An Innovative Process-Based Mission Management System for Unmanned Vehicles
01 Jun 2020-
TL;DR: The main advantages of the proposed solution are the increase of the mission management system reliability level and the reduction of costs, thanks to the adoption of same "core" section for different kinds of transport platforms and the employment of Micro Electro-Mechanical System devices.
Abstract: This paper presents the design study developed to realize an innovative mission management system that can be installed onboard different unmanned vehicles. The main aim of the project is the standardization of system processes by employing a modular architecture, that can be adopted for several mission profiles. The activity focus is set on the system components design in order to assess specific processing applications. So, after the identification of common processes among platforms, traditional onboard functions can be implemented, such as Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C). This innovative system architecture is characterized by a "core" section, that includes the processing units, and a "custom" section, that involves specific vehicle devices, such as sensors, antennas, and actuators. Considering the modular approach, the optimized design must be selected for each of these units, allowing easier onboard installation and systems exchange. Assessing the specific inputs and combining the "core" processes it is possible to realize synthetic functions that reconstruct the traditional functions outputs. The main advantages of the proposed solution are the increase of the mission management system reliability level and the reduction of costs, thanks to the adoption of same "core" section for different kinds of transport platforms and the employment of Micro Electro-Mechanical System devices.
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In this article , a real-time Kalman filter was used to estimate the attitude and position of a bridge in order to overcome the limitations in terms of dimensions and position update frequency.
Abstract: Systems for accurate attitude and position monitoring of large structures, such as bridges, tunnels, and offshore platforms are changing in recent years thanks to the exploitation of sensors based on Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) as an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). Currently adopted solutions are, in fact, mainly based on fiber optic sensors (characterized by high performance in attitude estimation to the detriment of relevant costs large volumes and heavy weights) and integrated with a Global Position System (GPS) capable of providing low-frequency or single-update information about the position. To provide a cost-effective alternative and overcome the limitations in terms of dimensions and position update frequency, a suitable solution and a corresponding prototype, exhibiting performance very close to those of the traditional solutions, are presented and described hereinafter. The solution leverages a real-time Kalman filter that, along with the proper features of the MEMS inertial sensor and Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) GPS, allows achieving performance in terms of attitude and position estimates suitable for this kind of application. The results obtained in a number of tests underline the promising reliability and effectiveness of the solution in estimating the attitude and position of large structures. In particular, several tests carried out in the laboratory highlighted high system stability; standard deviations of attitude estimates as low as 0.04° were, in fact, experienced in tests conducted in static conditions. Moreover, the prototype performance was also compared with a fiber optic sensor in tests emulating actual operating conditions; differences in the order of a few hundredths of a degree were found in the attitude measurements.
4 citations
23 Jun 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, a configuration of drone swarm that can be used in support of the actions to limit the virus spread during a pandemic period, such as the COVID-19 emergency, is described.
Abstract: This paper describes a configuration of drone swarm that can be used in support of the actions to limit the virus spread during a pandemic period, such as the COVID-19 emergency. The proposed study analyzes a system architecture for the identification of individuals affected by the virus, estimating their biomedical parameters. The presented method exploits different techniques, such as stereoscopy vision, thermal measures and remote photoplethysmography, to acquire standalone data that can be compared to evaluate the target risk. The tested solutions are proposed to measure the social distancing among multiple individuals, the skin temperature of a target person, and the image photoplethysmography signal, that are critical parameters to detect a potentially infect individual during the COVID-19 pandemic. Different test strategies were adopted to carry out the mentioned tasks. To measure the distance between target individuals, two drones equipped with visible band cameras were employed. To measure the skin temperature of a target, a drone equipped with a thermal camera was adopted, performing measures at different distances and heights. To obtain the image photoplethysmography signal, a video file from drone camera is processed. Image processing techniques are required to elaborate the data coming from several images and videos acquired by drones. Comparing the measures, altered biomedical parameters of several targets can be detected and later tested with medical equipment.
4 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , a redundant-IMU solution for low-cost consumer-grade MEMS sensors suitable also for navigation applications has been proposed, based on the evaluation of the Allan variance and the use of weighted average.
Abstract: The recent performance improvements of the Micro-Electro Mechanical Sensor, in terms of noise parameters, have allowed increasing their application fields such as consumer, structural health monitoring, and navigation applications thanks to their advantages in terms of cost, small dimension, low power consumption, and versatility. Furthermore, in aerospace and automotive sectors, the sensors adopted must strictly respect the noise parameters that classified the inertial sensors, i.e., bias instability and random walk, typically reached by tactical-grade sensors with higher cost. To make low-cost consumer-grade MEMS sensors suitable also for navigation applications, a redundant-IMU solution has been the subject of research. The authors proposed a suitable strategy to fuse the measurements obtained from all the IMU composed of an accelerometer and gyroscope mounted on a suitable and innovative 3D structure, based on the evaluation of the Allan variance and the use of weighted average.
4 citations
23 Jun 2021
TL;DR: In this article, the authors presented an innovative strategy to measure the initial heading of a vehicle in the local reference frame by means of a tactical-grade MEMS-based inertial measurement unit and a low-cost MEMS magnetometer.
Abstract: The paper presents an innovative strategy to measure the initial heading of a vehicle in the local reference frame by means of a tactical-grade MEMS-based inertial measurement unit and a low-cost MEMS magnetometer. The developed system allows not only to pointing the North direction but also to assure the stability of the attitude estimates overcoming bias and drift errors affecting the measures of this type of sensors and keeping the advantages of the MEMS sensors technology such as small volume, lightweight and flexibility. The proposed integrated solution exploits an indirect gyrocompassing strategy through an error-state Kalman Filter algorithm for the coarse alignment aided by the magnetic Earth field measurements. The system performance is preliminarily assessed in static conditions and compared with a certified reference system in order to verify its compliance with the requirement for Small Unmanned Aerial System.
3 citations
TL;DR: The BAICal (Intelligent Autonomous Buoy by the University of Calabria) as mentioned in this paper is an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) developed at the Autonomous Systems Lab (LASA) of the Department of Computer Science, Modeling, Electronics, and Systems Engineering (DIMES) of Uccelli, Italy.
Abstract: This paper presents the design and implementation of BAICal (Intelligent Autonomous Buoy by the University of Calabria), an autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) developed at the Autonomous Systems Lab (LASA) of the Department of Computer Science, Modeling, Electronics, and Systems Engineering (DIMES), University of Calabria. The basic project was born as a research program in marine robotics with multiple applications, either in the sea or in lake/river environments, for data monitoring, search and rescue operations and diver support tasks. Mechanical and hardware designs are discussed by considering a three-degree-of-freedom (3DoF) dynamical model of the vehicle. An extension to the typical guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) software architecture is presented. The software design and the implementation of a manager module (M-GNC architecture) that allows the vehicle to autonomously coordinate missions are described. Indeed, autonomous guidance and movement are only one of several more complex tasks that mobile robots have to perform in a real scenario and that allow a long-term life cycle. Module-based software architecture is developed by using the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework that is suitable for different kinds of autonomous vehicles, such as aerial, ground, surface or underwater drones.
3 citations
References
More filters
01 Sep 2008
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the detailed architecture of the electronics system for the STARFISH AUV and the benefits of modular hardware and its advantages in developing and integrating newer sensor payloads with the base AUV.
Abstract: The use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) in various research, commercial and military applications has significantly increased in the recent years. Most AUVs available commercially tend to be complex and very expensive. With advances in recent technology, sensors with new functionality or lower cost substitutes have become available. Most existing AUV platforms do not facilitate easy integration of new or upgraded sensors. A solution to this problem is to have a modular AUV system with changeable payload sections capable of carrying different sensor to suite different missions. Modular AUVs are exceptionally useful in group mission scenarios with different AUVs carrying different sensor payloads. By having a team of modular AUVs, payloads can be easily interchanged between the AUVs to configure the team for various missions. Modular AUVs require their sections to be electrically and mechanically compatible with one another. In this paper we describe the detailed architecture of the electronics system for STARFISH AUV. The benefits of modular hardware and its advantages in developing and integrating newer sensor payloads with the base AUV are shown. The modular electronics system for STARFISH AUV has been implemented and currently being tested.
38 citations
"An Innovative Process-Based Mission..." refers background in this paper
...Modularity intent carries a challenging employment of the already developed technologies, but there are several studies about the adoption of embedded systems to obtain modular architectures and open systems, as reported in [10] [11] [12] for UAS design, and in [13] [14] for maritime applications....
[...]
17 Sep 2017
TL;DR: This paper reviews the development of an onboard system — Safeguard — designed to monitor and enforce conformance to a set of operational rules defined prior to flight and describes a framework that decouples the system from any other devices on the UAS as well as introduces complementary positioning source(s) for applications that require integrity and availability beyond what can be provided by the Global Positioning System.
Abstract: As demands increase to use unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for a broad spectrum of commercial applications, regulatory authorities are examining how to safely integrate them without compromising safety or disrupting traditional airspace operations. For small UAS, several operational rules have been established; e.g., do not operate beyond visual line-of-sight, do not fly within live miles of a commercial airport, do not fly above 400 ft above ground level. Enforcing these rules is challenging for UAS, as evidenced by the number of incident reports received by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This paper reviews the development of an onboard system — Safeguard — designed to monitor and enforce conformance to a set of operational rules defined prior to flight (e.g., geospatial stay-out or stay-in regions, speed limits, and altitude constraints). Unlike typical geofencing or geo-limitation functions, Safeguard operates independently of the off-the-shelf UAS autopilot and is designed in a way that can be realized by a small set of verifiable functions to simplify compliance with existing standards for safety-critical systems (e.g. for spacecraft and manned commercial transportation aircraft systems). A framework is described that decouples the system from any other devices on the UAS as well as introduces complementary positioning source(s) for applications that require integrity and availability beyond what can be provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS). This paper summarizes the progress and test results for Safeguard research and development since presentation of the design concept at the 35th DASC (2016). Significant accomplishments include completion of software verification and validation in accordance with NASA standards for spacecraft systems (to Class B), development of improved hardware prototypes, development of a simulation platform that allows for hardware-in-the-loop testing and fast-time Monte Carlo evaluations, and flight testing on multiple air vehicles. Integration testing with NASA's UAS Traffic Management (UTM) service-oriented architecture was also demonstrated.
25 citations
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: This doctoral thesis was to design and develop a flexible and reusable hardware/software abstraction layer for a UAS distributed architecture in order to carry out different UAS civil missions and solve the reusability of the system in a cost-effective way.
Abstract: Currently, Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) are mostly being used for military applications, but with the evolution of avionics technology, a huge market in civil applications is now emerging. However, there is a lack of hardware and software support to effectively develop these potentialities in the civil domain. No commercial solution exists today that provides the support needed for these civil missions. In addition, economic efficiency requires the same UAS to be able to operate in different application types and domains. Therefore, one of the current challenges in UAS research is to define a hardware/software UAS framework that is sufficiently flexible and reusable to be operated in a wide range of civil applications. In order to be competitive in the civil market this framework must provide fast prototyping and be low in cost. The main objective of this doctoral thesis was to design and develop a flexible and reusable hardware/software abstraction layer for a UAS distributed architecture in order to carry out different UAS civil missions. The proposed abstraction layer is called UAS Service Abstraction Layer (USAL) which allows the easy and fast design of missions and solves the reusability of the system in a cost-effective way. The existence of an open-framework avionics package specifically designed for UAS alleviates the development costs, allowing them to be redesigned for different missions by a simple parameterization. For this software abstraction layer, a distributed service oriented architecture (SOA) is used. Functional units are implemented as independent services that interact with each other using a Local Area Network (LAN). From the study of UAS civil missions and the state of the art in the design of UAS architecture, an exhaustive list of self-content services needed in almost all UAS civil missions is offered. Thus, the USAL provides a list of common services needed to develop the different civil missions identified. These services have been organized into four different categories, each containing services that cooperate in the same main objective such as Flight, Mission, Payload and Awareness. The flight category services have been designed, implemented and tested over a simulation platform called ICARUS Simulation Integrated Scenario (ISIS). ISIS provides a test environment in which the USAL components or services that have already been designed can interact with others that are being designed. It also provides an easier and safer way to test the mission application. The fact that a flying UAS or other mission equipment is not needed significantly reduces the cost of testing the USAL. Finally, a proof of concept of the USAL has been built using a remote sensing application. This proof of concept and the possible mission strategy have been tested over the ISIS platform as part of the "Sky-Eye" project. The aim of this project is to monitor wild land fires in the Mediterranean area, with special emphasis on the hot-spot monitoring application, and thereby to demonstrate the use and reconfiguration capability of the USAL.
17 citations
"An Innovative Process-Based Mission..." refers background in this paper
...Modularity intent carries a challenging employment of the already developed technologies, but there are several studies about the adoption of embedded systems to obtain modular architectures and open systems, as reported in [10] [11] [12] for UAS design, and in [13] [14] for maritime applications....
[...]
01 Sep 2016
TL;DR: The UAS Demand Generator for Discrete Airspace Density (UAXPAN) project combines forecast data from disparate sources in a common data format, and uses these to present a solid basis for demand forecasts.
Abstract: A key requirement in preparing for a growing UAS industry and for the integration of unmanned vehicles into the US national airspace, is a method for clear and specific forecasting. We must know what types of operations are being performed, where they will occur, and what types of vehicles will be used. Current demand forecast models are not tightly coupled to the real purpose of the mission requirements (e.g. in terms the real locations of physical structures such as windmills to inspect, farms to survey, pipelines to patrol, etc.). To this end, Mosaic ATM under NASA guidance, is developing a crowd-sourced demand forecast engine for commercial and government organizational users to draw upon and share vetted and accurate projection data, and extend that data to evaluate associated impacts. The UAS Demand Generator for Discrete Airspace Density (UAXPAN) project combines forecast data from disparate sources in a common data format, and uses these to present a solid basis for demand forecasts. This specific, data-driven forecasting is crucial to understanding the impacts of a growing UAS industry on regional infrastructure, environment, and economy.
14 citations
01 Jul 2017
TL;DR: This plenary contribution first discusses the design for autonomy challenge and the transition from the ‘human-in-the-loop’ to the ’human-on- the-loop' concept that is coupled with the much needed reduced operator workload, followed by a comprehensive and modular UAS control architecture aiming at facilitating software developments regardless of specific hardware.
Abstract: Unmanned Aircraft Systems, UAS, have seen unprecedented levels of growth during the last decade. Projections and expectations for future UAS utilization span a very wide and diverse spectrum of civilian and public domain applications, in addition to the obvious military applications, from emergency response, to environmental monitoring, early fire detection and forest protection, to name but a few such applications. However, before timely and orderly integration into the national airspace system, NAS, it is essential that challenges at least in the areas of design for autonomy, navigation, robust and fault-tolerant control, sense-detect-and-avoid/see-and-avoid systems for mid-air collision avoidance, UAV safety and reliability, reaches maturity before complete UAS integration into the national airspace system occurs. This plenary contribution first discusses the design for autonomy challenge and the transition from the ‘human-in-the-loop’ to the ‘human-on-the-loop’ concept that is coupled with the much needed reduced operator workload, followed by a comprehensive and modular UAS control architecture aiming at facilitating software developments regardless of specific hardware. A generalized, sensor-based, fault-tolerant navigation control architectural framework for (nonlinear, linearized and linear) autonomous UAS, including a methodology to accommodate in real-time rotorcraft main/tail rotor failures (resulting in helicopter safe landing) is also recommended; however, this framework is also suitable for other types of UAS, i.e., fixed-wing aircraft and multi-rotor configurations.
13 citations
"An Innovative Process-Based Mission..." refers background in this paper
...Modularity intent carries a challenging employment of the already developed technologies, but there are several studies about the adoption of embedded systems to obtain modular architectures and open systems, as reported in [10] [11] [12] for UAS design, and in [13] [14] for maritime applications....
[...]