Autonomous Landing of a Multirotor on a Mobile Vehicle Using Infrared Beacons
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Garlow, Adam
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Abstract
This dissertation contains a multi-faceted study into the problem of autonomously landing a multirotor uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) onto a moving ground vehicle under challenging environmental conditions and functionally limiting constraints. First, the dissertation will introduce the problem and related work from the literature. Next, the various components of a model of the mobile landing problem will be developed and described. Results from a simulation study performed with these models are then presented. The final main sections of the dissertation cover the design, fabrication, and test results from two generations of mobile landing systems. These results constitute an addition to the state-of-the-art literature on mobile landings because of the speed of landings achieved in a relatively unstructured outdoor environment. To conclude, these contributions to the academic literature are summarized, and future research directions are laid out.
Many other solutions to autonomously landing on a moving ground vehicle have been developed in the literature, some of them to great functional effect. However, most of these solutions rely on global position systems (GPS), communication between vehicles, or visual targets requiring precise camera calibration based on current environmental conditions. These requirements contrast the reality that many of the most promising applications for teams of UAVs and ground vehicles lie in unstructured environments. In search and rescue and military contexts, communications, GPS, and lighting conditions are far from guaranteed. Therefore, the UAVs documented in this dissertation do not require GPS or communications with the ground vehicle; instead, their relative localization systems rely on infrared beacons. This allows robust landing operations, demonstrated on off-road surfaces and in any lighting condition, including complete darkness.
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2024-05-17
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Dissertation