UAV Selection Methodology and Performance Evaluation to Support UAV-Enabled Bridge Inspection

This project performed preliminary work to support use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based for bridge inspections, providing an economical and safer alternative to conventional inspection practices. The main challenge is that most existing technologies rely on general-purpose UAV platforms and there is no verified methodology for UAV-enabled bridge inspection principles and relevant considerations to reliably obtain inspection data. There have been some efforts to use general-purpose commercially available UAVs for bridge inspection. However, the turbulent environment that often exists around bridges requires customized and enhanced UAV platforms with a higher level of robustness, taking into account the bridge type and structure as well as the weather conditions around the bridge. Additionally, the data-acquisition capabilities of commercially available UAVs need to be compared to those required for bridge inspection. Previously, there has not been a study to quantify the gap between the performance of the commercially available UAVs and ideal desired performances. In this multidisciplinary project, a comprehensive set of experiments were developed for selection, testing, and evaluation techniques of candidate UAVs, the complex nature of flying UAVs in close proximity to bridges was explored, and the limitations of UAV flight due to turbulent flows around bridge components and nearby terrain was assessed. Commercially available platforms for bridge inspection were selected, tested, and evaluated. Deliverables from this project include: (1) measurable metrics to evaluate the performance of UAVs for bridge inspection, (2) experiments to test the suitability of UAVs for bridge inspection, and (3) a comprehensive analysis near-bridge environment flow field. Computational analysis of air flow patterns near bridge elements shows that the bridge geometry creates areas of turbulence and flow variation which impact the control requirements of the UAV. Local weather conditions can amplify these areas. Test flights were performed at selected structures to provide additional insight into the flight and data collection capabilities of the UAVs under consideration. Findings and deliverables from this project will help NCDOT justify capital purchases made to support UAV-assisted inspection, as well as additional research needed to integrate UAVs into their current bridge inspection processes. Ultimately, this work supports a follow-up project to develop workflows and implementation tools for efficient UAV-enabled bridge inspection

Roadway Powered Electric Vehicle Project Parametric Studies: Phase 3D Final Report

This study looked at the application of electrification and automation to freeways in the Los Angeles region. The report is broken down into the following sections: Development and Enhancement of Analysis Tools, Inductive Coupling System Design, Value Engineering of Roadway Cores, and Economic Analysis of Roadway Powered Electric Vehicle (RPEV) Technology

Roadway Powered Electric Vehicle Project Track Construction And Testing Program Phase 3D

This report covers the construction and testing of a Roadway Powered Electric Vehicle (RPEV) proof-of-concept system. The test facility was built at the University of California Richmond Field Station. The facility has a 700-foot test track and an operational 35-passenger RPEV. The report contains an introduction to the concept of RPEV and discusses the following aspects of the project: systems engineering and design, vehicle, facilities, testing, related RPEV research, and control circuits

Roadway Powered Electric Vehicle Project Parametric Studies: Phase 3D Final Report

This study looked at the application of electrification and automation to freeways in the Los Angeles region. The report is broken down into the following sections: Development and Enhancement of Analysis Tools, Inductive Coupling System Design, Value Engineering of Roadway Cores, and Economic Analysis of Roadway Powered Electric Vehicle (RPEV) Technology.Electric vehicles--Automatic control, Electric vehicles--Testing, Induction coils--Testing

Roadway Powered Electric Vehicle Project Track Construction And Testing Program Phase 3D

This report covers the construction and testing of a Roadway Powered Electric Vehicle (RPEV) proof-of-concept system. The test facility was built at the University of California Richmond Field Station. The facility has a 700-foot test track and an operational 35-passenger RPEV. The report contains an introduction to the concept of RPEV and discusses the following aspects of the project: systems engineering and design, vehicle, facilities, testing, related RPEV research, and control circuits.Electric vehicles--Automatic control, Electric vehicles--Testing, Induction coils--Testing, Electromagnetic induction

Multivariable ILC design procedure: application to Arizona flatbed printer

Supplementary material to the paper [1] ''L. Blanken, T. Oomen, "Multivariable Iterative Learning Control Design Procedures: from Decentralized to Centralized, Illustrated on an Industrial Printer" Demonstration of design procedure for multivariable ILC in frequency domain, see [1]. Procedure 2 of [1] is step-by-step applied to a case study, including simulations

Software for conference paper "Supervisor synthesis under partial observation of uncontrollable events using full observation synthesis: tool implementation and case studies"

This repository contains the files accompanying the paper "Supervisor synthesis under partial observation of uncontrollable events using full observation synthesis: tool implementation and case studies" by Martijn Goorden and Michel Reniers, submitted to Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 2024. Instructions are in readme.txt

F-16 Aircraft Benchmark Based on Ground Vibration Test Data

The F-16 Ground Vibration Test benchmark features a high order system with clearance and friction nonlinearities at the mounting interface of the payloads. The experimental data made available here were acquired on a full-scale F-16 aircraft on the occasion of the Siemens LMS Ground Vibration Testing Master Class. During the test campaign, two dummy payloads were mounted at the wing tips to simulate the mass and inertia properties of real devices typically equipping an F-16 in flight. The aircraft structure was instrumented with accelerometers. One shaker was attached underneath the right wing to apply input signals. The dominant source of nonlinearity in the structural dynamics was expected to originate from the mounting interfaces of the two payloads. These interfaces consist of T-shaped connecting elements on the payload side, slid through a rail attached to the wing side. A preliminary investigation showed that the back connection of the right-wing-to-payload interface was the predominant source of nonlinear distortions in the aircraft dynamics, and is therefore the focus of this benchmark study. All the provided files and information together with a detailed description of the F-16 aircraft benchmark system are available for download here. This zip-file contains a detailed system description, the estimation and test data sets, and some pictures of the setup. The data is available in the .csv and .mat file format

Wiener-Hammerstein benchmark with process noise

The Wiener-Hammerstein system structure is a well-known block-oriented structure. It contains a static nonlinearity that is sandwiched in between two linear time-invariant (LTI) blocks. The presence of the two LTI blocks results in a problem that is harder to identify. The LTI blocks are realized as active filters while the static nonlinearity is implemented as a diode-resistor electronic circuit. The Wiener-Hammerstein system proposed here as a benchmark contains dominant process noise. The process noise enters the system before the static nonlinearity. Two much less significant noise sources are present in the measurement channels of the input and output. All the provided files, data and information on the Wiener-Hammerstein system are available for download here together with an in-depth description of the measured input-output time series. This zip-file contains a detailed system description, an example estimation data set, the test data sets, the datasets measured during the past measurement campaign(s), pictures of the measurement setup, and an indicative electrical circuit schematic of the system. It is possible that the actual implemented Wiener-Hammerstein system deviates at some points (resistor values, opamp type) from the electrical circuit provided here. The data is available in the .csv and .mat file format

Hysteretic Benchmark with a Dynamic Nonlinearity

Hysteresis is a dynamic nonlinearity commonly encountered in very diverse engineering and science disciplines, ranging from solid mechanics, electromagnetism and aerodynamics to biology, ecology and psychology. In particular, the Bouc-Wen model has been intensively exploited during the last decades to represent hysteretic effects in mechanical engineering, especially in the case of random vibrations. It is proposed as a benchmark problem to identify a Bouc-Wen system based on synthetic input-output data time-series. A detailed formulation of the identification problem can be downloaded here. All the provided files and information on the Bouc-Wen system are available for download. The zip-file contains a detailed system description with a signal generation guide and the test data sets. This benchmark requires MATLAB to run