• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.95-107
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• 2001

This paper is devoted to the parameter optimization of unmanned aerial vehicle's (UAV) flight control laws. Optimization procedure is based on the ideas of mixed $H_2/H_{\infty}$ control of multi-model plants. By using this approach, some partial $H_2$-terms defining the performance of nominal and parametrically perturbed Flight Control System (FCS) responses to deterministic command signals in stochastic atmosphere as well as $H_{\infty}$-terms defining robustness of the FCS can be incorporated in the composite cost function. Special penalty function imposed on the location of closed-loop system's poles keeps the speed of response and oscillatory properties for both nominal and perturbed FCS in reasonable limits. That is the reason why this procedure may provide reasonable trade-off between the performance and robustness of FCS that are very important especially for UAV. Its practical importance is illustrated by case studies of lateral and longitudinal control of small UAV.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.134-142
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• 2012

A bipolar plate is a major component of a fuel cell stack, which occupies 50~60% of the total weight and over 50% of the total cost of a typical fuel cell stack. In this study, a composite bipolar plate is designed and fabricated to develop a compact and light-weight direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack for a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) application. The composite bipolar plates for DMFCs are prepared by a compression molding method using resole type phenol resin as a binder and natural graphite and carbon black as a conductor filler and tested in terms of electrical conductivity, mechanical strength and hydrogen permeability. The flexural strength of 63 MPa and the in-plane electrical conductivities of 191 S $cm^{-1}$ are achieved under the optimum bipolar plate composition of phenol : 18%; natural graphite : 82%; carbon black : 3%, indicating that the composite bipolar plates exhibit sufficient mechanical strength, electrical conductivity and hydrogen permeability to be applied in a DMFC stack. A DMFC with the composite bipolar plate is tested and shows a similar cell performance with a conventional DMFC with graphite-based bipolar plate.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2024

Small streams, despite their rich ecosystems, face challenges in vegetation assessment due to the limitations of traditional, time-consuming methods. This study presents a groundbreaking approach, combining unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs), convolutional neural networks(CNNs), and the vegetation differential vegetation index (VDVI), to revolutionize both assessment and management of stream vegetation. Focusing on Idong Stream in South Korea (2.7 km long, 2.34 km² basin area)with eight diverse revetment methods, we leveraged high-resolution RGB images captured by UAVs across five dates (July-December). These images trained a ResNeXt101 CNN model, achieving an impressive 89% accuracy in classifying vegetation cover(soil,water, and vegetation). This enabled detailed spatial and temporal analysis of vegetation distribution. Further, VDVI calculations on classified vegetation areas allowed assessment of vegetation vitality. Our key findings showcase the power of this approach:(a) TheCNN model generated highly accurate cover maps, facilitating precise monitoring of vegetation changes overtime and space. (b) August displayed the highest average VDVI(0.24), indicating peak vegetation growth crucial for stabilizing streambanks and resisting flow. (c) Different revetment methods impacted vegetation vitality. Fieldstone sections exhibited initial high vitality followed by decline due to leaf browning. Block-type sections and the control group showed a gradual decline after peak growth. Interestingly, the "H environment block" exhibited minimal change, suggesting potential benefits for specific ecological functions.(d) Despite initial differences, all sections converged in vegetation distribution trends after 15 years due to the influence of surrounding vegetation. This study demonstrates the immense potential of UAV-based remote sensing and CNNs for revolutionizing small-stream vegetation assessment and management. By providing high-resolution, temporally detailed data, this approach offers distinct advantages over traditional methods, ultimately benefiting both the environment and surrounding communities through informed decision-making for improved stream health and ecological conservation.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.959-965
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• 2011

A modeling and power simulation of a small UAV's electric propulsion systems is described. Each power source is modeled and simulated in Matlab/Simulink and it is compared flight test data during 4 hr 30 min with simulation results about 200 W electric propulsion system using fuel cell and battery as a main power sources. In result, it is properly simulated performance and dynamic characteristic of each electric power source. Through this, it is revealed that the simulation is available as a means of predicting power characteristic variation for electric propulsion systems of different class.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2011

Several studies on the development for solar powered uninhabited aerial vehicles(UAVs) are under way as the use of the renewable energy becomes more and more important these days. This paper is for the conceptual design by a discrete and iterative method. An initial design point with 1.5 meter wing span is determined in the global design, which deploys the mass and energy balances among each component of UAV including solar cells and airframe. Then, the iteration for subsystems is carried out with the help of Vortex Lattice Method(VLM) to optimize the aircraft configuration and the solar power system. It is demonstrated in simulations that the optimized design increases the flight time from 62 to 120 minutes when the solar power system is installed. Also, the associated dynamic analysis reveals that the designed small aircraft has the acceptable stability and controllability.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.675-687
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• 2017

In the aerospace industry, we have produced various models according to operational conditions and the environment after development of the base model is completed. Therefore, when design change is necessary, there are modification and updating costs of the circuit whenever environment variables change. For these reasons, recently, in various fields, system designs that can flexibly respond to changing environmental conditions using field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are attracting attention, and the rapidly changing aerospace industry also uses FPGAs to organize the system environment. In this paper, we design the controller area network (CAN) intellectual property (IP) protocol used instead of the avionics protocol that includes ARINC-429 and MIL-STD-1553, which are not suitable for small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems at the register transistor logic (RTL) level, which does not depend on the FPGA vender, and we verify the performance. Consequentially, a Spartan 6 FPGA model-based system on chip (SoC) including an embedded system is constructed by using the designed CAN communications IP and Xilinx Microblaze, and the configured SoC only recorded an average 32% logic element usage rate in the Spartan 6 FPGA model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.45-58
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• 2020

According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport press release ('18.12.21.) The amendment of the Aviation Business Act will reduce the capital requirements for aviation leisure operators and make it easier to enter aviation leisure businesses by improving regulations on small air transportation business. In addition, as the scale of the UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) sector is expected to increase globally, the dramatic increase in low altitude operating aircraft, including this, must be taken into account. The low altitude aircraft category is divided into small airplanes, helicopters, light aircrafts and ultra-light aircrafts, and instructors include school instructor pilots and student pilots, military and national helicopter pilots, and aviation leisure operators. In case of low altitude aircraft, there are cases of canceling operations due to low visibility and low clouds, and aircraft accidents due to excessive operation and sudden weather phenomenon. Therefore, in order to prevent low-altitude aircraft accidents, a safe flight plan based on weather conditions and weather forecasts and more accurate and local weather forecasts and weather forecast data are needed to prepare for the rapidly changing weather conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.548-551
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• 2010

A 150 lbf-thrust class micro turbojet engine has been developed. The engine could be applied to power plant for small aviation vehicle such as UAV, decoy and anti-radar missile and was designed with concepts that has small size, low-cost and high performance. A prototype was manufactured and performed the ground static test and high altitude test. This paper outlines the features and layout of 150 lbf turbojet engine and also describes the design characteristics and test results of the engine and components.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.578-585
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• 2012

Reciprocating engine is widely used for small propeller driven aircraft. because it is the superior efficiency and low price. Currently, reciprocating engine is used for the development of KC-100, LSA, PAV, UAV in domestic. In this study, Naturally aspirated engine and turbocharger engine performance model is developed. The propeller is designed and analyzed at cruise condition of reciprocating engine aircraft using optimum method, the propeller performance model is developed. The Integrated propulsion performance model is developed, through the matching with engine and propeller performance model, for small reciprocating engine aircraft performance analysis.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.445-457
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• 2019

Cracks are an important distress of concrete bridges, and may reduce the life and safety of bridges. However, the traditional manual crack detection means highly depend on the experience of inspectors. Furthermore, it is time-consuming, expensive, and often unsafe when inaccessible position of bridge is to be assessed, such as viaduct pier. To solve this question, the real-time automatic crack detecting system with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) become a choice. This paper designs a new automatic detection system based on real-time comprehensive image processing for bridge crack. It has small size, light weight, low power consumption and can be carried on a small UAV for real-time data acquisition and processing. The real-time comprehensive image processing algorithm used in this detection system combines the advantage of connected domain area, shape extremum, morphology and support vector data description (SVDD). The performance and validity of the proposed algorithm and system are verified. Compared with other detection method, the proposed system can effectively detect cracks with high detection accuracy and high speed. The designed system in this paper is suitable for practical engineering applications.