A modular software architecture for UAVs

There have been several attempts to create scalable and hardware independent software architectures for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). In this work, we propose an onboard architecture for UAVs where hardware abstraction, data storage and communication between modules are efficiently maintained. All processing and software development is done on the UAV while state and mission status of the UAV is monitored from a ground station. The architecture also allows rapid development of mission-specific third party applications on the vehicle with the help of the core module

Optimal UAV Path Planning for Tracking a Moving Ground Vehicle with a Gimbaled Camera

This research develops a path planning algorithm that autonomously controls a UAV to provide convoy overwatch. The optimization algorithm determines the best path to y through developing a cost function that minimizes the control effort of the UAV and the deviation from a desired slant range. A heuristic-based algorithm was developed and implemented on the autopilot to approximate the optimal solution. In flight test, the UAV successfully tracked a moving ground vehicle by continually placing the UAV\u27s loiter point directly above the ground vehicle\u27s current location. This method was called the \follow-me mode and provided the baseline for real-world UAV convoy overwatch. The follow-me mode resulted in a cost function value that was 113 times greater than the optimal path. Through an in-depth analysis, the heuristic-based approach reduced this ratio down to only 7.5 times greater than the optimal path. The data collected shows tremendous promise for improving autonomous UAV performance through optimal control techniques

SURVEILLANCE MISSION PLANNING FOR UAVS IN GPS-DENIED URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

System Integration in a UAS design. An example of undergraduate student's tasks.

Systems integration is the origin of most major difficulties found in the engineering design of aeronautical vehicles. The whole design team must assure that each subsystem accomplishes its particular goals and that, together with the rest of the systems, they all meet the general aircraft requirements.Design and building of UAS is a field of actuation to which leading Universities, research Centers and Aeronautical designers have dedicated a lot of effort. In recent years, a team of students, lecturers and professors at the Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería Técnica Aeronáutica (EUITA) have been working on the design and building of a UAS for civil observation. The design of multi-mission Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has seen a rapid progress in the last years. A wide variety of designs and applications, some of them really ingenious, have been proposed. The project, which has been going on as a teamwork experience for the last ten years, consists of the design and building of a UAV, and its peculiarity is that it has been carried out entirely by undergraduate students, as part of their Final Research Project. The students face a challenge that includes all the features and stages of an authentic engineering project. We present the current moment of evolution in the process, together with a description of the main difficulties the project has undergone, as a global experience in engineering design and development

Survey of computer vision algorithms and applications for unmanned aerial vehicles

This paper presents a complete review of computer vision algorithms and vision-based intelligent applications, that are developed in the field of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in the latest decade. During this time, the evolution of relevant technologies for UAVs; such as component miniaturization, the increase of computational capabilities, and the evolution of computer vision techniques have allowed an important advance in the development of UAVs technologies and applications. Particularly, computer vision technologies integrated in UAVs allow to develop cutting-edge technologies to cope with aerial perception difficulties; such as visual navigation algorithms, obstacle detection and avoidance and aerial decision-making. All these expert technologies have developed a wide spectrum of application for UAVs, beyond the classic military and defense purposes. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Computer Vision are common topics in expert systems, so thanks to the recent advances in perception technologies, modern intelligent applications are developed to enhance autonomous UAV positioning, or automatic algorithms to avoid aerial collisions, among others. Then, the presented survey is based on artificial perception applications that represent important advances in the latest years in the expert system field related to the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. In this paper, the most significant advances in this field are presented, able to solve fundamental technical limitations; such as visual odometry, obstacle detection, mapping and localization, et cetera. Besides, they have been analyzed based on their capabilities and potential utility. Moreover, the applications and UAVs are divided and categorized according to different criteria.This research is supported by the Spanish Government through the CICYT projects (TRA2015-63708-R and TRA2013-48314-C3-1-R)