Flight Loads of Mini UAV

With the development of technologies related to unmanned vehicles, including unmanned aerial vehicle and unmanned surface vehicle, unmanned vehicles play a pivotal role in maritime management and cruise activities. Meanwhile, lots of evidence shows that a single unmanned vehicle is not qualified for operation under complex environment, whereas the unmanned aerial vehicle–unmanned surface vehicle formation consists of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned surface vehicles, which can enhance the performance of the single unmanned vehicle significantly. However, the cooperative operation performance of the unmanned aerial vehicle–unmanned surface vehicle formation is constrained by its communication capacity. Consequently, a cooperative communication framework is designed for the unmanned aerial vehicle–unmanned surface vehicle formation. A distributed dynamic network topology is constructed for fulfilling effective communication for the unmanned aerial vehicle–unmanned surface vehicle formation based on ad hoc network. Experiments are carried out by employing the built unmanned aerial vehicle–unmanned surface vehicle formation platform. Results verify the superiority of the designed cooperative communication framework for the unmanned aerial vehicle–unmanned surface vehicle formation.

In this paper, two algorithms are proposed to navigate the mini unmanned aerial vehicle (MUAV) in unknown environment. The first algorithm is path planning algorithm, it proposed to force the MUAV to track a specific trajectory. The second algorithm is obstacle avoidance algorithm, it proposed to avoid the collision between the MUAV and borrower when the MUAV is maneuvering in unknown environment. The pure pursuit algorithm (PPA) is used to force the MUAV to follow the desired trajectory depends on the given waypoints. While the vector field histogram algorithm (VFHA) is used to avoid collision of the MUAV with obstacles block in the desired path. To keep the flight of MUAV without collision, the 3D laser sensors are used to collect the information from the surrounding environment. The GPS sensor is used to keep the MUAV on the specific path. The collected information from the two sensors are analysed by the controller of the MUAV to improve its performance. The Matlab program is used to implement the proposed algorithms and plot the trajectories of MUAV in the unknown algorithm. The Matlab program is connected with the gazebo program via robotic operating system (ROS) to simulate the visual movement of the MUAV in any unknown environment. The obtained results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm to flight the MUAV in different environments.

Military-industrial complexes of many countries have invested billions of dollars in the industry over 120 years of development and have achieved significant progresses in the creation of surface, water and underwater equipment. Groups of military unmanned vehicles include unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), deck-based UAVs, water, underwater and hybrid unmanned vehicles (UAVs). Their purpose is intelligence, surveillance, strategic research projects, and military transport purposes. As for the civilian use of unmanned vehicles, this is a young industry, it is 15 years old. The beginning of the era of non-military unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and then unmanned floating vehicles (UAVs) is considered to be 2006, when the US Federal Aviation Administration allowed the flights of small custom drones. At the same time, they were given a definition: a device that is remotely controlled by an operator; a device that moves along a pre-planned route. Unmanned vehicles the use of which for the purposes of the forest complex of our country is carried out or is planned to begin in the near future must meet some special requirements that are discussed in this article.

Vision-based pose estimation is widely employed to Mini Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (MUAV) with limited payloads. The Pose from Orthography and Scaling and Iterations (POSIT) is one of the most important solutions to estimate the pose by 2-D images and 3-D model of objects. In order to evaluate the performance of POSIT algorithm, a test platform that consists of a MUAV, a wireless camera, a computer workstation, and a motion capture (Optitrack) system is developed. The pose of the MUAV is calculated by the POSIT algorithm with a set of 2-D images captured by the on-board camera, and the calculated pose is compared to the actual pose reading from the Optitrack system. The experimental result demonstrates that the error remains within acceptable bounds and the POSIT is a useful alternative for pose estimation of a MUAV.

Research into operational aspects of mini (<5kg) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and structural health monitoring systems (SHM) is being conducted at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation and La Trobe University. A fundamental area of interest is investigating the problems associated with robustness of the control and health monitoring sensors for such systems. While many technologies for UAV and SHM systems can be, and have been, adapted from those currently available in large manned aircraft; cost, weight, and size constraints have prevented mini UAVs from including many of the robust mechanisms common to larger aircraft. Moreover, the ubiquitous nature of the sensing requirements for SHM systems has limited their uptake, due mainly to the same issues of cost, weight and size. This paper details the design of a reconfigurable multivariable MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) array to address these issues. This array is composed of multiple instances of identical sensors, which can be dynamically reconfigured to achieve the desired measurand(s) with tradeoffs against accuracy. The available measurands include such items as; accelerations, rotational rates, magnetic fields (X, Y and Z directions), temperature and pressure. The paper presents the design of a reconfigurable multivariable MEMS sensor array together with simulation results.

This paper describes the findings of novel anti-drone obstacles development developed for stopping, fouling, and trapping Class I Mini and Micro unmanned aerial vehicles by targeting motors. This work, part of the Defeat Autonomous Systems (DAS) program, investigates counters to unmanned vehicle technology. Preliminary results demonstrate trapped drones, fouled motors that suggests this is a promising new capability to deny areas to drone incursions. Results indicate there is exists a sweet spot in mechanical properties that justifies further investigation into obstacle dynamics, modeling and simulation, materials, and notional system concepts to deliver a novel defensive obstacle capability against drones, expanding from the basic obstacle design.

The paper presents the analysis on stability of digital control system for unmanned vehicle with numerical analysis. The objective of this study is mainly emphasized on the fulfillment of the advanced control techniques according to the fundamental concepts of digital control system approaches for unmanned aerial vehicle system design. The targeted unmanned aerial vehicle system was designed based on the simple construction under the idea of fixed wing flight system approaches. The stability analyses on unmanned aerial vehicle are vital role to enhance the real world applications. The background concepts on digital control system for stability analysis on dynamic control system like unmanned aerial vehicle system. The appropriate controller design for dynamic control system of unmanned aerial vehicle is vital role to analyze the accurate stability condition for reality. The implementation of numerical analysis on compensator design has been developed by using MATLAB. The physical parameters in these analyses are based on the experimental outcomes from the recent research works in dynamical system implementations. The mathematical approaches are very helpful for numerical analysis on compensator design for the unmanned aerial vehicles schemes. The simulation results confirm that the high performance stability test on unmanned aerial vehicle system has been met with the theoretical works.

Recently the tendency of replacing aircraft by light, simple, cheap unmanned aerial vehicles for the purposes of updating the field of aerial photogrammetry has been observed. The article deals with the issues of project calculations concerning unmanned aerial vehicles flights and an analysis of the images acquired during field-testing flights. In this article, we analyze the images acquired by mini unmanned aerial vehicles, in particular, the 1.8 plane and the plane SOA-1 that have been processed by a commercial off-the-shelf software package Agisoft PhotoScan (Russia). The 1.8 plane was equipped with the camera Canon S100, containing known camera calibration parameters. These parameters were used for the processing of the image. The aircraft SOA-1 had the camera Canon PowerShot SX280 HS without camera calibration parameters. The camera parameters were calculated by software during the processing image. The paper also presents results of an investigation into the average camera location errors during the test flights, the quality of orthoimage generation by point cloud and a digital terrain model.

Over the past few decades, the usage of unmanned vehicles has grown exponentially, expanding into applications such as the automation of industrial processes and automobiles. However, their utility has often been limited by operational concerns. Fully controlled unmanned vehicles require multiple human operators, while their fully autonomous counterparts lack the ability to handle the complex maneuvers necessary in natural disaster relief and/or search and rescue situations. Semi-autonomous UAVs offer a feasible compromise between the two extremes. In this scenario, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) sends birds-eye images of the terrain beneath it to a computing cluster, which will identify easily traversable terrain and generate a path of least risk to an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). If the path's risk is below a certain threshold, then the UGV will be permitted to proceed on its own. Otherwise, a human operator will be notified, so that he or she may control the UGV directly until it exits the most dangerous terrain. This paradigm allows a single operator to manage several UAVs simultaneously.

Heterogeneous unmanned ground vehicle-unmanned aerial vehicle (UGV-UAV) collaborative systems offer clear advantages for field exploration. However, when tethered unmanned aerial vehicles (TUAVs) are introduced to extend mission capability, a major compatibility gap emerges for small and highly maneuverable UGVs: existing industrial tethered ground stations are generally too heavy and bulky to be carried by such platforms. In addition, on unstructured ground, residual station tilt can significantly complicate UAV launch and recovery. To address these issues, this paper develops an ultralight vehicle-mounted tethered ground station for micro unmanned aerial vehicles (micro-UAVs) that can be integrated directly with small UGVs. Through co-design of a 2-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) self-leveling launch platform and a passive tether-assisted recovery scheme without visual fiducials, in which a customized UAV flight-control loop is coordinated with the state transitions of the ground tether-management system, the proposed system achieves practical tether-assisted recovery. Experiments show that the complete platform weighs only 4.1 kg and that the self-leveling mechanism compensates for ground inclinations over a total range of 24 degrees. Repeated passive-landing tests further demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed recovery scheme and its tolerance to moderate bay tilt and terminal off-axis activation. System-level flight validation confirms practical tether-assisted recovery without visual fiducials. In addition, we conduct a simplified exploratory simulation of tether-based ground-anchor localization under the proposed system architecture. Overall, these results establish a lightweight and low-cost hardware design and a practically viable recovery strategy for multimodal micro air-ground robotic systems.

Introduction. Due to their unique properties, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely used in the civil and military sectors. Due to the growing demand for specialist UAV operators, there is an increasing need to assess the working conditions at the workplaces of UAV operators. At the same time, special attention is paid to the sanitary and hygienic control of microbial contamination of the controls of unmanned vehicles. The study aims to execute a microbiological assessment of the qualitative and quantitative composition of microorganisms polluting the controls of unmanned aerial vehicles in order to further develop preventive measures aimed at preventing the spread of infectious diseases among operators of unmanned aerial vehicles. Materials and methods. The study assessed the quantitative and qualitative composition of microorganisms on control panels, keyboards, video cameras and video helmets of operators of unmanned aerial vehicles using both personal and multi-user equipment. Results. As a result of the study of microbial contamination of control panels, keyboards, video glasses and video helmets of operators of unmanned aerial vehicles, it was found that when operating equipment in multiuser access mode, the level of microbial contamination increases 2.9 times compared with personal use. In the course of the study, experts identified and ranked the main types of microorganisms living on the surfaces of video glasses, video helmets, keyboards and control panels of operators of unmanned aerial vehicles, with the aim of further developing and improving measures to preserve and promote the health of the aforementioned specialists. Limitations. It is necessary to study the effectiveness and safety of various disinfection methods for materials (plastic, glass, rubber, etc.) used to create UAV controls. To date, the impact of the use of glasses and helmets on the visual organ of operators of unmanned aerial vehicles in the long term of their use in the professional activities of specialists has not been fully studied, which does not allow fully assess the risks to their health. It is necessary to develop new solutions to minimize the impact of adverse factors on the organ of vision, including microbiological ones, as well as to minimize the manifestations of conjunctival symptoms. Conclusion. Multiuser equipment is most susceptible to microbial contamination, which increases the risk of infectious and inflammatory diseases among UAV operators. When using glasses and helmets, there are more pronounced manifestations of conjunctival symptoms due to their closer location to the organ of vision and the presence of additional fans in their design. The spectral composition of microorganisms contaminating UAV controls is mainly represented by representatives of opportunistic flora. The leading reason for contamination of equipment by opportunistic and pathogenic microorganisms is the limitation of the ability of UAV operators to comply with personal hygiene rules and insufficient treatment of equipment with disinfectant solutions. Ethics. The study was approved at a meeting of the Independent Ethics Committee at the Kirov Military Medical Academy on December 17, 2024 (Protocol No. 297 dated December 17, 2024). The study was conducted in compliance with ethical principles and the voluntary consent of the participants.

In this research, article stochastical redesign of a mini unmanned aerial vehicle (MUAV) is considered. For this purpose, its flight control system (FCS), its battery mass, and its propeller pitch are evaluated in order to enhance both its autonomous flight performance and its general flight performance. A MUAV is produced in Ankara Yıldırım Bayezit University Drone Laboratory and called as AYBU-MUAV for this research. Its FCS parameters those are PID coefficients, its battery mass, and its engine propeller pitch are simultaneously and stochastically revised in order to maximize both autonomous flight performance and endurance by applying a specific stochastical optimization approach. Obtained revision results are used during autonomous flight simulation of MUAV. The first important contribution of this research article is implementation of stochastical revision methodology for finding optimum values of FCS parameters, battery mass, and propeller pitch. Another substantial contribution of this research article is benefitting SPSA (simultaneous perturbation stochastical approximation) optimization strategy for previously stated purpose. These important contributions also cause much less energy consumption and green environment. In addition, approximately 49% improvement in total cost index, 50% improvement in autonomous cost index, and 100% improvement in endurance are obtained for this relevant battery powered electrical MUAV with respect to the situation where stochastical revision idea is not applied.

With the advancement of artificial intelligence technology, unmanned vehicle (UV) systems, including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), have been appearing in many scenarios with wide-ranging applications. It is a crucial factor for enhancing human-computer collaboration efficiency to analyze the impact of unmanned vehicle system combinations on operators. The research in this paper presents the effects of different combinations of UAVs and UGVs (1UAV + 1UGV, 1UAV + 2UGVs, 2UAVs + 1UGV, 2UAVs + 2UGVs) on searching performance and operator’s mental workload for accomplishing search tasks. Completion times for tasks and subjective data with operators (N=16) were collected by using Psychopy and questionnaires, respectively. The results in this research indicate that binary growth of controllable unmanned vehicles doesn’t improve the UV utilization rate, but costing longer completion time and increasing operator’s mental workload. Since an excessive number of unmanned vehicles could have a negative impact on task performance, the insights in the paper are helpful for the design of unmanned vehicle systems and the research of human-computer collaboration.

Methods for landing unmanned aerial vehicles on the platform of a moving unmanned vehicle are considered. On the basis of the made analysis, as the most promising type of unmanned aerial vehicle for joint operation with an unmanned vehicle the tiltrotor is indicated. A mathematical model of a tiltrotor is presented, which is advisable to use when developing algorithms for landing on a car platform. Keywords unmanned aerial vehicle, unmanned vehicle, tiltrotor, landing on the platform, tiltrotor model

In the past ten years, the R&amp;D of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is very popular and has the trend to replacing with the manned aerial vehicle due to its low-cost and high-mobility. According to the specifications, this project completes special contour and function of a mini-UAV design and passes the strict fabrication, prototyping, and aerial test processes. With the advantages of long flight endurance, speedy assembly/disassembly, simply contour, and portable, the developed mini-UAV has the capabilities of bungee launch and parachute recovery. Thus, it makes much progress in Taiwan’s mini-UAV area.