Association For Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Research Articles

Interference Analysis of an Heavy Lift Multirotor Drone Flow Field and Transported Spraying System

Drones in can be used for a variety of different task, aimed to increase farm crop yields and/or accurately monitor growth status, simultaneously decreasing time, labour and resources. While for some specific task a medium size drone can be used, on the other hand for more intensive task like for example spraying of pesticide or fertilizer, an heavy lift drone is more appropriate. A growing momentum application consists in the possibility to use heavy lift drones for pesticide distribution. A report by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) found that so-called precision agriculture will make up about 80% of the United States UAS market. Some of the multirotor already on the market are designed to spray large areas of farmland with pesticides or fertilizers, covering an extraordinary amount of distance quickly – 4,000-6,000 m² in just 10 minutes and reducing the amount of pesticide from 20% to 40%, with no exposure to risk for human being. The optimal design of transported spraying equipment requires a careful study of fluid dynamics interactions of the downwash wakes generated from the rotors and the spraying nozzle of horizontal or vertical bars. Experimental setups finalised to drones spraying analysis are complex to use, and the final results are strongly influenced by the operative and environmental conditions. A powerful tool for a preliminary investigation of such interactions is provided by computational fluid dynamics, allowing a predictive analysis of possible wash down wake effects with spraying operative setup. And in this work a CFD analysis of two different configurations (X6 and Y6 multirotors) is presented. The knowledge of aerodynamic effects will allow the optimisation of boom position and a correct setup of the discharge rate of chemical liquid according to the flying speed of the UAV.

The 23rd Annual Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition: Building Engineering Students into Robotists

The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) is one of four, unmanned systems, student competitions that were founded by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The IGVC is a multidisciplinary exercise in product realization that challenges college engineering student teams to integrate advanced control theory, machine vision, vehicular electronics and mobile platform fundamentals to design and build an unmanned system. Teams from around the world focus on developing a suite of dual-use technologies to equip ground vehicles of the future with intelligent driving capabilities. Over the past 23 years, the competition has challenged undergraduate, graduate and Ph. D. students with real world applications in intelligent transportation systems, the military and manufacturing automation. To date, teams from over 80 universities and colleges have participated. This paper describes some of the applications of the technologies required by this competition and discusses the educational benefits. The primary goal of the IGVC is to advance engineering education in intelligent vehicles and related technologies. The employment and professional networking opportunities created for students and industrial sponsors through a series of technical events over the four-day competition are highlighted. Finally, an assessment of the competition based on participation is presented.

Unmanned Aerial Systems for Field Scouting and Spraying

Unmanned Aerial Systems for Field Scouting and Spraying

Unmanned vehicle show makes a capital appearance

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to review the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Conference and Show held in Washington DC, with emphasis on unmanned vehicles or service robots and their application on the ground, in the air and in the water.Design/methodology/approachIn‐depth interviews with exhibitors of unmanned vehicles and the providers of the technologies which are fundamental to their design and deployment.FindingsThe unmanned vehicle industry is largely driven by government requirements, both military and civilian. Unmanned service robots are also found in applications such as crop monitoring and fish school location at sea. Unmanned vehicles are getting smaller, smarter and more rugged to meet new challenges.Originality/valueUnmanned vehicles continue to address air, ground and marine application needs where human safety is important. The vehicles continue to become more and more autonomous, smaller and ever better to address a wider range of application requirements.

Visual-Based Navigation of an Autonomous Surface Vehicle

AbstractThis paper presents the work of a team of undergraduate and graduate students at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) who compete in the annual Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) competition held jointly by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR). The conceptual design of the vehicle, its physical realization, and the results of both preliminary testing and the final competition are presented. The initial configuration of a stereoscopic vision system and navigation algorithm is explored through testing in a controlled environment. With this approach, the vehicle is shown to be capable of navigating through various courses of colored buoys; approximately 25% of the attempts result in successful navigation of all buoy pairs while 75% of the attempts result in successful navigation of half the buoy pairs or more.

A competition-motivated capstone design course: the result of a fifteen-year evolution

In this paper, a design course organization is presented, which is the result of 15 years of experience with a two-semester senior design course sequence in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Detroit Mercy. An organization has been determined, which for the authors, balances team experience, individual assessment, design complexity, realism, writing content, and faculty workload. The current course structure is based on the integration of a capstone program with the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) sponsored by the Association For Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The competition rules require that the students design and build an autonomous land vehicle which can navigate while sensing lane lines, avoiding obstacles, and traveling over ramps and sand traps. There are two main competition events: the vehicle performance competition where the autonomous robotic vehicles compete to finish the course in the shortest time or by traveling the farthest in the allotted time, and the vehicle design competition that evaluates the documentation, design process, and presentation of each team. The authors have found that this type of competition matches both the spirit and the practical needs of their capstone design course.