Vision based control and target range estimation for small unmanned aerial vehicle

In the tracking of a moving ground target by small unmanned air vehicle (UAV) via camera vision, the target position and motion cannot be measured directly. Two different types of filters were assessed for their ability to estimate target motion, namely target velocity, directional heading on flat ground and distance from the UAV to target. The first filter is a nonlinear deterministic filter with stability guarantee. The second filter is based on nonlinear Kalman Filter technique. The application and performance of these two filters are presented, for simulated vision based target tracking.http://archive.org/details/visionbasedcontr109451815Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Maritime domain protection in the Straits of Malacca

Includes supplementary materialHostile acts of maritime piracy and terrorism have increased worldwide in recent years, and the global impacts of a successful attack on commercial shipping in the Straits of Malacca make it one of the most tempting target locations for maritime terrorism. In an attempt to develop a system of systems to defeat and prevent terrorism in the Straits of Malacca, this study developed three significant commercial shipping attack scenarios (Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) shipment, Ship As a Weapon (SAW), and Small Boat Attack (SBA)), and used a Systems Engineering Design Process (SEDP) to design alternative architectures that offered promising ways to defeat these attacks. Maritime Domain Protection (MDP) architecture alternatives combined five separate systems: a Land Inspection System, a Sensor System, a Command and Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) System, a Response Force System, and a Sea Inspection System. Individual models for each system were developed and combined into overarching integrated architecture models to evaluate overall performance. The study results showed that solutions tended to be threat-specific, and current capabilities were mixed. While solutions were found to effectively reduce risk in all threat scenarios, these sometimes came at great expense. Alternatively, cost-effective solutions were also found for each scenario, but these sometimes gave limited performance