We present a methodology for the deployment of the maxsum algorithm, a well known decentralised algorithm for coordinating autonomous agents, for problems related to situational awareness. In these settings, unmanned autonomous vehicles are deployed to collect information about an unknown environment. Our methodology then helps identify the choices that need to be made to apply the algorithm to...

In April 2006, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle crashed near Nogales, Arizona. This incident is of interest because it triggered one of the most sustained studies into the causes of failure involving such a vehicle. The National Transportation Safety Board together with the US Customs and Border Protection agency under the Department of Homeland Security worked to identify lessons learned from this m...

In recent years, numerous military and civilian applications for autonomous underwater vehicles have been identified or proposed and a number of production and research vehicles have been developed to address many of these. However, the use of vehicle-specific data formats and mission planning systems hampers cooperative research efforts by fostering the implementation of stove-pipe systems. Ad...

Performing rescuing and surveillance operations with autonomous ground and aerial vehicles become more and more apparent task. Involving unmanned robot systems allows making these operations more efficient, safe and reliable especially in hazardous areas. This work is devoted to the development of a cost-efficient micro aerial vehicle in a quadrocopter shape for developmental purposes within in...

The future will provide an increasing number of autonomous unmanned systems; e.g. weapons and vehicles, to be deployed by the nation’s military. There are a large number of safety issues that such systems will pose, one such safety concern is the ability of the autonomous unmanned system to accurately identify environmental elements and make the appropriate decisions based upon the situation. H...

Abbreviations AADS = autonomous aerial delivery system ADS = aerial delivery system CEP = circular error probable C = command and control IED = improvised explosive device GNC = guidance, navigation and control GPS = Global Positioning System GSM = Global System for Mobile (Communications) MCCC = mission C center PATCAD = Precision Airdrop Technology Conference and Demonstration SA = situationa...

Brigham Young University recently introduced a project for undergraduates in which a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle system is constructed. The system is capable of autonomous flight, takeoff, landing, and navigation through a planned path. In addition, through the use of video and telemetry collected by the vehicle, accurate geolocation of specified targets is performed. This paper outlines ...

During recent years there has been growing interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Moreover, the necessity to control and navigate these vehicles has attracted much attention from researchers in this field. This is mostly due to the fact that the interactions between turbulent airflows apply complex aerodynamic forces to the system. Since the dynamics of a quadrotor are non-linear and the ...

This paper presents the concept of unmanned vehicle situation awareness and provides a discussion of how an unmanned vehicle situation awareness architecture can be developed based upon human situation awareness. A broadly adapted human situation awareness definition is directly applied to the notion of unmanned vehicle situation awareness. The paper also discusses unique unmanned vehicle aspec...