Performance Analysis of a Cooperative Search Algorithm for Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles under Limited Communication Conditions

This research investigates the impacts of realistic wireless communications upon a group of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) utilizing a distributed search algorithm. The UAVs are used to survey an area for mobile targets and they require communication to cooperatively locate the targets. The mobile targets do not continually radiate energy, which exacerbates the search effort; a UAV could fly directly over a target and not detect it. A simulation of cooperative UAVs is implemented using the OPNET Modeler network simulation tool. The search performance of a group of UAVs is observed when communication range, data rate, and the number of UAVs are varied. The performance is evaluated based on the total time it takes for the UAVs to completely detect all the targets in a given search area, the number of times internal areas are scanned, the amount of communication throughput achieved, the network traffic generated, network latency, and number of network collisions. The results indicate that the number of UAVs was found to have the greatest impact on the group\u27s ability to search an area, implying that the data shared between the UAVs provides little benefit to the search algorithm. In addition, it was found that a network with a 100 Kbps or faster data rate should allow for minimal congestion and a large degree of scalability. The findings demonstrate that the proposed four-stage search algorithm should operate reasonably well under realistic conditions

Just Brew It!: Coffee\u27s Impact on a Writing and Communication Center Space

Our panel will present results of a semester-long study on coffee\u27s presence in our Writing and Communication Center and argue for the importance of ephemera in understanding how individuals experience their time in the center. Adding on to the existing discussions about space and writing centers, this presentation will address what has been lacking from the ongoing writing center conversation about coffee—until now

The Grooming Project: Identifying the Common Experience for Students

The Grooming Project (Kansas City, MO, USA) aims to equip program participants with both the in-demand technical skills of dog grooming and the practical, social and emotional skills that will build resilience, reduce stress, and create foundational skills for participants to better respond to their family’s needs. Gaining full-time employment that pays a living wage allows participants to focus on sustainably improving their family’s functioning, thereby creating the opportunity to break the cycle of multi-generational poverty. This report is intended to provide an initial description of the impacts of The Grooming Project’s programming on the individuals who participate by documenting a common narrative for their journey before, during, and after the program

The Grooming Project: Identifying the Common Experience for Students

The Grooming Project (Kansas City, MO, USA) aims to equip program participants with both the in-demand technical skills of dog grooming and the practical, social and emotional skills that will build resilience, reduce stress, and create foundational skills for participants to better respond to their family’s needs. Gaining full-time employment that pays a living wage allows participants to focus on sustainably improving their family’s functioning, thereby creating the opportunity to break the cycle of multi-generational poverty. This report is intended to provide an initial description of the impacts of The Grooming Project’s programming on the individuals who participate by documenting a common narrative for their journey before, during, and after the program

OH 12.8-0.9: A New Water-Fountain Source

We present observational evidence that the OH/IR star OH 12.8-0.9 is the fourth in a class of objects previously dubbed "water-fountain" sources. Using the Very Long Baseline Array, we produced the first images of the water maser emission associated with OH 12.8-0.9. We find that the masers are located in two compact regions with an angular separation of ~109 mas on the sky. The axis of separation between the two maser regions is at a position angle of 1.5 deg. East of North with the blue-shifted (-80.5 to -85.5 km/s) masers located to the North and the red-shifted (-32.0 to -35.5 km/s) masers to the South. In addition, we find that the blue- and red-shifted masers are distributed along arc-like structures ~10-12 mas across oriented roughly perpendicular to the separation axis. The morphology exhibited by the water masers is suggestive of an axisymmetric wind with the masers tracing bow shocks formed as the wind impacts the ambient medium. This bipolar jet-like structure is typical of the three other confirmed water-fountain sources. When combined with the previously observed spectral characteristics of OH 12.8-0.9, the observed spatio-kinematic structure of the water masers provides strong evidence that OH 12.8-0.9 is indeed a member of the water-fountain class.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures (1 color), accepted for publication in the Ap J Letter