A method to interpret fracture aperture of rock slope using adaptive shape and unmanned aerial vehicle multi-angle nap-of-the-object photogrammetry

The aperture of natural rock fractures significantly affects the deformation and strength properties of rock masses,as well as the hydrodynamic properties of fractured rock masses.The conventional measurement methods are inadequate for collecting data on high-steep rock slopes in complex mountainous regions.This study establishes a high-resolution three-dimensional model of a rock slope using unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)multi-angle nap-of-the-object photogrammetry to obtain edge feature points of fractures.Fracture opening morphology is characterized using coordinate projection and transformation.Fracture central axis is determined using vertical measuring lines,allowing for the interpretation of aperture of adaptive fracture shape.The feasibility and reliability of the new method are verified at a construction site of a railway in southeast Tibet,China.The study shows that the fracture aperture has a significant interval effect and size effect.The optimal sampling length for fractures is approximately 0.5e1 m,and the optimal aperture interpretation results can be achieved when the measuring line spacing is 1%of the sampling length.Tensile fractures in the study area generally have larger apertures than shear fractures,and their tendency to increase with slope height is also greater than that of shear fractures.The aperture of tensile fractures is generally positively correlated with their trace length,while the correlation between the aperture of shear fractures and their trace length appears to be weak.Fractures of different orientations exhibit certain differences in their distribution of aperture,but generally follow the forms of normal,log-normal,and gamma distributions.This study provides essential data support for rock and slope stability evaluation,which is of significant practical importance.

Received Power Based Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) Jamming Detection and Nodes Classification Using Machine Learning

This paper presents a machine-learning method for detecting jamming UAVs and classifying nodes during jamming attacks onWireless Sensor Networks(WSNs).Jamming is a type of Denial of Service(DoS)attack and intentional interference where a malicious node transmits a high-power signal to increase noise on the receiver side to disrupt the communication channel and reduce performance significantly.To defend and prevent such attacks,the first step is to detect them.The current detection approaches use centralized techniques to detect jamming,where each node collects information and forwards it to the base station.As a result,overhead and communication costs increased.In this work,we present a jamming attack and classify nodes into different categories based on their location to the jammer by employing a single node observer.As a result,we introduced a machine learning model that uses distance ratios and power received as features to detect such attacks.Furthermore,we considered several types of jammers transmitting at different power levels to evaluate the proposed metrics using MATLAB.With a detection accuracy of 99.7%for the k-nearest neighbors(KNN)algorithm and average testing accuracy of 99.9%,the presented solution is capable of efficiently and accurately detecting jamming attacks in wireless sensor networks.

Underdetermined direction of arrival estimation with nonuniform linear motion sampling based on a small unmanned aerial vehicle platform

Uniform linear array(ULA)radars are widely used in the collision-avoidance radar systems of small unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs).In practice,a ULA's multi-target direction of arrival(DOA)estimation performance suffers from significant performance degradation owing to the limited number of physical elements.To improve the underdetermined DOA estimation performance of a ULA radar mounted on a small UAV platform,we propose a nonuniform linear motion sampling underdetermined DOA estimation method.Using the motion of the UAV platform,the echo signal is sampled at different positions.Then,according to the concept of difference co-array,a virtual ULA with multiple array elements and a large aperture is synthesized to increase the degrees of freedom(DOFs).Through position analysis of the original and motion arrays,we propose a nonuniform linear motion sampling method based on ULA for determining the optimal DOFs.Under the condition of no increase in the aperture of the physical array,the proposed method obtains a high DOF with fewer sampling runs and greatly improves the underdetermined DOA estimation performance of ULA.The results of numerical simulations conducted herein verify the superior performance of the proposed method.

Ground target localization of unmanned aerial vehicle based on scene matching

In order to improve target localization precision,accuracy,execution efficiency,and application range of the unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)based on scene matching,a ground target localization method for unmanned aerial vehicle based on scene matching(GTLUAVSM)is proposed.The sugges-ted approach entails completing scene matching through a feature matching algorithm.Then,multi-sensor registration is optimized by robust estimation based on homologous registration.Finally,basemap generation and model solution are utilized to improve basemap correspondence and accom-plish aerial image positioning.Theoretical evidence and experimental verification demonstrate that GTLUAVSM can improve localization accuracy,speed,and precision while minimizing reliance on task equipment.

Rotary unmanned aerial vehicles path planning in rough terrain based on multi-objective particle swarm optimization

This paper presents a path planning approach for rotary unmanned aerial vehicles(R-UAVs)in a known static rough terrain environment.This approach aims to find collision-free and feasible paths with minimum altitude,length and angle variable rate.First,a three-dimensional(3D)modeling method is proposed to reduce the computation burden of the dynamic models of R-UAVs.Considering the length,height and tuning angle of a path,the path planning of R-UAVs is described as a tri-objective optimization problem.Then,an improved multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm is developed.To render the algorithm more effective in dealing with this problem,a vibration function is introduced into the collided solutions to improve the algorithm efficiency.Meanwhile,the selection of the global best position is taken into account by the reference point method.Finally,the experimental environment is built with the help of the Google map and the 3D terrain generator World Machine.Experimental results under two different rough terrains from Guilin and Lanzhou of China demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed algorithm in finding Pareto optimal paths.

Outage Performance of Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access Based Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Satellite Networks

With rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs), more and more UAVs access satellite networks for data transmission. To improve the spectral efficiency, non-orthogonal multiple access(NOMA) is adopted to integrate UAVs into the satellite network, where multiple satellites cooperatively serve the UAVs and mobile terminal using the Ku-band and above. Taking into account the rain fading and the fading correlation, the outage performance is first analytically obtained for fixed power allocation and then efficiently calculated by the proposed power allocation algorithm to guarantee the user fairness. Simulation results verify the outage performance analysis and show the performance improvement of the proposed power allocation scheme.

Placement of unmanned aerial vehicles as communication relays in two-tiered multi-agent system:clustering based methods

The network performance and the unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)number are important objectives when UAVs are placed as communication relays to enhance the multi-agent information exchange.The problem is a non-deterministic polynomial hard(NP-hard)multi-objective optimization problem,instead of generating a Pareto solution,this work focuses on considering both objectives at the same level so as to achieve a balanced solution between them.Based on the property that agents connected to the same UAV are a cluster,two clustering-based algorithms,M-K-means(MKM)and modified fast search and find density of peaks(MFSFDP)methods,are first proposed.Since the former algorithm requires too much computational time and the latter one requires too many relays,an algorithm for the balanced network performance and relay number(BPN)is proposed by discretizing the area to avoid missing the optimal relay positions and defining a new local density function to reflect the network performance metric.Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms are feasible and effective.Comparisons between these algorithms show that the BPN algorithm uses fewer relay UAVs than the MFSFDP and classic set-covering based algorithm,and its computational time is far less than the MKM algorithm.

Event-triggered leader-following formation control for multi-agent systems under communication faults: application to a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles

The main contribution of this paper is the design of an event-triggered formation control for leader-following consensus in second-order multi-agent systems(MASs)under communication faults.All the agents must follow the trajectories of a virtual leader despite communication faults considered as smooth time-varying delays dependent on the distance between the agents.Linear matrix inequalities(LMIs)-based conditions are obtained to synthesize a controller gain that guarantees stability of the synchronization error.Based on the closed-loop system,an event-triggered mechanism is designed to reduce the control law update and information exchange in order to reduce energy consumption.The proposed approach is implemented in a real platform of a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)under communication faults.A comparison between a state-of-the-art technique and the proposed technique has been provided,demonstrating the performance improvement brought by the proposed approach.

A new approach to study terrestrial yardang geomorphology based on high-resolution data acquired by unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs): A showcase of whaleback yardangs in Qaidam Basin, NW China

Yardangs are wind-eroded ridges usually observed in arid regions on Earth and other planets. Previous geomorphology studies of terrestrial yardang fields depended on satellite data and limited fieldwork. The geometry measurements of those yardangs based on satellite data are limited to the length, the width, and the spacing between the yardangs; elevations could not be studied due to the relatively low resolution of the satellite acquired elevation data, e.g. digital elevation models(DEMs). However, the elevation information(e.g. heights of the yardang surfaces) and related information(e.g. slope) of the yardangs are critical to understanding the characteristics and evolution of these aeolian features. Here we report a novel approach, using unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs) to generate centimeterresolution orthomosaics and DEMs for the study of whaleback yardangs in Qaidam Basin, NW China. The ultra-high-resolution data provide new insights into the geomorphology characteristics and evolution of the whaleback yardangs in Qaidam Basin. These centimeter-resolution datasets also have important potential in:(1) high accuracy estimation of erosion volume;(2) modeling in very fine scale of wind dynamics related to yardang formation;(3) detailed comparative planetary geomorphology study for Mars, Venus, and Titan.

Fault Tolerant Control Scheme Design for Formation Flight Control System of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The command tracking problem of formation flight control system(FFCS)for multiple unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)with sensor faults is discussed.And the objective of the addressed control problem is to design a robust fault tolerant tracking controller such that,for the disturbances and sensor faults,the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable with a given disturbance attenuation level.A robust fault tolerant tracking control scheme,combining an observer with H∞ performance,is proposed.Furthermore,it is proved that the designed controller can guarantee asymptotic stability of FFCS despite sensor faults.Finally,a simulation of two UAV formations is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Contour Based Path Planning with B-Spline Trajectory Generation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) over Hostile Terrain

This research focuses on trajectory generation algorithms that take into account the stealthiness of autonomous UAVs;generating stealthy paths through a region laden with enemy radars. The algorithm is employed to estimate the risk cost of the navigational space and generate an optimized path based on the user-specified threshold altitude value. Thus the generated path is represented with a set of low-radar risk waypoints being the coordinates of its control points. The radar-aware path planner is then approximated using cubic B-splines by considering the least radar risk to the destination. Simulated results are presented, illustrating the potential benefits of such algorithms.

Multi-objective Optimization Design of Vented Cylindrical Airbag Cushioning System for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

Multi-objective optimization design of the gas-filled bag cushion landing system is investigated.Firstly,the landing process of airbag is decomposed into a adiabatic compression and a release of landing shock energy,and the differential equation of cylindrical gas-filled bag is presented from a theoretical perspective based on the ideal gas state equation and dynamic equation.Then,the effects of exhaust areas and blasting pressure on buffer characteristics are studied,taking those parameters as design variable for the multiobjective optimization problem,and the solution can be determined by comparing Pareto set,which is gained by NSGA-Ⅱ.Finally,the feasibility of the design scheme is verified by experimental results of the ground test.

Circular Formation Flight Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles With Directed Network and External Disturbance

This paper proposes a new distributed formation flight protocol for unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)to perform coordinated circular tracking around a set of circles on a target sphere.Different from the previous results limited in bidirectional networks and disturbance-free motions,this paper handles the circular formation flight control problem with both directed network and spatiotemporal disturbance with the knowledge of its upper bound.Distinguishing from the design of a common Lyapunov fiunction for bidirectional cases,we separately design the control for the circular tracking subsystem and the formation keeping subsystem with the circular tracking error as input.Then the whole control system is regarded as a cascade connection of these two subsystems,which is proved to be stable by input-tostate stability(ISS)theory.For the purpose of encountering the external disturbance,the backstepping technology is introduced to design the control inputs of each UAV pointing to North and Down along the special sphere(say,the circular tracking control algorithm)with the help of the switching function.Meanwhile,the distributed linear consensus protocol integrated with anther switching anti-interference item is developed to construct the control input of each UAV pointing to east along the special sphere(say,the formation keeping control law)for formation keeping.The validity of the proposed control law is proved both in the rigorous theory and through numerical simulations.

Road Traffic Monitoring from Aerial Images Using Template Matching and Invariant Features

Road traffic monitoring is an imperative topic widely discussed among researchers.Systems used to monitor traffic frequently rely on cameras mounted on bridges or roadsides.However,aerial images provide the flexibility to use mobile platforms to detect the location and motion of the vehicle over a larger area.To this end,different models have shown the ability to recognize and track vehicles.However,these methods are not mature enough to produce accurate results in complex road scenes.Therefore,this paper presents an algorithm that combines state-of-the-art techniques for identifying and tracking vehicles in conjunction with image bursts.The extracted frames were converted to grayscale,followed by the application of a georeferencing algorithm to embed coordinate information into the images.The masking technique eliminated irrelevant data and reduced the computational cost of the overall monitoring system.Next,Sobel edge detection combined with Canny edge detection and Hough line transform has been applied for noise reduction.After preprocessing,the blob detection algorithm helped detect the vehicles.Vehicles of varying sizes have been detected by implementing a dynamic thresholding scheme.Detection was done on the first image of every burst.Then,to track vehicles,the model of each vehicle was made to find its matches in the succeeding images using the template matching algorithm.To further improve the tracking accuracy by incorporating motion information,Scale Invariant Feature Transform(SIFT)features have been used to find the best possible match among multiple matches.An accuracy rate of 87%for detection and 80%accuracy for tracking in the A1 Motorway Netherland dataset has been achieved.For the Vehicle Aerial Imaging from Drone(VAID)dataset,an accuracy rate of 86%for detection and 78%accuracy for tracking has been achieved.

Three-dimensional multi-constraint route planning of unmanned aerial vehicle low-altitude penetration based on coevolutionary multi-agent genetic algorithm

To address the issue of premature convergence and slow convergence rate in three-dimensional (3D) route planning of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) low-altitude penetration,a novel route planning method was proposed.First and foremost,a coevolutionary multi-agent genetic algorithm (CE-MAGA) was formed by introducing coevolutionary mechanism to multi-agent genetic algorithm (MAGA),an efficient global optimization algorithm.A dynamic route representation form was also adopted to improve the flight route accuracy.Moreover,an efficient constraint handling method was used to simplify the treatment of multi-constraint and reduce the time-cost of planning computation.Simulation and corresponding analysis show that the planning results of CE-MAGA have better performance on terrain following,terrain avoidance,threat avoidance (TF/TA2) and lower route costs than other existing algorithms.In addition,feasible flight routes can be acquired within 2 s,and the convergence rate of the whole evolutionary process is very fast.

Distributed tracking control of unmanned aerial vehicles under wind disturbance and model uncertainty

A distributed robust method is developed for cooperative tracking control of unmanned aerial vehicles under unknown wind disturbance and model uncertainty. The communication network among vehicles is a directed graph with switching topology. Each vehicle can only share its states with its neighbors. Dynamics of the vehicles are nonlinear and affected by the wind disturbance and model uncertainty. Feedback linearization is adopted to transform the dynamics of vehicles into linear systems. To account for the wind disturbance and model uncertainty, a robust controller is designed for each vehicle such that all vehicles ultimately synchronize to the virtual leader in the three-dimensional path. It is theoretically shown that the position states of the vehicles will converge to that of the virtual leader if the communication network has a directed spanning tree rooted at the virtual leader. Furthermore, the robust controller is extended to address the formation control problem. Simulation examples are also given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. © 2016 Beijing Institute of Aerospace Information.

Asynchronous H_∞ Control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: Switched Polytopic System Approach

This study is concerned with the H∞control for the full-envelope unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the presence of missing measurements and external disturbances. With the dramatic parameter variations in large flight envelope and the locally overlapped switching laws in flight, the system dynamics is modeled as a locally overlapped switched polytopic system to reduce designing conservatism and solving complexity. Then, considering updating lags of controller's switching signals and the weighted coefficients of the polytopic subsystems induced by missing measurements, an asynchronous H∞control method is proposed such that the system is stable and a desired disturbance attenuation level is satisfied. Furthermore, the sufficient existing conditions of the desired switched parameter-dependent H∞controller are derived in the form of linear matrix inequality (LMIs) by combining the switched parameter-dependent Lyapunov function method and average dwell time method. Finally, a numerical example based on a highly maneuverable technology (HiMAT) vehicle is given to verify the validity of the proposed method. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

A Secure Communication Protocol for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Mavlink is a lightweight and most widely used open-source communication protocol used for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.Multiple UAVs and autopilot systems support it,and it provides bi-directional communication between the UAV and Ground Control Station.The communications contain critical information about the UAV status and basic control commands sent from GCS to UAV and UAV to GCS.In order to increase the transfer speed and efficiency,the Mavlink does not encrypt the messages.As a result,the protocol is vulnerable to various security attacks such as Eavesdropping,GPS Spoofing,and DDoS.In this study,we tackle the problem and secure the Mavlink communication protocol.By leveraging the Mavlink packet’s vulnerabilities,this research work introduces an experiment in which,first,the Mavlink packets are compromised in terms of security requirements based on our threat model.The results show that the protocol is insecure and the attacks carried out are successful.To overcomeMavlink security,an additional security layer is added to encrypt and secure the protocol.An encryption technique is proposed that makes the communication between the UAV and GCS secure.The results show that the Mavlink packets are encrypted using our technique without affecting the performance and efficiency.The results are validated in terms of transfer speed,performance,and efficiency compared to the literature solutions such as MAVSec and benchmarked with the original Mavlink protocol.Our achieved results have significant improvement over the literature and Mavlink in terms of security.

Trajectory Tracking of Vertical Take-off and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Based on Disturbance Rejection Control

We investigate the trajectory tracking problem of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and propose a practical disturbance rejection control strategy. Firstly, the nonlinear error model is established completely by the modified Rodrigues parameters, while considering dynamics of the servo actuators. Then, a hierarchical control scheme is applied to design the translational and rotational controllers based on the time-scale property of each subsystem, respectively. And the linear extended state observer and auxiliary observer are used to deal with the uncertainties and saturation. At last, global stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed based on the singular perturbation theory. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

An Air Route Planning Model of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Under Constraints of Ground Safety

With the rapid growth of the number and flight time of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs),safety accidents caused by UAVs flight risk is increasing gradually.Safe air route planning is an effective means to reduce the operational risk of UAVs at the strategic level.The optimal air route planning model based on ground risk assessment is presented by considering the safety cost of UAV air route.Through the rasterization of the ground surface under the air route,the safety factor of each grid is defined with the probability of fatality on the ground per flight hour as the quantitative index.The air route safety cost function is constructed based on the safety factor of each grid.Then,the total cost function considering both air route safety and flight distance is established.The expected function of the ant colony algorithm is rebuilt and used as the algorithm to plan the air routes.The effectiveness of the new air route planning model is verified through the logistical distribution scenario on urban airspace.The results indicate that the new air route planning model considering safety factor can greatly improve the overall safety of air route under small increase of the total flight time.