Time-Optimized Contextual Information Flow on Unmanned Vehicles

Nowadays, the domain of robotics experiences a significant growth. We focus on Unmanned Vehicles intended for the air, sea and ground (UxV). Such devices are typically equipped with numerous sensors that detect contextual parameters from the broader environment, e.g., obstacles, temperature. Sensors report their findings (telemetry) to other systems, e.g., back-end systems, that further process the captured information while the UxV receives control inputs, such as navigation commands from other systems, e.g., commanding stations. We investigate a framework that monitors network condition parameters including signal strength and prioritizes the transmission of control messages and telemetry. This framework relies on the Theory of Optimal Stopping to assess in real-time the trade-off between the delivery of the messages and the network quality statistics and optimally schedules critical information delivery to back-end systems

Proposition of a Novel Multipath-Routing Protocol for Manets Connected Via Positioning of UAVS Using Ant Colony Optimization Meta-Algorithms

In the forthcoming operational theatre, combat radio nodes will be strategically positioned to facilitate a myriad of manoeuvres, constituting a dynamic mobile ad-hoc network (MANET), where communication among participating nodes is achieved collaboratively without fixed base stations. However, due to the nodes' mobility, the cohesive formation may fragment into smaller clusters, while conversely, multiple smaller groups might amalgamate into larger entities. In such a dynamic milieu, the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) emerges as a potent solution to enhance network coverage and connectivity among disparate groups. Sending of information all over the MANETs is dependent mostly on methodologies of routing, where the on-request unitary paths procedures to route like AODV and AOMDV (which stands for routing via multiple roads) play crucial roles. Leveraging authentic topographic data becomes imperative to ascertain precise connectivity metrics among nodes, while devising an efficient resource allocation strategy for reliable communication via UAVs warrants attention. Given the predominance of line-of-sight links between UAVs and ground nodes, substantial traffic is anticipated despite less amount of information sectional resources. Furthermore, diverse quality-of-service requirements of network traffic necessitate prioritization based on tactical imperatives. In these studies, formulations have been done for Unmanned Flying Vehicle localizing problems geared towards maximal connectivity inside groups along with information section allocating problems aimed at increasing utilities of GC to maximum levels, demonstrating superiority over conventional methodologies through numerical analysis validating the efficacy of our proposed scheme. Wireless connections implemented rapid growths in recent times essentially network of MANET, showcasing significant developments of science and technology

Adoption of vehicular ad hoc networking protocols by networked robots

This paper focuses on the utilization of wireless networking in the robotics domain. Many researchers have already equipped their robots with wireless communication capabilities, stimulated by the observation that multi-robot systems tend to have several advantages over their single-robot counterparts. Typically, this integration of wireless communication is tackled in a quite pragmatic manner, only a few authors presented novel Robotic Ad Hoc Network (RANET) protocols that were designed specifically with robotic use cases in mind. This is in sharp contrast with the domain of vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET). This observation is the starting point of this paper. If the results of previous efforts focusing on VANET protocols could be reused in the RANET domain, this could lead to rapid progress in the field of networked robots. To investigate this possibility, this paper provides a thorough overview of the related work in the domain of robotic and vehicular ad hoc networks. Based on this information, an exhaustive list of requirements is defined for both types. It is concluded that the most significant difference lies in the fact that VANET protocols are oriented towards low throughput messaging, while RANET protocols have to support high throughput media streaming as well. Although not always with equal importance, all other defined requirements are valid for both protocols. This leads to the conclusion that cross-fertilization between them is an appealing approach for future RANET research. To support such developments, this paper concludes with the definition of an appropriate working plan

Combined Coverage Area Reporting and Geographical Routing in Wireless Sensor-Actuator Networks for Cooperating with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

In wireless sensor network (WSN) applications with multiple gateways, it is key to route location dependent subscriptions efficiently at two levels in the system. At the gateway level, data sinks must not waste the energy of the WSN by injecting subscriptions that are not relevant for the nodes in their coverage area and at WSN level, energy-efficient delivery of subscriptions to target areas is required. In this paper, we propose a mechanism in which (1) the WSN provides an accurate and up-to-date coverage area description to gateways and (2) the wireless sensor network re-uses the collected coverage area information to enable efficient geographical routing of location dependent subscriptions and other messages. The latter has a focus on routing of messages injected from sink nodes to nodes in the region of interest. Our proposed mechanisms are evaluated in simulation

Urban Air Mobility Fleet Manager Gap Analysis and System Design

NASA's Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Sub-Project is engaged in research to support the introduction of air taxis into the National Airspace System. Such operations will require a range of communication, navigation, and surveillance systems. Air vehicles for UAM are under development and will initially have human pilots. Separation from other aircraft, obstacles, and weather may be a pilot responsibility or provided by an operator's ground-based systems. Eventually, air taxis may be flown from the ground or fly autonomously. There will be a need for dispatch services for UAM. This report presents a gap analysis, data and capability requirements, and workstation design concepts for the UAM dispatcher or Fleet Manager (FM) position

Efficient-VRNet: An Exquisite Fusion Network for Riverway Panoptic Perception based on Asymmetric Fair Fusion of Vision and 4D mmWave Radar

Panoptic perception is essential to unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) for autonomous navigation. The current panoptic perception scheme is mainly based on vision only, that is, object detection and semantic segmentation are performed simultaneously based on camera sensors. Nevertheless, the fusion of camera and radar sensors is regarded as a promising method which could substitute pure vision methods, but almost all works focus on object detection only. Therefore, how to maximize and subtly fuse the features of vision and radar to improve both detection and segmentation is a challenge. In this paper, we focus on riverway panoptic perception based on USVs, which is a considerably unexplored field compared with road panoptic perception. We propose Efficient-VRNet, a model based on Contextual Clustering (CoC) and the asymmetric fusion of vision and 4D mmWave radar, which treats both vision and radar modalities fairly. Efficient-VRNet can simultaneously perform detection and segmentation of riverway objects and drivable area segmentation. Furthermore, we adopt an uncertainty-based panoptic perception training strategy to train Efficient-VRNet. In the experiments, our Efficient-VRNet achieves better performances on our collected dataset than other uni-modal models, especially in adverse weather and environment with poor lighting conditions. Our code and models are available at \url{https://github.com/GuanRunwei/Efficient-VRNet}

Edge-centric inferential modeling & analytics

This work contributes to a real-time, edge-centric inferential modeling and analytics methodology introducing the fundamental mechanisms for (i) predictive models update and (ii) diverse models selection in distributed computing. Our objective in edge-centric analytics is the time-optimized model caching and selective forwarding at the network edge adopting optimal stopping theory, where communication overhead is significantly reduced as only inferred knowledge and sufficient statistics are delivered instead of raw data obtaining high quality of analytics. Novel model selection algorithms are introduced to fuse the inherent models' diversity over distributed edge nodes to support inferential analytics tasks to end-users/analysts, and applications in real-time. We provide statistical learning modeling and establish the corresponding mathematical analyses of our mechanisms along with comprehensive performance and comparative assessment using real data from different domains and showing its benefits in edge computing

Armstrong Flight Research Center Research Technology and Engineering 2017

I am delighted to present this report of accomplishments at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center. Our dedicated innovators possess a wealth of performance, safety, and technical capabilities spanning a wide variety of research areas involving aircraft, electronic sensors, instrumentation, environmental and earth science, celestial observations, and much more. They not only perform tasks necessary to safely and successfully accomplish Armstrong's flight research and test missions but also support NASA missions across the entire Agency. Armstrong's project teams have successfully accomplished many of the nation's most complex flight research projects by crafting creative solutions that advance emerging technologies from concept development and experimental formulation to final testing. We are developing and refining technologies for ultra-efficient aircraft, electric propulsion vehicles, a low boom flight demonstrator, air launch systems, and experimental x-planes, to name a few. Additionally, with our unique location and airborne research laboratories, we are testing and validating new research concepts. Summaries of each project highlighting key results and benefits of the effort are provided in the following pages. Technology areas for the projects include electric propulsion, vehicle efficiency, supersonics, space and hypersonics, autonomous systems, flight and ground experimental test technologies, and much more. Additional technical information is available in the appendix, as well as contact information for the Principal Investigator of each project. I am proud of the work we do here at Armstrong and am pleased to share these details with you. We welcome opportunities for partnership and collaboration, so please contact us to learn more about these cutting-edge innovations and how they might align with your needs