Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Yue Yang, Xiaoxiong Liu, Xuhang Liu, Yicong Guo, Weiguo Zhang
Summary: This paper presents a model-free distributed multi-sensor extended Kalman filter algorithm for small fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles to provide long-term convergent flight parameters. The algorithm estimates airspeed and wind speed in wind disturbance to improve perception information robustness. The algorithm utilizes a low-cost standard sensor suite to increase versatility. Experimental results demonstrate the reliability and effectiveness of the algorithm.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
A. Weishaupl, L. McLay, A. Sobester
Summary: This paper explores combinations of instrumentation suites and protocols for wind tunnel and flight evaluation of small uncrewed air vehicles. It focuses on determining the drag curve of the airframe through automated glides and the slow down maneuver for power-off drag, and estimation of thrust using propeller speed, voltage, and current sensing for power-on drag. The study also considers the impact of wind conditions on the optimal strategy for maneuver combinations.
AERONAUTICAL JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Erlend M. Coates, Thor Fossen
Summary: This article introduces geometric reduced-attitude controllers for unmanned aerial vehicles, utilizing vector coordinates and Lyapunov-based tools to achieve almost global asymptotic stability. Additionally, the use of adaptive backstepping to compensate for aerodynamic disturbances and the establishment of ultimate boundedness of solutions under a simplified controller are highlighted.
APPLIED SCIENCES-BASEL
(2021)
Article
Telecommunications
Rodrigo A. C. da Silva, Nelson L. S. da Fonseca
Summary: Fog computing complements cloud computing by enabling latency-sensitive applications. This paper proposes the use of fixed-wing UAVs as fog nodes and presents a Spatio-Temporal UAV Fog Node Location algorithm to solve the node location problem. Evaluation results with actual data show that fixed-wing UAVs can efficiently handle the demands.
VEHICULAR COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
Hema Aubeelack, Stephane Segonds, Christian Bes, Thierry Druot, Adrien Berard, Marylene Duffau, Guillaume Gallant
Summary: This paper presents a new design methodology that guarantees optimal performance and constraint satisfaction with acceptable risks. It is specifically tailored to conceptual design, where variability arising from modifications in downstream design phases must be considered. The methodology utilizes second-order Taylor expansions to transform the robust-optimal design problem into an equivalent deterministic quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) problem. The proposed methodology is applied to a blended-wing/body (BWB) design problem for validation, showing the impacts of acceptable risk levels on the optimal design parameters and guaranteed drag.
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
Samuel A. Ross, Amanda E. White, Adam Andresen, Shah Saud Alam, Christopher Depcik
Summary: This study examines the feasibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for Martian topography investigation. It suggests that the RQ-11B Raven UAV, equipped with a NACA S7012 airfoil and a four-stroke oxy-methane fueled Saito FG-11 internal combustion engine (ICE), could be suitable for remote sensing and topography-mapping applications on Mars. The study also highlights the challenges of achieving the required flight speed and avoiding transonic conditions.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Boyang Zhang, Xiuxia Sun, Maolong Lv, Shuguang Liu
Summary: This paper proposes an event-based fault-tolerant coordinated control scheme for multiple fixed-wing UAVs, achieving consensus tracking of velocity and attitude in the presence of actuator faults, external disturbances and modeling uncertainties. By utilizing dynamic event-triggered communication mechanism and disturbance observer technique, unnecessary information exchanges are minimized, Zeno phenomenon is excluded, and system stability is guaranteed.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Suhyeon Kim, Hyeongjun Cho, Dongwon Jung
Summary: This paper presents a guidance algorithm for the circular formation flight of multiple fixed-wing UAVs. The algorithm aims at reducing both the radial and the phase angle error with respect to a moving reference point located at a fixed distance from the leader UAV. The proposed control law is compared with an existing vector-field formation guidance scheme through numerical simulation. Extensive validation and flight tests demonstrate the performance and robustness of the proposed algorithm, including its capability to handle wind disturbance.
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Luciano Blasi, Egidio D'Amato, Immacolata Notaro, Gennaro Raspaolo
Summary: Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are important in search and rescue, delivery services, and military operations. This paper proposes an optimization procedure using graph theory and clothoid curves for trajectory planning of fixed-wing UAV formations. It consists of two steps: geometric optimization of paths using graphs and clothoids, and transformation of paths into time-dependent trajectories by optimizing aircraft speeds to avoid collisions. The method achieves suboptimal paths with collision avoidance and improved flight dynamics compliance and tracking capabilities. It is versatile and practical for various UAV formation scenarios.
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Jun Yang, Cunjia Liu, Matthew Coombes, Yunda Yan, Wen-Hua Chen
Summary: This study introduces a novel path-following algorithm for fixed-wing UAVs, formulating the problem as a control problem by auxiliary dynamics and designing the controller in an optimal and systematic manner. The algorithm compensates for wind disturbances on path-following performance via nonlinear disturbance observers, and its feasibility and effectiveness are validated in simulation studies and flight tests.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CONTROL SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Pengyun Chen, Tong Guan, Guobing Zhang, Shangyao Shi, Jian Shen, Meini Yuan
Summary: This paper analyzes the nonholonomic characteristics, constraint non-integrability, and controllability of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). By using quaternion theory, the dynamics of the UAV is transformed to simplify the trigonometric function term and overcome the singularity problem. A continuous periodic time-varying controller is designed and its effectiveness is proven through hardware in a loop simulation. The results demonstrate that the feedback controller provides exponential stability and achieves three-dimensional stabilization of the UAV from any initial position.
Article
Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence
Eivind Bohn, Erlend M. Coates, Dirk Reinhardt, Tor Arne Johansen
Summary: This article discusses the difficult problem of attitude control in fixed-wing UAVs and proposes the use of deep reinforcement learning to handle the nonlinear dynamics. The results show that DRL can successfully learn to perform attitude control with just 3 minutes of flight data. The learned controller performs comparably to the state-of-the-art PID controller without further online learning.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL NETWORKS AND LEARNING SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications
Yu Zhao, Jifeng Guo, Chengchao Bai, Hongxing Zheng
Summary: The paper proposes a computational guidance method based on deep reinforcement learning, using machine learning algorithms to address collision avoidance for multiple fixed-wing UAVs. Experimental results show that the algorithm effectively reduces the collision probability in multi-drone flight.
Article
Remote Sensing
Lixin Wang, Sizhuang Zheng, Weijia Wang, Hao Wang, Hailiang Liu, Ting Yue
Summary: A nonlinear fast Tube-based Robust Compensation Control (TRCC) for fixed-wing UAVs is proposed in this study to address the conflict between nonlinearity and fast-solving requirements. The study introduces a solving method for discrete trajectory tubes to enable fast parallel computation and develops a TRCC algorithm that minimizes the trajectory tube for enhanced robustness. Additionally, dimensionality reduction techniques and a control reuse method are incorporated in the fast TRCC algorithm. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed method effectively enhances the robustness of UAVs while meeting the requirements for fast solving.
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Matthew Silic, Kamran Mohseni
Summary: The emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has led to the research on radio air-to-ground (AG) channels. Compared to terrestrial channels, the AG channel has higher rates of change and more 3D effects. This paper compares various received-power models for UAV localization and demonstrates that including the polarization factor in the model can reduce localization error by 50%.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
