Built in Collision Avoidance for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)
Why Collision Avoidance?
1. Consider the Raven mission:– Battalion level tool– Reconnaissance missions– Patrol the perimeter of camps– Search of IEDs
2. Consider the price decrease– A full system (ground station+3 UAV+ spare)
started initially at about $320,000 -> $250,000 in 2005 -> $130,000 in 2009
In Near Future
• A battalion will have multiple UAS
• It is more convenient to plan the missions for each Raven INDEPENDENTLY
• Given the weight of UAVs, it must be sensitive to wind (course will deviate from planned mission) need for real time adjustments
Constraints on UAS
• Upper limit on the altitude• Lower limit on the altitude (stealth or
regulations)• Speed within a limited range
• Limited communications range for low end UAS
Auburn Objective (2008)
• “fly safely and efficiently, in a limited space, a fleet of autonomous UAVs on a cooperative mission with terrestrial vehicles. ”
• Challenging Constraints– UAVs must fly at constant speed– UAVs must fly at the same altitude
Completed Tasks Since August 2008
• Started with an amateur platform
• Summer 2010: Auburn adds a digital data link based on Zigbee – Multi hop mesh network (UAVs can be used
as relays/routers)– On fly waypoints updates
Completed Tasks Since August 2008
• Summer 2011:– Symbiotic software architecture– Three collision avoidance algorithms (different
families)
• Summer 2012– Five more collision avoidance
• Summer 2013– Ground station– Auto-configuration
Software Architecture
Achievements
• Ground station
• Fly up to 16 UAVs in 1 km x 1km with no near miss
• Fly up to 8 UAVs in a 500 m x 500 m wih no near miss
Ground Station (Screen)
Ground Station (Screen)
Ongoing Improvements
• Increase the communication range• Securing the link• Make UASfault tolerant to GPS
failures/jamming• Decrease failed launches (low end UAS)• Internet enabled (remote control/data
collection)
Questions?
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