15 research outputs found

    Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations

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    As the quarter-century mark in the 21st Century nears, new aviation-related equipment has come to the forefront, both to help us and to haunt us. (Coutu, 2020) This is particularly the case with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These vehicles have grown in popularity and accessible to everyone. Of different shapes and sizes, they are widely available for purchase at relatively low prices. They have moved from the backyard recreation status to important tools for the military, intelligence agencies, and corporate organizations. New practical applications such as military equipment and weaponry are announced on a regular basis – globally. (Coutu, 2020) Every country seems to be announcing steps forward in this bludgeoning field. In our successful 2nd edition of Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets (Nichols, et al., 2019), the authors addressed three factors influencing UAS phenomena. First, unmanned aircraft technology has seen an economic explosion in production, sales, testing, specialized designs, and friendly / hostile usages of deployed UAS / UAVs / Drones. There is a huge global growing market and entrepreneurs know it. Second, hostile use of UAS is on the forefront of DoD defense and offensive planners. They are especially concerned with SWARM behavior. Movies like “Angel has Fallen,” where drones in a SWARM use facial recognition technology to kill USSS agents protecting POTUS, have built the lore of UAS and brought the problem forefront to DHS. Third, UAS technology was exploding. UAS and Counter- UAS developments in navigation, weapons, surveillance, data transfer, fuel cells, stealth, weight distribution, tactics, GPS / GNSS elements, SCADA protections, privacy invasions, terrorist uses, specialized software, and security protocols has exploded. (Nichols, et al., 2019) Our team has followed / tracked joint ventures between military and corporate entities and specialized labs to build UAS countermeasures. As authors, we felt compelled to address at least the edge of some of the new C-UAS developments. It was clear that we would be lucky if we could cover a few of – the more interesting and priority technology updates – all in the UNCLASSIFIED and OPEN sphere. Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems: Technologies and Operations is the companion textbook to our 2nd edition. The civilian market is interesting and entrepreneurial, but the military and intelligence markets are of concern because the US does NOT lead the pack in C-UAS technologies. China does. China continues to execute its UAS proliferation along the New Silk Road Sea / Land routes (NSRL). It has maintained a 7% growth in military spending each year to support its buildup. (Nichols, et al., 2019) [Chapter 21]. They continue to innovate and have recently improved a solution for UAS flight endurance issues with the development of advanced hydrogen fuel cell. (Nichols, et al., 2019) Reed and Trubetskoy presented a terrifying map of countries in the Middle East with armed drones and their manufacturing origin. Guess who? China. (A.B. Tabriski & Justin, 2018, December) Our C-UAS textbook has as its primary mission to educate and train resources who will enter the UAS / C-UAS field and trust it will act as a call to arms for military and DHS planners.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1031/thumbnail.jp

    DRONE DELIVERY OF CBNRECy – DEW WEAPONS Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD)

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    Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD) is our sixth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs and UUVs. Our textbook takes on a whole new purview for UAS / CUAS/ UUV (drones) – how they can be used to deploy Weapons of Mass Destruction and Deception against CBRNE and civilian targets of opportunity. We are concerned with the future use of these inexpensive devices and their availability to maleficent actors. Our work suggests that UASs in air and underwater UUVs will be the future of military and civilian terrorist operations. UAS / UUVs can deliver a huge punch for a low investment and minimize human casualties.https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1046/thumbnail.jp

    The Sixth Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1992)

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    This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications, and Research Symposium (SOAR) hosted by the U.S. Air Force (USAF) on 4-6 Aug. 1992 and held at the JSC Gilruth Recreation Center. The symposium was cosponsored by the Air Force Material Command and by NASA/JSC. Key technical areas covered during the symposium were robotic and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life sciences, and space maintenance and servicing. The SOAR differed from most other conferences in that it was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. The symposium's proceedings include papers covering various disciplines presented by experts from NASA, the USAF, universities, and industry

    Cumulative index to NASA Tech Briefs, 1986-1990, volumes 10-14

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    Tech Briefs are short announcements of new technology derived from the R&D activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. These briefs emphasize information considered likely to be transferrable across industrial, regional, or disciplinary lines and are issued to encourage commercial application. This cumulative index of Tech Briefs contains abstracts and four indexes (subject, personal author, originating center, and Tech Brief number) and covers the period 1986 to 1990. The abstract section is organized by the following subject categories: electronic components and circuits, electronic systems, physical sciences, materials, computer programs, life sciences, mechanics, machinery, fabrication technology, and mathematics and information sciences

    Local Accuracy and Global Consistency for Efficient SLAM

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    This thesis is concerned with the problem of Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) using visual data only. Given the video stream of a moving camera, we wish to estimate the structure of the environment and the motion of the device most accurately and in real-time. Two effective approaches were presented in the past. Filtering methods marginalise out past poses and summarise the information gained over time with a probability distribution. Keyframe methods rely on the optimisation approach of bundle adjustment, but computationally must select only a small number of past frames to process. We perform a rigorous comparison between the two approaches for visual SLAM. Especially, we show that accuracy comes from a large number of points, while the number of intermediate frames only has a minor impact. We conclude that keyframe bundle adjustment is superior to ltering due to a smaller computational cost. Based on these experimental results, we develop an efficient framework for large-scale visual SLAM using the keyframe strategy. We demonstrate that SLAM using a single camera does not only drift in rotation and translation, but also in scale. In particular, we perform large-scale loop closure correction using a novel variant of pose-graph optimisation which also takes scale drift into account. Starting from this two stage approach which tackles local motion estimation and loop closures separately, we develop a unified framework for real-time visual SLAM. By employing a novel double window scheme, we present a constant-time approach which enables the local accuracy of bundle adjustment while ensuring global consistency. Furthermore, we suggest a new scheme for local registration using metric loop closures and present several improvements for the visual front-end of SLAM. Our contributions are evaluated exhaustively on a number of synthetic experiments and real-image data-set from single cameras and range imaging devices

    Local Accuracy and Global Consistency for Efficient SLAM

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    This thesis is concerned with the problem of Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping (SLAM) using visual data only. Given the video stream of a moving camera, we wish to estimate the structure of the environment and the motion of the device most accurately and in real-time. Two effective approaches were presented in the past. Filtering methods marginalise out past poses and summarise the information gained over time with a probability distribution. Keyframe methods rely on the optimisation approach of bundle adjustment, but computationally must select only a small number of past frames to process. We perform a rigorous comparison between the two approaches for visual SLAM. Especially, we show that accuracy comes from a large number of points, while the number of intermediate frames only has a minor impact. We conclude that keyframe bundle adjustment is superior to ltering due to a smaller computational cost. Based on these experimental results, we develop an efficient framework for large-scale visual SLAM using the keyframe strategy. We demonstrate that SLAM using a single camera does not only drift in rotation and translation, but also in scale. In particular, we perform large-scale loop closure correction using a novel variant of pose-graph optimisation which also takes scale drift into account. Starting from this two stage approach which tackles local motion estimation and loop closures separately, we develop a unified framework for real-time visual SLAM. By employing a novel double window scheme, we present a constant-time approach which enables the local accuracy of bundle adjustment while ensuring global consistency. Furthermore, we suggest a new scheme for local registration using metric loop closures and present several improvements for the visual front-end of SLAM. Our contributions are evaluated exhaustively on a number of synthetic experiments and real-image data-set from single cameras and range imaging devices

    Research and Technology Operating Plan. Summary: Fiscal year 1976 research and technology program

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    A compilation of the summary portions of each of the Research and Technology Operating Plans (RTOP) used for management review and control of research currently in progress throughout NASA was presented. The document is arranged in five sections. The first one contains citations and abstracts of the RTOP. This is followed by four indexes: subject, technical monitor, responsible NASA organization, and RTOP number

    Seventh Annual Workshop on Space Operations Applications and Research (SOAR 1993), volume 1

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    This document contains papers presented at the Space Operations, Applications and Research Symposium (SOAR) Symposium hosted by NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) on August 3-5, 1993, and held at JSC Gilruth Recreation Center. SOAR included NASA and USAF programmatic overview, plenary session, panel discussions, panel sessions, and exhibits. It invited technical papers in support of U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, Department of Energy, NASA, and USAF programs in the following areas: robotics and telepresence, automation and intelligent systems, human factors, life support, and space maintenance and servicing. SOAR was concerned with Government-sponsored research and development relevant to aerospace operations. More than 100 technical papers, 17 exhibits, a plenary session, several panel discussions, and several keynote speeches were included in SOAR '93

    Large space structures and systems in the space station era: A bibliography with indexes (supplement 04)

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    Bibliographies and abstracts are listed for 1211 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between 1 Jul. and 30 Dec. 1991. Its purpose is to provide helpful information to the researcher, manager, and designer in technology development and mission design according to system, interactive analysis and design, structural concepts and control systems, electronics, advanced materials, assembly concepts, propulsion, and solar power satellite systems
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