Advanced UAV Trajectory Generation: Planning and Guidance

As technology and legislation move forward (JAA & Eurocontrol, 2004) remotely controlled, semi-autonomous or autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) will play a significant role in providing services and enhancing safety and security of the military and civilian community at large (e.g. surveillance and monitoring) (Coifman et al., 2004). The potential market for UAVs is, however, much bigger than just surveillance. UAVs are ideal for risk assessment and neutralization in dangerous areas such as war zones and regions stricken by disaster, including volcanic eruptions, wildfires, floods, and even terrorist acts. As they become more autonomous, UAVs will take on additional roles, such as air-to-air combat and even planetary science exploration (Held et al., 2005). As the operational capabilities of UAVs are developed there is a perceived need for a significant increase in their level of autonomy, performance, reliability and integration with a controlled airspace full of manned vehicles (military and civilian). As a consequence researchers working with advanced UAVs have moved their focus from system modeling and low-level control to mission planning, supervision and collision avoidance, going from vehicle constraints to mission constraints (Barrientos et al., 2006). This mission-based approach is most useful for commercial applications where the vehicle must accomplish tasks with a high level of performance and maneuverability. These tasks require flexible and powerful trajectory-generation and guidance capabilities, features lacking in many of the current commercial UAS. For this reason, the purpose of this work is to extend the capabilities of commercially available autopilots for UAVs. Civil systems typically use basic trajectory-generation algorithms, capable only of linear waypoint navigation (Rysdyk, 2003), with a minimum or non-existent control over the trajectory. These systems are highly constrained when maneuverability is a mission requirement. On the other hand, military researchers have developed algorithms for high-performance 3D path planning and obstacle avoidance (Price, 2006), but these are highly proprietary technologies that operate with different mission constraints (target acquisition, threat avoidance and situational awareness) so they cannot be used in civil scenarios

SMA-Based Muscle-Like Actuation in Biologically Inspired Robots: A State of the Art Review

New actuation technology in functional or "smart" materials has opened new horizons in robotics actuation systems. Materials such as piezo-electric fiber composites, electro-active polymers and shape memory alloys (SMA) are being investigated as promising alternatives to standard servomotor technology [52]. This paper focuses on the use of SMAs for building muscle-like actuators. SMAs are extremely cheap, easily available commercially and have the advantage of working at low voltages. The use of SMA provides a very interesting alternative to the mechanisms used by conventional actuators. SMAs allow to drastically reduce the size, weight and complexity of robotic systems. In fact, their large force-weight ratio, large life cycles, negligible volume, sensing capability and noise-free operation make possible the use of this technology for building a new class of actuation devices. Nonetheless, high power consumption and low bandwidth limit this technology for certain kind of applications. This presents a challenge that must be addressed from both materials and control perspectives in order to overcome these drawbacks. Here, the latter is tackled. It has been demonstrated that suitable control strategies and proper mechanical arrangements can dramatically improve on SMA performance, mostly in terms of actuation speed and limit cycles

UAV for Landmine Detection Using SDR-Based GPR Technology

This chapter presents an approach for explosive-landmine detection on-board an autonomous aerial drone. The chapter describes the design, implementation and integration of a ground penetrating radar (GPR) using a software defined radio (SDR) platform into the aerial drone. The chapter?s goal is first to tackle in detail the development of a custom-designed lightweight GPR by approaching interplay between hardware and software radio on an SDR platform. The SDR-based GPR system results on a much lighter sensing device compared against the conventional GPR systems found in the literature and with the capability of re-configuration in real-time for different landmines and terrains, with the capability of detecting landmines under terrains with different dielectric characteristics. Secondly, the chapter introduce the integration of the SDR-based GPR into an autonomous drone by describing the mechanical integration, communication system, the graphical user interface (GUI) together with the landmine detection and geo-mapping. This chapter approach completely the hardware and software implementation topics of the on-board GPR system given first a comprehensive background of the software-defined radar technology and second presenting the main features of the Tx and Rx modules. Additional details are presented related with the mechanical and functional integration of the GPR into the UAV system

Propuesta para la creación y articulación del área de investigación y desarrollo (I+D) en la empresa San Miguel Industrias Pet S.A, con soporte tecnológico e innovadora a partir del análisis del proceso crítico de creación de nuevos envases plásticos

En el presente trabajo se evidencia la oportunidad de crear un área de investigación y desarrollo, la cual será la encargada de optimizar un proceso crítico actualmente ejecutado por la compañía San Miguel Induestrias PET. A lo largo del documento se demuestran los pasos que se tuvieron en cuenta para encontrar la solución que se adapta a las necesidades de la organización.Ingeniero (a) IndustrialPregrad

Plan de responsabilidad social empresarial para la empresa dextera S.A.S

Se realizó una investigación del comportamiento organizacional respecto a la Responsabilidad Social Empresarial en la empresa Dextera SAS, para esta tarea se realizó una investigación cuantitativa, donde los investigadores aplicaron el método de la encuesta a los trabajadores de la organización, a través de un formulario de google Drive, se identificó el conocimiento que se tiene por parte de los trabajadores en cuento a las actividades de RSE, el compromiso que se tiene con el entorno, su modelo organizacional e individualización de variables; como resultado de la investigación y a través del análisis del problema, se realizó el mapa de problemas y objetivos, encontrando que la empresa presenta deficiencia de las políticas del cuidado del medio ambiente en la empresa Dextera sas y difusión de las prácticas de RSE. Durante el estudio los investigadores elaboraron un mapa estratégico donde se analizaron los procesos de mercadeo, perspectiva financiera, procesos internos, procesos sociales y ambientales y crecimiento profesional a través de competencias como liderazgo, competitividad y responsabilidad social, que permitieron formular un plan de mejoramiento y de acción; también la creación del código de ética, que será la ruta a seguir para lograr los objetivos empresariales a través del compromiso y del cumplimiento por parte de todos los colaboradores que en adelante intervengan en la empresa. De esa forma, este trabajo académico contribuye con la línea de investigación de la UNAD; Gestión de la Innovación y del conocimiento y sub línea de Investigación en Responsabilidad Social Empresarial.An investigation of the behavior of the Corporate Social Responsibility practices in the company Dextera SAS was carried out, to collect the information a quantitative investigation was carried out, where the researchers applied the survey method to the company's workers, through a form from google drive, the knowledge that workers have regarding CSR activities, their commitment to the environment, their organizational model and individualization of variables were identified; As a result of the investigation and through the analysis of the problem, the map of problems and objectives was made, finding that the company presents a deficiency in the implementation of policies that include employees to reduce environmental pollution and dissemination of CSR practices. During the study, the researchers drew up a strategic map where the marketing processes, financial perspective, internal processes, social and environmental processes, and professional growth were analyzed through skills such as leadership, competitiveness and social responsibility, which allowed the formulation of an improvement plan and of action; also the creation of the code of ethics, which will be the route to follow to achieve business objectives through commitment and compliance by all collaborators who are henceforth involved in the company. In this way, this academic work contributes to the research line of the UNAD; Innovation and knowledge management and sub-line of Research in Corporate Social Responsibility

Aerial Monitoring of Rice Crop Variables using an UAV Robotic System

This paper presents the integration of an UAV for the autonomous monitoring of rice crops. The system integrates image processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze multispectral aerial imagery. Our approach calculates 8 vegetation indices from the images at each stage of rice growth: vegetative, reproductive and ripening. Multivariable regressions and artificial neural networks have been implemented to model the relationship of these vegetation indices against two crop variables: biomass accumulation and leaf nitrogen concentration. Comprehensive experimental tests have been conducted to validate the setup. The results indicate that our system is capable of estimating biomass and nitrogen with an average correlation of 80% and 78% respectively

Characterization of rice yield based on biomass and SPAD-based leaf nitrogen for large genotype plots

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) images for biomass and nitrogen estimation offers multiple opportunities for improving rice yields. UAV images provide detailed, high-resolution visual information about vegetation properties, enabling the identification of phenotypic characteristics for selecting the best varieties, improving yield predictions, and supporting ecosystem monitoring and conservation efforts. In this study, an analysis of biomass and nitrogen is conducted on 59 rice plots selected at random from a more extensive trial comprising 400 rice genotypes. A UAV acquires multispectral reflectance channels across a rice field of subplots containing different genotypes. Based on the ground-truth data, yields are characterized for the 59 plots and correlated with the Vegetation Indices (VIs) calculated from the photogrammetric mapping. The VIs are weighted by the segmentation of the plants from the soil and used as a feature matrix to estimate, via machine learning models, the biomass and nitrogen of the selected rice genotypes. The genotype IR 93346 presented the highest yield with a biomass gain of 10,252.78 kg/ha and an average daily biomass gain above 49.92 g/day. The VIs with the highest correlations with the ground-truth variables were NDVI and SAVI for wet biomass, GNDVI and NDVI for dry biomass, GNDVI and SAVI for height, and NDVI and ARVI for nitrogen. The machine learning model that performed best in estimating the variables of the 59 plots was the Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) model with a correlation factor of 0.98 for wet biomass, 0.99 for dry biomass, and 1 for nitrogen. The results presented demonstrate that it is possible to characterize the yields of rice plots containing different genotypes through ground-truth data and VIs

Sandwich Composites from Recycled Plastic Bottles Combined with Epoxy Matrix and Fique Fabric

The use of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) has extensively turned into an environmental global issue that requires multiple approaches to give use or recycle this material. This investigation analyzes the incorporation of PET laminates from post-consumer two-liter soda plastic bottles in combination with a fique fabric as a natural fiber reinforcement and an epoxy resin as the matrix. The value of this composite is the combination of a solid waste material with natural fibers, as a strategy to reduce plastic pollution in high-performance applications. The developed composite is aimed to be used in structural and impact applications. The mechanical properties were evaluated via Charpy and flexural tests, while the microstructure of the composite was investigated by scanning electron microscopy. From the structural point of view, the sandwich-structure composite proved to be a strong material, while amazingly the energy absorbed in an epoxy-PET-fique composite formulation was found to be better under impact when compared to the neat resin and to the epoxy-fique composite