on embedded systems. We empirically deployed our prototype hardware with full live feeds in a real-world open-field environment.Comment: In TGR

U-space concept of operations: A key enabler for opening airspace to emerging low-altitude operations

Opening the sky to new classes of airspace user is a political and economic imperative for the European Union. Drone industries have a significant potential for economical growth according to the latest estimations. To enable this growth safely and efficiently, the CORUS project has developed a concept of operations for drones flying in Europe in very low-level airspace, which they have to share that space with manned aviation, and quite soon with urban air mobility aircraft as well. U-space services and the development of smart, automated, interoperable, and sustainable traffic management solutions are presented as the key enabler for achieving this high level of integration. In this paper, we present the U-space concept of operations (ConOps), produced around three new types of airspace volume, called X, Y, and Z, and the relevant U-space services that will need to be supplied in each of these. The paper also describes the reference high-level U-space architecture using the European air traffic management architecture methodology. Finally, the paper proposes the basis for the aircraft separation standards applicable by each volume, to be used by the conflict detection and resolution services of U-space.This work has been partially funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking, a body of the European Commission, under grant H2020 RIA-763551 and by the Ministry of Economy and Enterprise of Spain under contract TRA2016-77012-R.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Risk driven models & security framework for drone operation in GNSS-denied environments

Flying machines in the air without human inhabitation has moved from abstracts to reality and the concept of unmanned aerial vehicles continues to evolve. Drones are popularly known to use GPS and other forms of GNSS for navigation, but this has unfortunately opened them up to spoofing and other forms of cybersecurity threats. The use of computer vision to find location through pre-stored satellite images has become a suggested solution but this gives rise to security challenges in the form of spoofing, tampering, denial of service and other forms of attacks. These security challenges are reviewed with appropriate requirements recommended. This research uses the STRIDE threat analysis model to analyse threats in drone operation in GNSS-denied environment. Other threat models were considered including DREAD and PASTA, but STRIDE is chosen because of its suitability and the complementary ability it serves to other analytical methods used in this work. Research work is taken further to divide the drone system into units based in similarities in functions and architecture. They are then subjected to Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). The STRIDE threat model is used as base events for the FTA and an FMEA is conducted based on adaptations from IEC 62443-1-1, Network and System Security- Terminology, concepts, and models and IEC 62443-3-2, security risk assessment for system design. The FTA and FMEA are widely known for functional safety purposes but there is a divergent use for the tools where we consider cybersecurity vulnerabilities specifically, instead of faults. The IEC 62443 series has become synonymous with Industrial Automation and Control Systems. However, inspiration is drawn from that series for this work because, drones, as much as any technological gadget in play recently, falls under a growing umbrella of quickly evolving devices, known as Internet of Things (IoT). These IoT devices can be principally considered as part of Industrial Automation and Control Systems. Results from the analysis are used to recommend security standards & requirements that can be applied in drone operation in GNSS-denied environments. The framework recommended in this research is consistent with IEC 62443-3-3, System security requirements and security levels and has the following categorization from IEC 62443-1-1, identification, and authentication control, use control, system integrity, data confidentiality, restricted data flow, timely response to events and resource availability. The recommended framework is applicable and relevant to military, private and commercial drone deployment because the framework can be adapted and further tweaked to suit the context which it is intended for. Application of this framework in drone operation in GNSS denied environment will greatly improve upon the cyber resilience of the drone network system