Types Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Research Articles

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Magnetic Surveys: A Review on Platform Selection and Interference Suppression

In the past two decades, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been used in many scientific research fields for various applications. In particular, the use of UAVs for magnetic surveys has become a hot spot and is expected to be actively applied in the future. A considerable amount of literature has been published on the use of UAVs for magnetic surveys, however, how to choose the platform and reduce the interference of UAV to the collected data have not been discussed systematically. There are two primary aims of this study: (1) To ascertain the basis of UAV platform selection and (2) to investigate the characteristics and suppression methods of UAV magnetic interference. Systematic reviews were performed to summarize the results of 70 academic studies (from 2005 to 2021) and outline the research tendencies for applying UAVs in magnetic surveys. This study found that multi-rotor UAVs have become the most widely used type of UAVs in recent years because of their advantages such as easiness to operate, low cost, and the ability of flying at a very low altitude, despite their late appearance. With the improvement of the payload capacity of UAVs, to use multiple magnetometers becomes popular since it can provide more abundant information. In addition, this study also found that the most commonly used method to reduce the effects of the UAV’s magnetic interference is to increase the distance between the sensors and the UAV, although this method will bring about other problems, e.g., the directional and positional errors of sensors caused by erratic movements, the increased risk of impact to the magnetometers. The pros and cons of different types of UAV, magnetic interference characteristics and suppression methods based on traditional aeromagnetic compensation and other methods are discussed in detail. This study contributes to the classification of current UAV applications as well as the data processing methods in magnetic surveys.

Energy and Spectrum Efficient Blind Equalization With Unknown Constellation for Air-to-Ground Multipath UAV Communications

In unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communications, frequency-selective fading can severely deteriorate the quality of transmitted signal by generating undesired and disordered constellation diagrams due to scatters in the air-to-ground (ATG) mutipath channels. In this paper, we propose a low-overhead blind equalization method to combat frequency-selective fading in air-ground multipath UAV channels. Specifically, a pre-equalization method is proposed based on a constant modulus algorithm to restore the contour of the constellation diagram. Moreover, the similarity measure function and the difference measure function are derived using template matching to identify the constellation of M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation. Furthermore, we propose a weighted constant cross algorithm (WXA) to reduce the residual mean square error and construct a cross-shaped modulus value, by utilizing the statistical information of the identified normalized standard constellation diagrams and the equalizer output decision symbols' weighting value. The proposed method requires less information and no training sequences and pilots, therefore, if achieves energy and spectrum efficient ATG multipath UAV communications. Simulation results show that the proposed WXA algorithm can reduce the residual mean square error convergence value between -22dB and -25dB, making it very useful for the equalization of the frequency-selective fading channel in typical UAV communication scenarios.

Design of a small-scale UAV textile wing fluid-structure numerical modelling

This paper depicts the early phase in the research development for an integrated UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle)support system tailored for emergency response actions and remote sensing. The support system is envisioned as an integrated Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) system that consists of one or more ultralight multifunctional aerial units with a configuration that can be adapted to the nature of the intervention: monitoring, mapping, observation, logistics etc. These aerial units comprise of para-motor type UAVs that use textile paraglider wings of a special design. The overall development and theoretical design aspects that are involved in this research is subject of change been part of an ongoing research study. Starting from wing airfoil and material selection, a design phase is under development for a single sail paraglider wing that can meet the operational demands for the envisioned system. The wing is designed mainly to have an easy handling, predictable deployment at all times and good aerodynamic characteristics. The paper tackles in particular the stretch effect on the wing and the influence on these aerodynamic characteristics as well as means of minimizing the adverse effects.

Simulation of airborne collision between a drone and an aircraft nose

The usage of a large number of civil unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has caused potential hazards to the safe operation of manned aircraft. In this paper, a full-size commercial aircraft nose and a typical UAV with the whole level were selected for collision test, by which the verified finite element (FE) models were applied to four representative regions of the nose for collision simulation. A 1,360 g UAV and a 1,800 g bird have collided with the nose respectively under the same conditions and the former caused more serious damage. The kinetic energy of UAV as well as the hardness of its major components plays a critical role in evaluating damage of the nose, and the greater the kinetic energy loss, the more serious the damage of the nose is in general. It was very possible that the battery of UAV would penetrate the skin to enter the inside of nose with high speed and cause explosion and fire. The flying posture of UAV has an effect on the nose damage and no penetration happened to the lower panel of the main windshield under various possible impact postures of UAV with a velocity of 152 m/s. The existing anti-bird strike airworthiness clauses concerning the aircraft nose as CCAR 25.571 are not suitable for the design of nose against UAV strike and are suggested to be improved with extensive research findings in the future, including the operational requirements of UAVs and the design guidelines for a UAV collision mitigation.

ANN estimation model for photogrammetry-based UAV flight planning optimisation

ABSTRACT Artificial intelligence (AI) is undergoing a ground-breaking period. Recently, AI affects almost every part of human life. Using AI in path planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) attracts attention as a novel need. The inputs that form the base of UAV use in photogrammetry are UAV Type (UT), Ground Sampling Distance (GSD), Overlap Rates (OR), and Atmospheric Conditions (AC). Input parameters directly impact the UAV’s Flight Time (FT) and Battery Status (BS). Weighting and optimizing these parameters are the main ideas of this study. The effects of input values (GSD, OR, UT, AC) on the outputs (BS and FT) were optimized using Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) in this study. For the analysis, results have been produced in which different training algorithms are preferred (Gradient Descent – GD – and Levenberg-Marquardt – LM). The GD algorithm has reached 77.65% accuracy in FT estimation and 80.91% estimation accuracy on normalized data on the BS. Then, the correlation between the produced model and the input parameters and the output parameters was determined, and the weights of the inputs were revealed. As a result, it was determined that the AC parameter has the most significant effect on BS and FT. Also, it has been identified that the normalization process has a considerable impact on optimization.

Review on unmanned aerial vehicle remote sensing and its application in coastal ecological environment monitoring

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and UAV-based remote sensors are becoming more technologically advanced and widely used in the ecological environment monitoring. The analyses of UAV remote sensing data can help to improve the input efficiency in ecological environment assessment, which can greatly improve the monitoring efficiency and reduce the impact on environmental pollution. This review introduces the common types of UAV, types of UAV-based remote sensors as well as UAV communication, and their practical application in different coastal ecological environment monitoring scenes: terrestrial pollution source, marine debris, algae disaster, which can provide fresh perspective and thought for producer and researcher to develop the UVA remote sensing application in this field.

CFD Analysis on Aerodynamic Coefficients of Flying Saucer

With the growing of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) usage, many new types of UAV are introduced. Flying Saucer is a new type of UAV which is not yet famous in the market. The aim of this study is to analysis the aerodynamic coefficients of a Flying Saucer. The research question arise is What the optimum angle of attack for Flying Saucer flight is. The study is conducted in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using COMSOL Multiphysics with Laminar Flow physics for several angles of attack. The analysis considers Lift and Drag coefficient in the form of 𝐶𝐿 and 𝐶𝐷 to angle of attack (α) plot, ratio of 𝐶𝐿/𝐶𝐷 to angle of attack (α) plot and drag polar plot. We conclude that a symmetric Flying Sauce has aerodynamic characteristic with the optimum operational angle of attack in the range of 8 to 16 deg. The 𝐶𝐷 and 𝐶𝐿 has a quadratic relationship with large 𝐶𝐷0 due to the geometric of Flying Saucer. It recommends that further study should explore in the area of zero and maximum angle of attack (α) and validation in wind tunnel experiment.

Flight Test Evaluation for Tilt Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Development

Tiltrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is type of UAV that combine fixed wing (FW) and multirotor (VTOL) configuration in order to be able to perform instant transition from one configuration to another. Tiltrotor UAV has advantage to perform takeoff and landing from limited space such as plantation farm, forest, and residential area. Tiltrotor also can carry various mission since it has 2 configuration such as cargo drone, safer payload dropping, and mapping. In this research tiltrotor UAV designed with ruddervator (V-Tail) configuration with 3 motors in total, 2 motors placed on main wing with tilting capability and 1 motor placed at the end of fuselage as pitch controller in VTOL mode. Test flight will be conducted and evaluated to test UAV capability in hovering and transition from one mode to another

Anti-Disturbance Fault-Tolerant Sliding Mode Control for Systems with Unknown Faults and Disturbances

In this paper, a novel control algorithm with the capacity of fault tolerance and anti-disturbance is discussed for the systems subjected to actuator faults and mismatched disturbances. The fault diagnosis observer (FDO) and the disturbance observer (DO) are successively designed to estimate the dynamics of unknown faults and disturbances. Furthermore, with the help of the observed information, a sliding surface and the corresponding sliding mode controller are proposed to compensate the actuator faults and eliminate the impact of mismatched disturbances simultaneously. Meanwhile, the convex optimization algorithm is discussed to guarantee the stability of the controlled system. The favorable anti-disturbance and fault-tolerant results can also be proved. Finally, the validity of the algorithm is certified by the simulation results for typical unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) systems.

UAV icing: the influence of airspeed and chord length on performance degradation

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of icing on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at low Reynolds numbers and to highlight the differences to icing on manned aircraft at high Reynolds numbers. This paper follows existing research on low Reynolds number effects on ice accretion. This study extends the focus to how variations of airspeed and chord length affect the ice accretions, and aerodynamic performance degradation is investigated.Design/methodology/approachA parametric study with independent variations of airspeed and chord lengths was conducted on a typical UAV airfoil (RG-15) using icing computational fluid dynamic methods. FENSAP-ICE was used to simulate ice shapes and aerodynamic performance penalties. Validation was performed with two experimental ice shapes obtained from a low-speed icing wind tunnel. Three meteorological conditions were chosen to represent the icing typologies of rime, glaze and mixed ice. A parameter study with different chord lengths and airspeeds was then conducted for rime, glaze and mixed icing conditions.FindingsThe simulation results showed that the effect of airspeed variation depended on the ice accretion regime. For rime, it led to a minor increase in ice accretion. For mixed and glaze, the impact on ice geometry and penalties was substantially larger. The variation of chord length had a substantial impact on relative ice thicknesses, ice area, ice limits and performance degradation, independent from the icing regime.Research limitations/implicationsThe implications of this manuscript are relevant for highlighting the differences between icing on manned and unmanned aircraft. Unmanned aircraft are typically smaller and fly slower than manned aircraft. Although previous research has documented the influence of this on the ice accretions, this paper investigates the effect on aerodynamic performance degradation. The findings in this work show that UAVs are more sensitive to icing conditions compared to larger and faster manned aircraft. By consequence, icing conditions are more severe for UAVs.Practical implicationsAtmospheric in-flight icing is a severe risk for fixed-wing UAVs and significantly limits their operational envelope. As UAVs are typically smaller and operate at lower airspeeds compared to manned aircraft, it is important to understand how the differences in airspeed and size affect ice accretion and aerodynamic performance penalties.Originality/valueEarlier work has described the effect of Reynolds number variations on the ice accretion characteristics for UAVs. This work is expanding on those findings by investigating the effect of airspeed and chord length on ice accretion shapes separately. In addition, this study also investigates how these parameters affect aerodynamic performance penalties (lift, drag and stall).

Desired tracking of delayed quadrotor UAV under model uncertainty and wind disturbance using adaptive super-twisting terminal sliding mode control

In this study, the fully-actuated dynamic equation of quad-rotor as a type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is considered in the existence of input-delay, model uncertainty and wind disturbance. Then, a super-twisting terminal sliding mode control approach is planned with the aim of the finite-time attitude and position tracking of quad-rotor UAV considering input-delay, model uncertainty and wind disturbance. The finite time convergence of the tracking trajectory of quad-rotor is proved by Lyapunov theory concept. When the upper bound of the modeling uncertainty and wind disturbance is supposed to be unknown, an adaptive super-twisting terminal sliding mode control is proposed. Therefore, the unknown bounds of the model uncertainty and wind disturbance affecting the quad-rotor UAV are estimated using the adaptive-tuning control laws. Finally, simulation outcomes and experimental verifications are provided to demonstrate the validation and success of planned control technique.

Effects of UAV overflight height, UAV type, and season on the behaviour of emperor penguin adults and chicks

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) increased during the last decade worldwide and in the pristine wilderness of the Antarctic continent. They are used by scientists from diverse fields, television and film crews, tourists, and station personnel. To protect Antarctic wildlife from potential disturbance, policy makers and national authorities require scientific information on the vulnerability of such species. Our study provides knowledge on the behavioural reaction to UAV overflights of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) during crèche and fledge phase. We investigated three main questions: what is the influence of flight height, do two different UAV models (a quadcopter and a fixed-wing UAV) have different effects, and what is the influence of different times during the season. For adult penguins we found no differences between flight heights of 70 m or higher and control situations when flying with the quadcopter. Such a flight height without significant change in reactions in comparison to control could not be found for neither chicks (with both UAV models tested) nor adults during fixed-wing flights. In general, the behavioural reaction to the quadcopter was higher than to the fixed-wing UAV regarding proportions of individuals. The comparison of two times revealed a stronger reaction on the later time (end of December) than on the earlier (mid of November). In general, the reaction was not very intense with only small proportions of individuals changing their behaviour.

Green UAV communications for 6G: A survey

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have received a wide range of attention for military and commercial applications. Enhanced with communication capability, UAVs are considered to play important roles in the Sixth Generation (6G) networks due to their low cost and flexible deployment. 6G is supposed to be an all-coverage network to provide ubiquitous connections for space, air, ground and underwater. UAVs are able to provide air-borne wireless coverage flexibly, serving as aerial base stations for ground users, as relays to connect isolated nodes, or as mobile users in cellular networks. However, the onboard energy of small UAVs is extremely limited. Thus, UAVs can be only deployed to establish wireless links temporarily. Prolonging the lifetime and developing green UAV communication with low power consumption becomes a critical challenge. In this article, a comprehensive survey on green UAV communications for 6G is carried out. Specifically, the typical UAVs and their energy consumption models are introduced. Then, the typical trends of green UAV communications are provided. In addition, the typical applications of UAVs and their green designs are discussed. Finally, several promising techniques and open research issues are also pointed out.

Portable 5.8ghz FPV system with Smartaudio

The Portable FPV System with Smartaudio is a method used simply to control a radio-controlled vehicle specifically those that use Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or other type of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in the driver or Pilot’s view point. Incorporated to the system is a special feature called Smartaudio. Smartaudio is a type of VTX telemetry protocol in which it is a combination of an audio signal and a digital control signal. The two said signals are combined together to one simple audio signal. This signal can be used to control the VTX or Video Transmitter. And it is a simple serial signal. This basically allows the Pilot of the UAV to change settings for video transmitter via the On Screen Display (OSD) menu. So having Smartaudio feature makes things like switching VTX channels, power levels less difficult for Pilots, with no need to push switches or obscure push button menus. When pilots switched over to this system that supports Smartaudio it is seen just how quickly it can change multiple settings using OSD, giving more freedom and accessibility.

Towards enabling unmanned aerial vehicles as a service for heterogeneous applications

The increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in various commercial applications, such as precision agriculture and aerial remote sensing, is fast contributing to a significant growth in the UAV market. Also, it is crucial to provide continuous coverage after failures of wireless network components or additional bandwidth in high traffic situations. By introducing the concept of UAVs as a service (UaaS), we propose a novel framework, dubbed D <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> S, consisting of four phases: Demand, decision, deployment, and service. The main objective of this framework is to provide a realistic and streamlined approach to support the implementation of the UaaS paradigm. The technical problems involved include determining the type and number of UAVs to be deployed and their final locations (e.g., hovering or on-ground). They also include the trajectory planning, possibly several times, between charging stations and deployment locations. We present the application of the D <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> S framework to two case studies with the goal of providing wireless connectivity services to (i) static users after failures of wireless network components, including long-term and short-term failures, and (ii) dynamic users in wireless relaying systems.

Sistem Kontrol Pesawat Tanpa Awak Untuk Menentukan Waypoint Berbasis Ardupilot

An unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is a type of unmanned aerial vehicle which is controlled by a remote system. This type of aircraft is usually controlled by remote control from outside the plane and can also move automatically based on a program that has been programmed on the computer system. In this study, a control system with autopilot and remote control is used. This study aims to apply the ardupilot system to the super heavy model aircraft with a long-range flight mode control system using the Futaba T8J (8 channel) radio control. The results of this study took a flight time of 15.02 minutes with an altitude of 30 meters, a waypoint radius of 20 meters with a speed of 10 m / s.

Multi-agent systems for quadcopters

&lt;p style='text-indent:20px;'&gt;Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been increasingly used in the context of remote sensing missions such as target search and tracking, mapping, or surveillance monitoring. In the first part of our paper we consider agent dynamics, network topologies, and collective behaviors. The objective is to enable multiple UAVs to collaborate toward a common goal, as one would find in a remote sensing setting. An agreement protocol is carried out by the multi-agents using local information, and without external user input. The second part of the paper focuses on the equations of motion for a specific type of UAV, the quadcopter, and expresses them as an affine nonlinear control system. Finally, we illustrate our work with a simulation of an agreement protocol for dynamically sound quadcopters augmenting the particle graph theoretic approach with orientation and a proper dynamics for quadcopters.&lt;/p&gt;

Analysis of Micro-Doppler Signatures of Small UAVs Based on Doppler Spectrum

Most of the investigations on the micro-Doppler (MD) effect caused by a small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) have been conducted using joint time–frequency (JTF) images rather than the Doppler spectrum. On the other hand, several researchers utilized the Doppler spectrum instead of JTF images to observe the MD signature of a small UAV, and found the relationship between the spectral distribution of a small UAV and its physical specifications. However, the studies using the Doppler spectrum still lack concrete and theoretical foundations of the MD effects of a small UAV, focusing mainly on phenomena identified by measurement data. In this article, we establish the theoretical foundation connecting the MD signatures and motion dynamics of small UAVs based on the Doppler spectrum, and analyze their spectral distribution using simulations and measured data. In addition, experimental analysis is conducted using the data measured from various types of small UAVs considering the translational motion and aspect change. In contrast to already existing investigations, we completely explain and predict the changes on the Doppler spectrum relative to the physical specifications of a small UAV (e.g., blade length and rotor rotation rate). In particular, we show that the Doppler spectrum, compared to the JTF images, is a considerably simple and useful tool for analyzing the MD effects of small flying UAVs. The analysis results reveal that the MD features obtained from the measured echoes of small UAVs have considerable potential for detection and classification of small UAVs.

Business Model for SMEs in the Field of Additive Manufacturing

AbstractThe paper presents a business model used by a small and medium enterprise (SME) that operates in the field of additive manufacturing, focuses on selective laser sintering technology, and using an industrial 3D printing system, Formiga P 100 from EOS. The SME develops specific parts for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), starting from the identification of the client's need, and customizing different components for various types of UAVs.[6] The decision of making these products imposes a detailed cost–benefit analysis and a new direction of commercial activity whose financial results are still under evaluation.[1] Under these circumstances, the new business model consists of set‐up a spin‐off business from the National Institute for Research and Development (NIRD) in Microtechnologies.

Electrostatic Signal analysis of rotor UAV

With the rapid growth of unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) market, incidents of small UAV flying without license or without permission frequently occur, which bring serious hidden dangers to the security of civil airports, sensitive targets and major activities. Rapid and accurate detection and recognition of small UAVs is the basis and premise of countermeasures against small UAVs. However, due to the fact that the production materials of small UAVs are mostly composite materials with good wave-absorbing and wave-penetrating properties and small size, the existing detection technologies such as radar and laser cannot effectively detect the signals of UAVs, so the detection accuracy is very low and the amount of information that can be obtained is small. In this paper, the most typical type of small UAV, rotor UAV, is taken as the research object to study the electrostatic signal of rotor UAV, which provides a theoretical basis for the electrostatic detection of rotor UAV.