Parallel hybrid-electric propulsion systems would be beneficial for small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used for military, homeland security, and disaster monitoring missions involving intelligence, surveillance, or reconnaissance (ISR). The benefits include increased time-on-station and range than electric-powered UAVs and stealth modes not available with gasoline-powered UAVs. A conceptual design of a small UAV with a parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system, an optimization routine for the energy use, the application of a neural network to approximate the optimization results, and simulation results are provided. The two-point conceptual design includes an internal combustion engine sized for cruise and an electric motor and lithium-ion battery pack sized for endurance speed. The flexible optimization routine allows relative importance to be assigned between the use of gasoline, electricity, and recharging. The Cerebellar Model Arithmetic Computer (CMAC) neural network approximates the optimization results and is applied to the control of the parallel hybrid-electric propulsion system. The CMAC controller saves on the required memory compared to a large look-up table by two orders of magnitude. The energy use for the hybrid-electric UAV with the CMAC controller during a one-hour and a three-hour ISR mission is 58% and 27% less, respectively, than for a gasoline-powered UAV.

Intelligent Autonomy of UAVs: Advanced Missions and Future Use provides an approach to the formulation of the fundamental task typical to any mission and provides guidelines of how this task can be solved by different generic robotic problems. As such, this book aims to provide a systems engineering approach to UAV projects, discovering the real problems that need to be resolved independently of the application. After an introduction to the rapidly evolving field of aerial robotics, the book presents topics such as autonomy, mission analysis, human-UAV teams, homogeneous and heterogeneous UAV teams, and finally, UAV-UGV teams. It then covers generic robotic problems such as orienteering and coverage. The book next introduces deployment, patrolling, and foraging, while the last part of the book tackles an important application: aerial search, tracking, and surveillance. This book is meant for both scientists and practitioners. For practitioners, it presents existing solutions that are categorized according to various missions: surveillance and reconnaissance, 3D mapping, urban monitoring, precision agriculture, forestry, disaster assessment and monitoring, security, industrial plant inspection, etc. For scientists, it provides an overview of generic robotic problems such as coverage and orienteering; deployment, patrolling and foraging; search, tracking, and surveillance. The design and analysis of algorithms raise a unique combination of questions from many fields, including robotics, operational research, control theory, and computer science.

With the extraordinary growth of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in research, military, and commercial contexts, there has been a need for a reference that provides a comprehensive look at the latest research in the area. Filling this void, Smart Autonomous Aircraft: Flight Control and Planning for UAV introduces the advanced methods of flight contr

This book discusses the dynamics of a tail-sitter quadrotor and biplane quadrotor-type hybrid unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and, based on it, various nonlinear controllers design like backstepping control (BSC), ITSMC (Integral Terminal Sliding Mode Control), and hybrid controller (BSC + ITSMC). It discusses single and multiple observer-based control strategies to handle external disturbances like wind gusts and estimate states. It covers the dynamics of slung load with a biplane quadrotor and a control architecture to handle the effect of partial rotor failure with wind gusts acting on it. An anti-swing control to prevent damage to the slung load and a deflecting surface-based total rotor failure compensation strategy to prevent damage to the biplane quadrotor are also discussed in this book. The monograph will be helpful for undergraduate and post-graduate students as well as researchers in their advanced studies.

A team of launched and coordinated Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), requires advanced technologies in sensing, communication, computing, and control to improve their intelligence and robustness towards autonomous operations. To enhance reliability, robustness, and mission capability of a team of UAVs, a system-oriented and holistic approach is desirable in which all components and subsystems are considered in terms of their roles and impact on the entire system. This volume aims to summarize the recent progress, identify challenges and opportunities, and develop new methodologies and systems on coordinated UAV control. A group of experts working in this area have contributed to this volume in several related aspects of autonomous control of networked UAVs. Their papers introduce new control methodologies, algorithms, and systems that address several important issues in developing intelligent, autonomous or semi-autonomous, networked systems for the next generation of UAVs. The papers share a common focus on improved coordination of the members of the networked system to accomplish a common mission, to achieve heightened capability in system reconfiguration to compensate for lost members or connections, and to enhance robustness against terrain complications and attacks.

Unmanned Aerial Systems: Theoretical Foundation and Applications presents some of the latest innovative approaches to drones from the point-of-view of dynamic modeling, system analysis, optimization, control, communications, 3D-mapping, search and rescue, surveillance, farmland and construction monitoring, and more. With the emergence of low-cost UAS, a vast array of research works in academia and products in the industrial sectors have evolved. The book covers the safe operation of UAS, including, but not limited to, fundamental design, mission and path planning, control theory, computer vision, artificial intelligence, applications requirements, and more. This book provides a unique reference of the state-of-the-art research and development of unmanned aerial systems, making it an essential resource for researchers, instructors and practitioners. Covers some of the most innovative approaches to drones Provides the latest state-of-the-art research and development surrounding unmanned aerial systems Presents a comprehensive reference on unmanned aerial systems, with a focus on cutting-edge technologies and recent research trends in the area