• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1351-1372
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• 2022

A self-organizing multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (multi-UAVs) deployment based on virtual forces has a difficulty in ensuring the quality-of-experience (QoE) of users because of the difference between the assumed center for users in a hotspot and an actual center for users in the hotspot. This discrepancy is aggravated in a non-uniform and mobile user distribution. To address this problem, we propose a new density based virtual force (D-VF) multi-UAVs deployment algorithm which employs a mean opinion score (MOS) as a metric of QoE. Because MOS is based on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a sum of users' MOS is a good metric not only to secure a wide service area but to enhance the link quality between multi-UAVs and users. The proposed algorithm improves users' QoE by combining virtual forces with a random search force for the exploration of finding multi-UAVs' positions which maximize the sum of users' MOS. In simulation results, the proposed deployment algorithm shows the convergence of the multi-UAVs into the position of maximizing MOS. Therefore, the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional virtual force-based deployment scheme in terms of QoE for non-uniform user distribution scenarios.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.252-259
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• 2011

This paper is focused on dynamic modeling and control system design as well as vision based collision avoidance for multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Multi-rotor UAVs are defined as rotary-winged UAVs with multiple rotors. These multi-rotor UAVs can be utilized in various military situations such as surveillance and reconnaissance. They can also be used for obtaining visual information from steep terrains or disaster sites. In this paper, a quad-rotor model is introduced as well as its control system, which is designed based on a proportional-integral-derivative controller and vision-based collision avoidance control system. Additionally, in order for a UAV to navigate safely in areas such as buildings and offices with a number of obstacles, there must be a collision avoidance algorithm installed in the UAV's hardware, which should include the detection of obstacles, avoidance maneuvering, etc. In this paper, the optical flow method, one of the vision-based collision avoidance techniques, is introduced, and multi-rotor UAV's collision avoidance simulations are described in various virtual environments in order to demonstrate its avoidance performance.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.274-282
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• 2011

This paper is focused on dynamic modeling and control system design as well as vision based collision avoidance for multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Multi-rotor UAVs are defined as rotary-winged UAVs with multiple rotors. These multi-rotor UAVs can be utilized in various military situations such as surveillance and reconnaissance. They can also be used for obtaining visual information from steep terrains or disaster sites. In this paper, a quad-rotor model is introduced as well as its control system, which is designed based on a proportional-integral-derivative controller and vision-based collision avoidance control system. Additionally, in order for a UAV to navigate safely in areas such as buildings and offices with a number of obstacles, there must be a collision avoidance algorithm installed in the UAV's hardware, which should include the detection of obstacles, avoidance maneuvering, etc. In this paper, the optical flow method, one of the vision-based collision avoidance techniques, is introduced, and multi-rotor UAV's collision avoidance simulations are described in various virtual environments in order to demonstrate its avoidance performance.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.315-326
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• 2017

Four quadrotor UAVs are maneuvered to guide four animals into their pen within the minimum time by creating noises of predators modeled with an exponential function. The quadrotor UAVs are controlled via PID controllers, follow time optimal trajectories, and avoid collisions through altitude separations. The stability of the proposed PID controller is analyzed and verified using MATLAB/Simulink based simulations. Proposed step by step strategies would be practical solutions of actual cattle roundup problems.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.107-120
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• 2007

Coordination of multiple UAVs is an essential technology for various applications in robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence. In general, it includes 1) waypoints assignment and 2) trajectory generation. In this paper, we propose a new method for this problem. First, we modify the concept of the standard visibility graph to greatly improve the optimality of the generated trajectories and reduce the computational complexity. Second, we propose an efficient stochastic approach using simulated annealing that assigns waypoints to each UAV from the constructed visibility graph. Third, we describe a method to detect collision between two UAVs. FinallY, we suggest an efficient method of controlling the velocity of UAVs using A* algorithm in order to avoid inter-UAV collision. We present simulation results from various environments that verify the effectiveness of our approach.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Systems Engineering
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.14-32
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• 2022

In this paper, we report the results of a conceptual study to develop of a multi-purpose medium-sized UAV that can safely perform missions in harsh maritime environments. In this study, we focused on developing UAVs capable of performing three maritime missions that urgently require the application of medium-sized UAVs: marine ecosystem management, ocean surveillance system, and response to marine accidents. Furthermore improvement points for the above three naval missions using medium-sized UAVs were derived in preparation for the problems of the existing mission performance. Finally, by developing and analyzing the utilization scenario of the medium-class UAV, the required performance suitable for each mission was defined and assigned to the related mission equipment, A new maritime management plan was proposed using the medium-class UAV system equipped with replaceable mission equipment.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.565-573
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• 2008

The behavior-based decentralized approach is considered for multi-UAV formation flight. It is assumed that each UAV has its own mission of flying to a specified region, while the distances between UAVs should be maintained. These two requirements may conflict with each other. To design the controller, coupled dynamics approach is applied to multi-UAVs with an assumption that each UAV can communicate with each other to share the state-information. Control gain matrices are optimized to acquire better performances of formation flying. To validate the proposed control approach, numerical simulation is performed for the waypoint-passing mission of multi-UAVs.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.488-496
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• 2015

This paper proposes a framework to determine the routes of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to conduct multiple tasks in different locations considering the survivability of the vehicles. The routing problem can be formulated as the vehicle routing problem (VRP) with different cost matrices representing the trade-off between the safety of the UAVs and the mission completion time. The threat level for a UAV at a certain location was modeled considering the detection probability and the shoot-down probability. The minimal-cost path connecting two locations considering the threat level and the flight distance was obtained using the Dijkstra algorithm in hexagonal cells. A case study for determining the optimal routes for a persistent multi-UAVs surveillance and reconnaissance missions given multiple enemy bases was conducted and its results were discussed.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.7-13
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• 2015

Unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) are getting popular not only as a private usage for the aerial photograph but military usage for the surveillance, reconnaissance and supply missions. For an UAV to successfully achieve these kind of missions, geolocation (localization) must be implied to track an interested target or fly by reference. In this research, we adopted multi-sensor fusion (MSF) algorithm to increase the accuracy of the geolocation and verified the algorithm using two multicopter UAVs. One UAV is equipped with an optical camera, and another UAV is equipped with an optical camera and a laser range finder. Throughout the experiment, we have obtained measurements about a fixed ground target and estimated the target position by a series of coordinate transformations and sequential Kalman filter. The result showed that the MSF has better performance in estimating target location than the case of using single sensor. Moreover, the experimental result implied that multi-sensor geolocation algorithm is able to have further improvements in localization accuracy and feasibility of other complicated applications such as moving target tracking and multiple target tracking.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.401-408
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• 2017

This paper describes development and validation processes of a low-cost hardware based flight control computer designed for multi-rotor UAVs. The developed flight control computer controls multi-rotors stable and can handle complex flight missions using an integrated high-performance Linux computer. A complementary filter generates a navigation solution with 500 Hz, and a proposed observer significantly reduces measurement noise. A control algorithm utilizes a feed-forward term computed by a three-dimensional curve fitting method, and it increases tracking performance. The developed flight control system has been fully tested through several test flights, and it can apply to real flight environments.