Autonomisen multikopteriparven hallinta etsintä- ja pelastustehtävissä

This thesis presents the requirements and implementation of a Ground Control Station (GCS) application for controlling a fleet of multicopters to perform a Search And Rescue (SAR) mission. The requirements are put together by analysing existing drone types, SAR practices, and available GCS applications. Multicopters are found to be the most feasible drone to use for the SAR use case because of their maneuverability, despite not having the best endurance. Several existing area coverage methods are presented and their usefulness is analyzed for SAR scenarios where different amounts of prior knowledge is available. It is stated that most search patterns can be used with a fleet of drones, by creating drone formations and by dividing the target area into sub-areas. It is noted that most currently available GCS applications are focused on controlling a single drone for either industrial or hobby use. A proof of concept prototype is developed on top of an open source GCS and tested in field tests. Based on all the previous learnings from the protype and research, a new GCS is designed and developed. The development on optimizing communications between the GCS and the autopilot leads to a filed patent application. The new software is tested with three multicopters in a water rescue scenario and several user interface improvements are made as a result of the learnings. The development of a GCS for controlling a drone fleet for search and rescue is proven feasible.Työssä esitetään multikopteriparven hallintaan käytettävän Ground Control Station (GCS) ohjelmiston vaatimukset ja toteutus Search And Rescue (SAR) etsintä- ja pelastustehtävien suorittamiseksi. Vaatimukset kootaan yhteen analysoimalla saatavilla olevia droonityyppejä, SAR pelastuskäytäntöjä, sekä GCS ohjelmistoja. Multikopterit osoittautuvat liikkuvuutensa ansiosta pelastustehtäviin sopivimmaksi vaihtoehdoksi, vaikka niiden saavutettavissa oleva lentoaika ei ole parhaimmasta päästä. Erilaisia etsintämetodeja esitetään alueiden kattamiseksi ja niiden hyödyllisyyttä analysoidaan SAR tilanteissa, joissa ennakkotietoa on saatavilla vaihtelevasti. Osoitetaan, että useimpia etsintäalgoritmeja voidaan hyödyntää drooniparvella, muodostamalla lentomuodostelmia, sekä jakamalla kohdealue pienempiin osa-alueisiin. Huomataan, että suurin osa tällä hetkellä saatavilla olevista GCS ohjelmistoista on suunnattu teollisuuden tai harrastelijoiden käyttöön, pääasiassa yksittäisen droonin hallintaan. Prototyyppi kehitetään avoimen lähdekoodin GCS ohjelmiston pohjalta ja testataan kenttätesteissä. Tästä saadun tiedon avulla suunnitellaan ja kehitetään uusi GCS ohjelmisto. Kehitystyö viestinnän optimoinniksi autopilotin ja GCS ohjelmiston välillä johtaa patenttihakemukseen. Uusi ohjelmisto testataan kolmella multikopterilla vesipelastustilanteessa ja sen seurauksena käyttöliittymään tehdään useita parannuksia. GCS ohjelmiston luominen drooniparven hallintaan etsintä- ja pelastustehtävissä todetaan mahdolliseksi

Training of Crisis Mappers and Map Production from Multi-sensor Data: Vernazza Case Study (Cinque Terre National Park, Italy)

This aim of paper is to presents the development of a multidisciplinary project carried out by the cooperation between Politecnico di Torino and ITHACA (Information Technology for Humanitarian Assistance, Cooperation and Action). The goal of the project was the training in geospatial data acquiring and processing for students attending Architecture and Engineering Courses, in order to start up a team of "volunteer mappers". Indeed, the project is aimed to document the environmental and built heritage subject to disaster; the purpose is to improve the capabilities of the actors involved in the activities connected in geospatial data collection, integration and sharing. The proposed area for testing the training activities is the Cinque Terre National Park, registered in the World Heritage List since 1997. The area was affected by flood on the 25th of October 2011. According to other international experiences, the group is expected to be active after emergencies in order to upgrade maps, using data acquired by typical geomatic methods and techniques such as terrestrial and aerial Lidar, close-range and aerial photogrammetry, topographic and GNSS instruments etc.; or by non conventional systems and instruments such us UAV, mobile mapping etc. The ultimate goal is to implement a WebGIS platform to share all the data collected with local authorities and the Civil Protectio

SwarmTouch: Tactile Interaction of Human with Impedance Controlled Swarm of Nano-Quadrotors

We propose a novel interaction strategy for a human-swarm communication when a human operator guides a formation of quadrotors with impedance control and receives vibrotactile feedback. The presented approach takes into account the human hand velocity and changes the formation shape and dynamics accordingly using impedance interlinks simulated between quadrotors, which helps to achieve a life-like swarm behavior. Experimental results with Crazyflie 2.0 quadrotor platform validate the proposed control algorithm. The tactile patterns representing dynamics of the swarm (extension or contraction) are proposed. The user feels the state of the swarm at his fingertips and receives valuable information to improve the controllability of the complex life-like formation. The user study revealed the patterns with high recognition rates. Subjects stated that tactile sensation improves the ability to guide the drone formation and makes the human-swarm communication much more interactive. The proposed technology can potentially have a strong impact on the human-swarm interaction, providing a new level of intuitiveness and immersion into the swarm navigation.Comment: \c{opyright} 2018 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1909.0229

Predator empire: the geopolitics of U.S. drone warfare

This paper critically assesses the CIA’s drone program and proposes that the use of unmanned aerial vehicles is driving an increasingly paramilitarized U.S. national security strategy. The paper suggests that large-scale ground wars are being eclipsed by fleets of weaponized drones capable of targeted killings across the planet. Evidence for this shift is found in key security documents that mobilize an amorphous war against vaguely defined al-Qa’ida “affiliates”. This is further legitimized by the White House’s presentation of drone warfare as a bureaucratic task managed by a “disposition matrix”. Such abstract narratives are challenged through the voices of people living in the tribal areas of Pakistan. What I call the Predator Empire names the biopolitical power that catalogues and eliminates threatening “patterns of life”. This permanent war is enabled by a topological spatial power that folds the environments of the “affiliate” into the surveillance machinery of the Homeland

Double elevation: Autonomous weapons and the search for an irreducible law of war

What should be the role of law in response to the spread of artificial intelligence in war? Fuelled by both public and private investment, military technology is accelerating towards increasingly autonomous weapons, as well as the merging of humans and machines. Contrary to much of the contemporary debate, this is not a paradigm change; it is the intensification of a central feature in the relationship between technology and war: Double elevation, above one's enemy and above oneself. Elevation above one's enemy aspires to spatial, moral, and civilizational distance. Elevation above oneself reflects a belief in rational improvement that sees humanity as the cause of inhumanity and de-humanization as our best chance for humanization. The distance of double elevation is served by the mechanization of judgement. To the extent that judgement is seen as reducible to algorithm, law becomes the handmaiden of mechanization. In response, neither a focus on questions of compatibility nor a call for a 'ban on killer robots' help in articulating a meaningful role for law. Instead, I argue that we should turn to a long-standing philosophical critique of artificial intelligence, which highlights not the threat of omniscience, but that of impoverished intelligence. Therefore, if there is to be a meaningful role for law in resisting double elevation, it should be law encompassing subjectivity, emotion and imagination, law irreducible to algorithm, a law of war that appreciates situated judgement in the wielding of violence for the collective

State opinio juris and international humanitarian law pluralism

International humanitarian law has developed through a pluralistic process. Its history reveals a pattern of rough proportionality between State opinio juris and non-State expressions of law. These diverse sources have maintained a respectable yet realistic balance between humanity and military necessity. However, current IHL dialogue presents a stark contrast to the vibrant and pluralistic exchanges of the past. The substantive input of non-State actors such as non-governmental organizations, tribunals, and scholars far outpaces the work of States. Parity of input, especially in quantitative terms, is surely too much to demand and surely not necessary given the special status of State opinio juris. However, States’ legal agencies and agents should be equipped, organized, and re-empowered to participate actively in the interpretation and development of IHL. This article, extracted from a larger work, argues that reinvigorating opinio juris would reestablish the pluralistic IHL dialogue that formerly tested, updated, and enriched the balance between military necessity and humanity