164 research outputs found
Reactive Trajectory Generation in an Unknown Environment
Autonomous trajectory generation for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in
unknown environments continues to be an important research area as UAVs become
more prolific. We define a trajectory generation algorithm for a vehicle in an
unknown environment with wind disturbances, that relies only on the vehicle's
on-board distance sensors and communication with other vehicles within a finite
region to generate a smooth, collision-free trajectory up to the fourth
derivative. The proposed trajectory generation algorithm can be used in
conjunction with high-level planners and low-level motion controllers. The
algorithm provides guarantees that the trajectory does not violate the
vehicle's thrust limitation, sensor constraints, or a user-defined clearance
radius around other vehicles and obstacles. Simulation results of a quadrotor
moving through an unknown environment with a moving obstacle demonstrates the
trajectory generation performance.Comment: Revised version with minor text updates and more representative
simulation results for IROS 2017 conferenc
DrillPad: A Marching Band Drill Writing Web Application
The idea for this project came as a friend going through the Music Education program lamented how difficult it is to write drill for marching band. There is one primary application that is used for writing marching band drill, and it comes with two major pitfalls: It is complex, and it is expensive. DrillPad is designed with the goal of addressing those pitfalls. Creating a web-based drill writing application makes it available for free, or a low cost. The different features that DrillPad provides revolve around adding and moving performers easily and quickly.
This project makes heavy use of the web graphics library, PaperJS, from the creation of the marching field’s grid, to rendering the performers, even down to the animation. DrillPad utilizes PostgreSQL on the back-end and is deployed on Heroku
Propeller performance and weight predictions appended to the Navy/NASA engine program
The Navy/NASA Engine Performance (NNEP) is a general purpose computer program currently employed by government, industry and university personnel to simulate the thermodynamic cycles of turbine engines. NNEP is a modular program which has the ability to evaluate the performance of an arbitrary engine configuration defined by the user. In 1979, a program to calculate engine weight (WATE-2) was developed by Boeing's Military Division under NASA contract. This program uses a preliminary design approach to determine engine weights and dimensions. Because the thermodynamic and configuration information required by the weight code was available in NNEP, the weight code was appended to NNEP. Due to increased emphasis on fuel economy, a renewed interest has developed in propellers. This report describes the modifications developed by NASA to both NNEP and WATE-2 to determine the performance, weight and dimensions of propellers and the corresponding gearbox. The propeller performance model has three options, two of which are based on propeller map interpolation. Propeller and gearbox weights are obtained from empirical equations which may easily be modified by the user
Spatio-Temporal Wind Modeling for UAV Simulations
Wind affects the stability and maneuverability of UAVs, which can be
particularly dangerous when operating near obstacles or each other. In order to
test the effectiveness of formation control laws and the impact of windy
environments on the vehicles, spatio-temporal wind fields must be modeled. Each
vehicle within the formation experiences unique wind conditions, but these
conditions are correlated to the conditions experienced by the other vehicles.
This report develops a spatio-temporal model for over-land and over-water
environments that produces a representative wind field capable of running on a
personal computer that also includes turbulence and gusting
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