Browse Topic: Autonomous vehicles

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ABSTRACT Over time, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has refined the 4Dimension / Real-time Control System (4D/RCS) architecture for use in Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs). This architecture, when applied to a fully autonomous vehicle designed for missions in urban environments, can greatly assist in the process of saving time and lives by creating a more intelligent vehicle that acts in a safer and more efficient manner. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI®) has undertaken the Southwest Safe Transport Initiative (SSTI) aimed at investigating the development and commercialization of vehicle autonomy as well as vehicle-based telemetry systems to improve active safety systems and autonomy. This paper will discuss the implementation of the 4D/RCS architecture to the SSTI autonomous vehicle, a 2006 Ford Explorer.
McWilliams, GeorgeBrown, Michael
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The vertical flight industry is on its way to a transformative era, with autonomous technologies set to alter aerial vehicle operations. While it seems certain that fully autonomous helicopters will eventually be deployed for a variety of missions, some high-stakes situations—like medical evacuations (MEDEVAC)—will for the foreseeable future demand human participation in the form of Emergency Medical Care-giving Crew. This study describes the testbed built to run and investigate hypothetical future situations in which a helicopter is autonomously piloted while a human medic with no aviation training, subjected to aviation and medical emergencies, manages patient care onboard. A total of 22 participants, with emergency medical technician certification, nursing or a medical board certification, were invited to run and evaluate the use of AI pilot (AP) in different scenarios of medical evacuation under the following emergencies: medical, empty fuel tank, pressure sensor miscalibration
Doda, SanyaFeigh, KarenAgbeyibor, RichardCortes, CarmenKolb, JackMagalhaes, Jose
The Rotor Blown Wing (RBW) is a tailsitter Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) configuration that leverages cutting-edge autonomous flight controls through Sikorsky's MATRIX™ technology to create a highly capable, efficient, and scalable technology platform. By combining the benefits of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, the RBW configuration eliminates the need for traditional UAS launch and recovery infrastructure. This paper describes the RBW-5 prototype, a 100-pound, dual 5-foot diameter proprotor demonstrator, and discusses the comprehensive evaluation of its design and operability through a combination of flight tests, wind tunnel experiments, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results demonstrate the maturity of the UAS and highlights key accomplishments of the RBW-5 program, including successful autonomous takeoff and landing and transitions between hover and forward flight, the extraction of critical "blown-physics" underlying
Regan, MarcKlimchenko, VeraSargent, CalWallace, BrianRivera, AntonioKaye, JordanSatira, JasonBowles, PatrickColeman, Dustin
Heavy wind and high sea states pose challenges to operating unmanned rotorcraft on-board a naval ship, in particular the recovery phase. A novel autonomous landing strategy for unmanned rotorcraft is proposed and investigated. The new landing strategy makes use of a prediction of the future deck motion based on a sensor on the ship deck. The study is based on a nonlinear simulation environment which includes the dynamics of a 100 kg unmanned helicopter and the dynamics of an ocean-going patrol vessel of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The performance of the autonomous landing strategy is evaluated for a wide variety of environmental conditions (sea state) and operational conditions (ship speed and heading). The results clearly indicate that the environmental conditions have a strong influence on the landing performance in terms of touchdown velocity and landing accuracy. Furthermore, the autonomous landing strategy is effective in reducing the mean and peak value of the touchdown velocity
Zilver, Damyvan Rooij, MichelBakker, Richard
The Dragonfly relocatable lander was selected as NASA's New Frontiers mission in 2019 to explore the organic-rich surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The coaxial quadrotor vehicle will fly to multiple geologic sites covering a distance of over 50 miles near the Titan equator. At each site, Dragonfly will sample materials, determine the surface composition, and investigate how far prebiotic chemistry has progressed on Titan. Upon arrival, the lander will enter the Titan atmosphere protected inside an aeroshell, which will descend and decelerate with parachutes. At an altitude of approximately 1 km above the ground, the lander will separate from the backshell and perform a controlled transition to powered flight. Prior to separation from the backshell and after the heatshield has been ejected, the Preparation for Powered Flight (PPF) sequence will be initiated, which ensures the lander is in a safe and stable state for autonomous descent. A critical element of PPF is the de-spin
Ventura Diaz, PatriciaEdquist, KarlYoon, Seokkwan
Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles undergoing advanced air mobility (AAM) operations feature increasingly autonomous systems (IAS) with non-traditional role allocations. Ensuring the safety of these operations and their novel human–machine teaming (HMT) paradigms requires an appropriate body of knowledge created through relevant, reproducible research. In this paper, we briefly examine the meaning of teaming; current regulation, standards, and guidance; and the knowledge required to build resilient HMTs before turning our attention to how this knowledge is being created by recent research and what conclusions or recommendations can be made. We identify the need for further research into the holistic performance of HMTs, the effect of novel allocations of roles between humans and machines, the ability of humans to provide resilience to unforeseen dangers when acting as a part of these teams; and the characteristics required for clear, timely, and accurate
Neogi, NatashaGraydon, MalloryHolbrook, JonMaddalon, JeffreyMcCormick, Frank
In this work, a vision-based solution is developed to address the challenge of landing on a ship deck with precision and accuracy. For an autonomous landing, it is important to have a fast and accurate pose estimation system along with a reliable control strategy. This research uses fractal ArUCo markers instead of multiple separate markers to allow smooth pose estimation at different heights. Pose estimates are further improved using an Extended Kalman Filter, and a tracking algorithm then uses these estimates to guide the landing. A four degree-of-freedom (roll, pitch, heave and sway) simulator platform was built and used to validate the algorithm. The accuracy of the vision system is compared against that of a motion capture system. Real-world experiments were performed on different quadrotors to demonstrate tracking and landing on the platform with sway, roll, and pitch motions. The results show that the system is efficient and reliable in achieving safe and successful landings
Venkatesh, K S
The National Research Council of Canada is conducting a multi-year autonomous flight systems research and technology development project entitled Advanced Autonomy Systems for Challenging ENvironments Development & Demonstration (AASCEND). As part of AASCEND a no-hover landing capability has been developed and demonstrated in a variety of environmental conditions, including in limited degraded visual environment (DVE) operations. This paper discusses the requirements for no-hover landings, their value within an Autonomous Flight System (AFS), and the implementation of this capability in the NRC's AASCEND autonomous flight system. It presents a methodology for identifying a no-hover landing envelope, taking into account the complex maneuvering required. Within that methodology a proposed set of assessment criteria for no-hover landing performance and behaviour is introduced. The paper reports on the results of applying this methodology to the AASCEND no-hover landing algorithm in a
Gowanlock, DerekSyed, MustafaMoshchensky, AntonEllis, KrisCarrothers, BryanGubbels, Arthur
ABSTRACT Automatic guided vehicles (AGV) have made big inroads in the automation of assembly plants and warehouse operations. There are thousands of AGV units in operation at OEM supplier and service facilities worldwide in virtually every major manufacturing and distribution sector. Although today’s AGV systems can be reconfigured and adapted to meet changes in operation and need, their adaptability is often limited because of inadequacies in current systems. This paper describes a wireless navigated (WN) omni-directional (OD) autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) that incorporates three technical innovations that address the shortfalls. The AGV features consist of: 1) A newly developed integrated wireless navigation technology to allow rapid rerouting of navigation pathways; 2) Omnidirectional wheels to move independently in different directions; 3) Modular space frame construction to conveniently resize and reshape the AGV platform. It includes an overview of the AGVs technical features
Cheok, Ka CRadovnikovich, MichoFleck, PaulHallenbeck, KevinGrzebyk, SteveVanneste, JerryLudwig, WolfgangGarner, Robert
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