• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.98-109
• /
• 2010

This paper deals with a new method of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) recovery when a UAV fails to get a global positioning system (GPS) signal at an unprepared site. The proposed method is based on the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithm. It is a process by which a vehicle can build a map of an unknown environment and simultaneously use this map to determine its position. Extensive research on SLAM algorithms proves that the error in the map reaches a lower limit, which is a function of the error that existed when the first observation was made. For this reason, the proposed method can help an inertial navigation system to prevent its error of divergence with regard to the vehicle position. In other words, it is possible that a UAV can navigate with reasonable positional accuracy in an unknown environment without the aid of GPS. This is the main idea of the present paper. Especially, this paper focuses on path planning that maximizes the discussed ability of a SLAM algorithm. In this work, a SLAM algorithm based on extended Kalman filter is used. For simplicity's sake, a blimp-type of UAV model is discussed and three-dimensional pointed-shape landmarks are considered. Finally, the proposed method is evaluated by a number of simulations.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.19 no.4
• /
• pp.85-92
• /
• 2020

Applications for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) have expanded enormously in recent years. Of all its various technologies, the UAV's ability to take off and land in a moving environment is particularly required for military or oceanic usage. In this study, we develop a novel leveling platform that allows the UAV to stably take off and land even on uneven terrains or in moving environments. The leveling platform is composed of an upper pad and a lower mobile base. The upper pad, from which the UAV can take off or land, is designed in the form of a 2 degrees of freedom (DOF) gimbal mechanism that generates the leveling function. The lower mobile base has a four-wheel drive structure that can be operated remotely. We evaluate the developed leveling platform by performing extensive experiments on both the horizontal terrain and the 5-degree ramped terrain, and confirm that the leveling platform successfully maintains the horizontal pose on both terrains. This allows the UAV to stably take off and land in moving environments.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.3 s.116
• /
• pp.182-187
• /
• 2006

Aerial application using an unmanned agricultural helicopter can reduce labor and pollution. The development of an agricultural helicopter became urgent for both precise and timely spraying. In this study, a rotor system for unmanned helicopter capable of 20 $kg_f$ payload, was developed and lift capability was evaluated. A lift force over the dead weight of the helicopter was obtained at the pitch angle of $6^{\circ}$. As the pitch angle increased to $8^{\circ}\;and\;10^{\circ}$, the total lift increased to $74{\sim}81\;kg_f\;and\;86{\sim}93\;kg_f$, respectively. A range of engine speed at the rated flight condition, lifting mean payload of 23 $kg_f$ was determined. The data acquired from this study will be used for designing tail system and RF console in the next stage of the research. The rated lift capability was enough for loading 20 liters of spray material including spraying equipments.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.1941-1960
• /
• 2019

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), acting as mobile base stations (BSs), can be deployed in the typical fifth-generation mobile communications (5G) scenarios for the purpose of substantially enhancing the radio coverage. Meanwhile, UAV aided underlay device-to-device (D2D) communication mode can be activated for further improving the capacity of the 5G networks. However, this UAV aided D2D communication system is more vulnerable to eavesdropping attacks, resulting in security risks. In this paper, the D2D receivers work in full-duplex (FD) mode, which improves the security of the network by enabling these legitimate users to receive their useful information and transmit jamming signal to the eavesdropper simultaneously (with the same frequency band). The security communication under the UAV coverage is evaluated, showing that the system's (security) capacity can be substantially improved by taking advantage of the flexible radio coverage of UAVs. Furthermore, the closed-form expressions for the coverage probabilities are derived, showing that the cellular users (CUs)' secure coverage probability in downlink transmission is mainly impacted by the following three factors: its communication area, the relative position with UAV, and its eavesdroppers. In addition, it is observed that the D2D users or DUs' secure coverage probability is relevant to state of the UAV. The system's secure capacity can be substantially improved by adaptively changing the UAV's position as well as coverage.

• Smart Media Journal
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.65-71
• /
• 2017

In this paper, we propose a design method for the construction of LTE-based small unmanned aerial vehicle control system to quickly and reliably collect multiple small unmanned aerial vehicle position information simultaneously flying all over the country. In particular, the main requirements are the network (N/W), hardware (H/ W), software(SW), Database(DB), development architecture, and business needs. To satisfy these requirements, N/W, H/W, SW, DB design, and architectural design plan were suggested regarding the design requirements of a small UAV system. To effectively control the small unmanned multi-party system in the system design, the architecture is divided into the front-end service area and the back-end service area according to the function and role of the unit system. In the front-end service area that grasps and controls the position and state of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), we have studied the design part that can be expanded to N through TCP/IP network by applying Client PC method.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.302-309
• /
• 2010

Aerial application using an unmanned agricultural helicopter would allow precise and timely spraying. The attitude of a helicopter depends on a number of dynamic variables for roll-balanced flight. Laterally tilting behavior of a helicopter is a physically intrinsic phenomenon while hovering and forwarding. In order to balance the fuselage, the rotor should be counter-tilted, resulting in the biased down-wash. The biased spraying toward right side causes uneven spray pattern. In this study, a raised tail rotor system for the roll-balanced helicopter was studied. Thrust of the tail rotor system was measured and theoretically estimated for the fundamental database of the roll-balanced helicopter design. The estimated tail thrust and roll-moment would be used to design the raising height of tail rotor and roll balancing dynamics. The unmanned agricultural helicopter required the tail rotor thrust of about 39.2 N (4.0 kgf) during hovering with a payload of 235.4 N (24 kgf). A raised tail rotor system would compensate for the physical tilt phenomena. A further attitude control system of helicopter would assist roll-balanced aerial spray application.

• 제어로봇시스템학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.47.6-47
• /
• 2002

UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) has become one of the most popular military/commercial aerial robots in the new millenium. In spite of all the advantages that UAVs inherently have, it is not an easy job to develop a UAV because it requires very systematic and complete approaches in full development envelop. The ground test & evaluation phase has the utmost importance in the sense that a well developed system can be best verified on the ground. In addition, many of the aircraft crashes in the flight tests were resulted from the incomplete development procedure. In this research, a verification procedure of the whole airborne integrated system was conducted including the flight management sys...

• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
• /
• v.27 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2023

Mission autonomy system should be embedded on UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) for mosaic warfare where UAVs autonomously assign tasks to themselves. UxAS (Unmanned x-systems Autonomy Service) proposed by Air Force Research Laboratory is mission autonomy system for unmanned platforms. UxAS has extensible structure composed of numerous module services. However, UxAS can conduct mission autonomy process only when an operator sends an autonomy request. In this paper, We analyze the process of mission autonomy in UxAS, and propose an improved structure of UxAS where mission autonomy process is autonomously triggered by situation awareness service without the request of the operator. The proposed process was validated by simulation.

• Journal of Cadastre & Land InformatiX
• /
• v.48 no.1
• /
• pp.71-91
• /
• 2018

In recent years, application of UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) to seed sowing and pest control has been actively carried out in the field of agriculture. In this study, UAS(Unmanned Aerial System) is constructed by combining image sensor of various wavelength band and SfM((Structure from Motion) based image analysis technique in UAV. Utilization of UAS based vegetation survey was investigated and the applicability of precision farming was examined. For this purposes, a UAS consisting of a combination of a VIS_RGB(Visible Red, Green, and Blue) image sensor, a modified BG_NIR(Blue Green_Near Infrared Red) image sensor, and a TIR(Thermal Infrared Red) sensor with a wide bandwidth of $7.5{\mu}m$ to $13.5{\mu}m$ was constructed for a low cost UAV. In addition, a total of ten vegetation indices were selected to investigate the chlorophyll, nitrogen and water contents of plants with visible, near infrared, and infrared wavelength's image sensors. The images of each wavelength band for the test area were analyzed and the correlation between the distribution of vegetation index and the vegetation index were compared with status of the previously surveyed vegetation and ground cover. The ability to perform vegetation state detection using images obtained by mounting multiple image sensors on low cost UAV was investigated. As the utility of UAS equipped with VIS_RGB, BG_NIR and TIR image sensors on the low cost UAV has proven to be more economical and efficient than previous vegetation survey methods that depend on satellites and aerial images, is expected to be used in areas such as precision agriculture, water and forest research.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.42 no.3
• /
• pp.269-276
• /
• 2015

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) has several advantages over conventional remote sensing techniques. They can acquire high-resolution images quickly and repeatedly. And with a comparatively lower flight altitude, they can obtain good quality images even in cloudy weather. In this paper, we discussed the state-of-the-art of the domestic and international use of UAV in agricultural sector as well as assessed its utilization and applicability for agricultural environment in Korea. Association of robotic, computer vision and geomatic technologies have established a new paradigm of low-altitude aerial remote sensing that has now been receiving attention from researchers all over the world. In a field study, it has been found that use of UAV imagery in an agricultural subsidy program can reduce the farmers' complain and provide objective evidence. UAV high resolution photography can also be helpful in monitoring the disposal zone for animal carcasses. Due to its expeditiousness and accuracy, UAV imagery can be a very useful tool to evaluate the damage in case of an agricultural disaster for both parties insurance companies and the farmers. Also high spatial and temporal resolution in UAV system can increase the prediction accuracy which in turn help to maintain the agricultural supply and demand chain.