Download or read book Applications of Rapid Prototyping to the Design and Testing of UAV Flight Control System written by John A. Komlosy and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern engineer has a myriad of new tools to assist in the design and implementation of ever increasingly complex control systems. A promising emerging technology is rapid prototyping. By totally integrating the development process, a Rapid Prototyping System (RPS) takes the designer from initial concept to testing on actual hardware in a systematic, logical sequence. At the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), we have applied the concept of rapid prototyping to the discipline of flight control. The NPS RPS consists of a commercially available rapid prototyping software suite and open architecture hardware to permit the greatest possible range of control and navigation projects. The RPS is crucial in that it allows students to participate in projects from the initial concept to the flight testing phase of the design process. This thesis will describe in detail two of these projects; the development of an Airspeed Controller using the RPS tools; and the integration of a Voice Control System developed by ViA, Inc. of Northfield, Minnesota. Both projects demonstrate the inherent flexibility and risk reduction of the rapid prototyping a roach to system design.
Download or read book Applications of Rapid Prototyping to the Design and Testing of UAV Flight Control Systems written by John Komlosy and published by . This book was released on 1998-03-01 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern engineer has a myriad of new tools to assist in the design and implementation of ever increasingly complex control systems. A promising emerging technology is rapid prototyping. By totally integrating the development process, a Rapid Prototyping System (RPS) takes the designer from initial concept to testing on actual hardware in a systematic, logical sequence. At the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), we have applied the concept of rapid prototyping to the discipline of flight control. The NPS RPS consists of a commercially available rapid prototyping software suite and open architecture hardware to permit the greatest possible range of control and navigation projects. The RPS is crucial in that it allows students to participate in projects from the initial concept to the flight testing phase of the design process. This thesis will describe in detail two of these projects; the development of an Airspeed Controller using the RPS tools; and the integration of a Voice Control System developed by ViA, Inc. of Northfield, Minnesota. Both projects demonstrate the inherent flexibility and risk reduction of the rapid prototyping a roach to system design.
Download or read book Design and Rapid Prototyping of Flight Control and Navigation System for an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle written by Bock Aeng Lim and published by . This book was released on 2002-03-01 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work in this thesis is in support of a larger research effort to implement a cluster of autonomous airborne vehicles with the capability to conduct coordinated flight maneuver planning and to perform distributed sensor fusion, Specifically, it seeks to design and implement an onboard flight control and navigation system for NPS FROG UAV, which will be used as the autonomous airborne vehicle for the research, using the newly marketed xPC Target Rapid Prototyping System from The Mathworks, Inc Part I briefly introduces the aircraft and explains the necessity for an onboard computer for the UAV. Part II describes the construction of the miniature aircraft computer, INS/GPS and air data sensor integration implementation as well as the rapid prototyping process. Part III covers the process to create a 6DOF model for the aircraft and the design of the aircraft autopilot, while Part IV presents a vision-based navigation algorithm that can be implemented on the UAV to give it some form of autonomous flight trajectory planning capability. Preliminary ground test results are presented in Part V to conclude this study.
Download or read book On Subscale Flight Testing written by Alejandro Sobron and published by Linköping University Electronic Press. This book was released on 2018-11-05 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Downscaled physical models, also referred to as subscale models, have played an essential role in the investigation of the complex physics of flight until the recent disruption of numerical simulation. Despite the fact that improvements in computational methods are slowly pushing experimental techniques towards a secondary role as verification or calibration tools, real-world testing of physical prototypes still provides an unmatched confidence. Physical models are very effective at revealing issues that are sometimes not correctly identified in the virtual domain, and hence can be a valuable complement to other design tools. But traditional wind-tunnel testing cannot always meet all of the requirements of modern aeronautical research and development. It is nowadays too expensive to use these scarce facilities to explore different design iterations during the initial stages of aircraft development, or to experiment with new and immature technologies. Testing of free-flight subscale models, referred to as Subscale Flight Testing (SFT), could offer an affordable and low-risk alternative for complementing conventional techniques with both qualitative and quantitative information. The miniaturisation of mechatronic systems, the advances in rapid-prototyping techniques and power storage, as well as new manufacturing methods, currently enable the development of sophisticated test objects at scales that were impractical some decades ago. Moreover, the recent boom in the commercial drone industry has driven a quick development of specialised electronics and sensors, which offer nowadays surprising capabilities at competitive prices. These recent technological disruptions have significantly altered the cost-benefit function of SFT and it is necessary to re-evaluate its potential in the contemporary aircraft development context. This thesis aims to increase the comprehension and knowledge of the SFT method in order to define a practical framework for its use in aircraft design; focusing on low-cost, short-time solutions that don’t require more than a small organization and few resources. This objective is approached from a theoretical point of view by means of an analysis of the physical and practical limitations of the scaling laws; and from an empirical point of view by means of field experiments aimed at identifying practical needs for equipment, methods, and tools. A low-cost data acquisition system is developed and tested; a novel method for semi-automated flight testing in small airspaces is proposed; a set of tools for analysis and visualisation of flight data is presented; and it is also demonstrated that it is possible to explore and demonstrate new technology using SFT with a very limited amount of economic and human resources. All these, together with a theoretical review and contextualisation, contribute to increasing the comprehension and knowledge of the SFT method in general, and its potential applications in aircraft conceptual design in particular.
Download or read book Uniform System for the Rapid Prototyping and Testing of Controllers for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles written by James A. Zanino and published by . This book was released on 1996-09-01 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of control systems has witnessed an explosion in state- space techniques addressing a variety of critical design issues facing control engineers today. Modem computational tools, such as the MATRIX(x) Product Family developed by Integrated Systems Incorporated, allow the designer o quickly design, test and implement control systems based on these state-space techniques. These new computing advances shorten the time required to complete a control design from a few years to a few months. However, as the design process progressed new inputs and outputs were required, which usually resulted in a confusing mess of connections that were hard to follow. Therefore, a universal system was needed that could be used on any controller design to aid in the understanding and tracking of the controller's inputs and outputs. A description of this system is given along with a detailed step by step process on how it was implemented on a Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV).
Download or read book Rapid Prototyping Software for Avionics Systems written by Nicolas Larrieu and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-10-13 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The design, implementation and validation of avionics and aeronautical systems have become extremely complex tasks due to the increase of functionalities that are deployed in current avionics systems and the need to be able certify them before putting them into production. This book proposes a methodology to enable the rapid prototyping of such a system by considering from the start the certification aspects of the solution produced. This method takes advantage of the model-based design approaches as well as the use of formal methods for the validation of these systems. Furthermore, the use of automatic software code generation tools using models makes it possible to reduce the development phase as well as the final solution testing. This book presents, firstly, an overview of the model-based design approaches such as those used in the field of aeronautical software engineering. Secondly, an original methodology that is perfectly adapted to the field of aeronautical embedded systems is introduced. Finally, the authors illustrate the use of this method using a case study for the design, implementation and testing of a new generation aeronautical router.
Download or read book The Use of an Automated Flight Test Management System in the Development of a Rapid prototyping Flight Research Facility written by and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Design and Integration of a Flight Management System for the Unmanned Air Vehicle Frog written by Timothy C. Rivers and published by . This book was released on 1998-12-01 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this thesis is to design, integrate and flight test a Flight Management System (FMS) for the computer control of an unmanned air vehicle (UAV). By combining modern control design techniques and the capabilities of a Rapid Prototyping System (RPS), we were able to safely go from concept to flight test in a relatively short amount of time without sacrificing thoroughness in computer simulation, code validation and verification, or hardware-in-the-loop ground testing. This ability to quickly field new or modified flight control systems for UAV's is of ever increasing importance as Department of Defense places greater emphasis on the use of UAV's in widely varying mission areas. The primary focus of this thesis is on the design and testing of a heading controller. However, to fully integrate this into the FMS, the research and testing includes airspeed and altitude controllers designed by previous thesis students. Also included as part of the implementation process, is a thorough sensor evaluation to ensure the controller inputs are adequate to support the FMS. The design and test equipment include a highly modified FROG UAV from the U.S. Army, the MATRIX Product Family of software tools developed by Integrated Systems, Inc., and a Ground Station built at NPS from commercially available computer and communication equipment.
Download or read book Drone Development from Concept to Flight written by Sumit Sharma and published by Packt Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2024-04-30 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Learn and apply the principles behind building and flying drones using components like BLDC motors and speed controllers, AeroGCS ground software, Ardupilot and PX4 open-source flight stacksalong with examples and best practices Key Features Get to grips with multicopter physics (roll, pitch, and yaw) and 3D dynamics for defining a drone's flight Optimize drone performance with powerful propulsion systems such as BLDS motors, lipo batteries, and ESCs Build a custom survey drone to learn vital aspects of drone assembly, configuration, testing, and maiden flight Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Book DescriptionUnlock opportunities in the growing UAV market where drones are revolutionizing diverse sectors like agriculture, surveying, and the military. Using the vast experience of the author in drone domain, this book provides step-by-step guidance through the complete drone development life cycle, from concept to pilot stage, prototyping, and ultimately, a market-ready product, with domain-specific applications. Starting with an introduction to unmanned systems, principles of drone flight, and it's motion in 3D space, this book shows you how to design a propulsion system tailored to your drone’s needs. You’ll then get hands on with the entire drone assembly process, covering airframe, components, and wiring. Next, you’ll enhance drone connectivity and navigation with communication devices, such as RFD900, Herelink, and H-16 Pro GCS and hardware protocols like I2C, and UART. The book also guides you in using the open-source flight software Ardupilot and PX4, along with firmware architecture and PID tuning for advanced control. Additionally, you’ll go learn about AeroGCS, Mission Planner, and UGCS ground control stations, tips for maiden flight and log analysis for optimizing performance while building a custom survey drone with a 60-min endurance, 10km range, live video feed, and photography options. By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped with all you need to build and fly your own drones and UAVs.What you will learn Explore the design principles for multicopter flight and its physics of motion Grasp terminologies associated with UAV flight systems Implement power trail, communication, and propulsion conceptsin drone design Use IMUs and sensors in flight controllers, and protocols like I2C, SPI, and MAvlink Familiarize yourself with open-source drone flight stacks and ground control station software Apply the control law used in multicopter and the basics of PIDs Delve into modes of flying with remote controllers and analysis of flight logs Who this book is for This book is for beginner-level drone engineers, robotics engineers, hardware and design engineers, and hobbyists who want to enter the drone industry and enhance their knowledge of the physics, mechanics, avionics, and programming of drones, multicopters, and UAVs. While not a prerequisite, a basic understanding of circuits, microcontrollers, and electronic instruments like multimeter, camera, and batteries, along with fundamental concepts in physics and mathematics, will be helpful.
Download or read book Uniform System for the Rapid Prototyping and Testing of Controllers for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles written by Naval Postgraduate School and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-23 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of control systems has witnessed an explosion in state-space techniques addressing a variety of critical design issues facing control engineers today. Modem computational tools, such as the MATRIX, . Product Family developed by Integrated Systems Incorporated, allow the designer to quickly design, test and implement control systems based on these state-space techniques. These new computing advances shorten the time required to complete a control design from a few years to a few months. However, as the design process progressed new inputs and outputs were required, which usually resulted in a confusing mess of connections that were hard to follow. Therefore, a universal system was needed that could be used on any controller design to aid in the understanding and tracking of the controller's inputs and outputs. A description of this system is given along with a detailed step by step process on how it was implemented on a Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV)
Download or read book Rapid Prototyping Platform for Flight Control System Design written by Marius Niculescu and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book In Flight Learning Based Flight Control of an Unmanned Aircraft System written by Mohammed Alabsi and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) popularity has increased substantially in the last few years. UAVs capabilities continue to improve as a result of advances in battery technology, communication, navigation systems and electronics. Increased popularity has driven researchers to improve UAVs reliability and safety which is reflected by the number of publications and accelerating educational programs interest. UAVs are suited for a wide range of civilian and military applications; however, UAVs currently can not integrate with civilian airspace because of stringent safety requirements. Hence, it is necessary to push the envelope for UAVs design and control so that they can learn from nature and have more self-aware capabilities to improve safety and reliability. This dissertation addresses some challenges involved with flight controller learning based on real-time modeling of UAV. Plenty of UAV applications require different operational capabilities within a composite mission. These capabilities include landing and taking off using short runways, while being able to perform missions that require a high cruise speed i.e. tracking applications. A composite mission also requires the aircraft to be able to hover or operate with low cruise speeds for applications involving stationary moments. All of these different operational modes require a hybrid aircraft design that combines fixed wing aircraft capabilities and Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft capabilities. However, extensive resources required for hybrid aircraft design prohibited the discovery of different revolutionary designs. The work presented in this dissertation describes the development of a rapid modeling, prototyping and controller design platform of an unmanned quadrotor aircraft. Three main objectives are investigated: intelligent excitation input design, real-time parameter estimation, and learning control. Real-time estimation of dynamic model parameters is important for control adaptation. However, the aircraft model estimation performance can be severely degraded by an active control system and highly collinear model terms such as those found on a quadrotor unmanned aircraft. Recursive Fourier Transform Regression was applied to estimate parameters of different model forms/structures and using different excitation levels. The generated models are utilized to reconfigure a Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion (NDI) controller considering different testing conditions: normal, failure, and learning flights. Finally,an intelligent input design technique is proposed which enables autonomous identification of the vehicle’s response modal frequencies and emphasizes excitation power accordingly.
Download or read book Design of Digital Control Algorithms for Unmanned Air Vehicles written by Steven J. Froncillo and published by . This book was released on 1998-03-01 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent advances in the design of high performance aircraft, such as fly by wire controls, complex autopilot systems, and unstable platforms for greater maneuverability, are all possible due to the use of digital control systems. With the aid of modem control tools and techniques based on state-space methods, the aerospace engineer has the ability to design a dynamic aircraft model, verify its accuracy, and design and implement the controller within a matter of a few months. This work examines the digital control design process utilizing a Rapid Prototyping System developed at the Naval Postgraduate School. The entire design process is presented, from design of the controller to implementation and flight test on an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV).
Download or read book An Application of Virtual Prototyping to the Flight Test and Evaluation of an Unmanned Air Vehicle written by Mark T. Lagier and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Virtual Prototyping is an integral part of the ongoing effort to design, test and fly an Unmanned Air vehicle. Current analytical software such as SIMULINK or MATRIXX provide powerful design tools with limited graphical output, that require an intuitive knowledge of the underlying dynamic structure. For comprehension, Virtual Prototyping allows an intuitive approach toward understanding the dynamic performance of the model. When the aircraft is flow within visual range of the ground station, a Virtual Prototype display provides the pilot on the ground a close-up view of aircraft response. When the aircraft operates over the horizon, a Virtual Prototype display becomes the only visual link between the pilot and the aircraft. An application of a Virtual Prototype software is presented here with a direct view to implementing the results in the UAV project currently underway at The Naval Postgraduate school. Virtual prototyping, Visual feedback, Dynamic modelling, Controller design testing, Flight dynamics testing, Over the horizon piloting.
Download or read book Unmanned Aircraft Systems written by Kimon P. Valavanis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-12-21 with total page 533 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) have seen unprecedented levels of growth during the last decade in both military and civilian domains. It is anticipated that civilian applications will be dominant in the future, although there are still barriers to be overcome and technical challenges to be met. Integrating UAS into, for example, civilian space, navigation, autonomy, see-detect-and-avoid systems, smart designs, system integration, vision-based navigation and training, to name but a few areas, will be of prime importance in the near future. This special volume is the outcome of research presented at the International Symposium on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, held in Orlando, Florida, USA, from June 23-25, 2008, and presents state-of-the-art findings on topics such as: UAS operations and integration into the national airspace system; UAS navigation and control; micro-, mini-, small UAVs; UAS simulation testbeds and frameworks; UAS research platforms and applications; UAS applications. This book aims at serving as a guide tool on UAS for engineers and practitioners, academics, government agencies and industry. Previously published in the Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems, 54 (1-3, 2009).
Download or read book Unmanned Aircraft Systems written by Ella Atkins and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-01-17 with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: UNMANNED AIRCRAF T SYSTEMS UNMANNED AIRCRAF T SYSTEMS An unmanned aircraft system (UAS), sometimes called a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot on board ??? instead, the UAS can be controlled by an operator station on the ground or may be autonomous in operation. UAS are capable of addressing a broad range of applications in diverse, complex environments. Traditionally employed in mainly military applications, recent regulatory changes around the world are leading to an explosion of interest and wide-ranging new applications for UAS in civil airspace. Covering the design, development, operation, and mission profiles of unmanned aircraft systems, this single, comprehensive volume forms a complete, stand-alone reference on the topic. The volume integrates with the online Wiley Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering, providing many new and updated articles for existing subscribers to that work. The chapters cover the following items: Airframe configurations and design (launch systems, power generation, propulsion) Operations (missions, integration issues, and airspace access) Coordination (multivehicle cooperation and human oversight) With contributions from leading experts, this volume is intended to be a valuable addition, and a useful resource, for aerospace manufacturers and suppliers, governmental and industrial aerospace research establishments, airline and aviation industries, university engineering and science departments, and industry analysts, consultants, and researchers.
Download or read book Small Unmanned Fixed wing Aircraft Design written by Andrew J. Keane and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Small Unmanned Fixed-wing Aircraft Design is the essential guide to designing, building and testing fixed wing UAVs (or drones). It deals with aircraft from two to 150 kg in weight and is based on the first-hand experiences of the world renowned UAV team at the UK’s University of Southampton. The book covers both the practical aspects of designing, manufacturing and flight testing and outlines and the essential calculations needed to underpin successful designs. It describes the entire process of UAV design from requirements definition to configuration layout and sizing, through preliminary design and analysis using simple panel codes and spreadsheets to full CFD and FEA models and on to detailed design with parametric CAD tools. Its focus is on modest cost approaches that draw heavily on the latest digital design and manufacturing methods, including a strong emphasis on utilizing off-the-shelf components, low cost analysis, automated geometry modelling and 3D printing. It deliberately avoids a deep theoretical coverage of aerodynamics or structural mechanics; rather it provides a design team with sufficient insights and guidance to get the essentials undertaken more pragmatically. The book contains many all-colour illustrations of the dozens of aircraft built by the authors and their students over the last ten years giving much detailed information on what works best. It is predominantly aimed at under-graduate and MSc level student design and build projects, but will be of interest to anyone engaged in the practical problems of getting quite complex unmanned aircraft flying. It should also appeal to the more sophisticated aero-modeller and those engaged on research based around fixed wing UAVs.
