New Missions, Capabilities For UAVs
A Brigham Young
University team of scientists and engineers, funded by the Air
Force Office of Scientific Research, has recently demonstrated
increased consensus capabilities among unmanned air vehicles.
"This research on cooperative control involves developing
methods to enable multiple UAVs to coordinate with one another,"
said Professor Tim McLain, one of the research team co-leads. "We
want to figure out how to coordinate the activities of a team of
UAVs to accomplish the overall objectives of the team in a way that
is optimal for the team as a whole."
On the road to accomplishing their research goals, the team has
had many successes.
"We've developed and demonstrated cooperative timing methods
that would enable simultaneous strike-type execution by UAVs,"
Professor McLain said.
In one experiment the team conducted simultaneous arrival flight
tests involving three UAVs. The team was able to coordinate the
UAVs' arrival over a target location to within fractions of a
second.
Another flight test demonstrated a successful UAV coordination,
even in the presence of inconsistent information. The researchers
conducted a successful perimeter tracking exercise where the
changing perimeter emulated the growth of a forest fire. The
exercise involved a team of UAVs coordinating their efforts to
divide the changing perimeter equally among the UAVs. This
technology has application to Air Force missions such as monitoring
the perimeter of an enemy stronghold.
One of the team's most exciting research developments is in an
area that Professor McLain refers to as "corridor-following
methods." Using miniature optic-flow sensors, these methods allow
small UAVs to navigate through complex terrains like canyons and
city environments.
"Maneuvering small UAVs in urban terrain will require local
proximity sensors to detect the buildings and other obstacles,"
said Professor Beard, research team co-lead. "The optical flow
sensor that we have developed under AFOSR support play the same
role for small UAVs that ultrasonic sensors play for mobile
robots."
In addition to having potential benefits to a variety of
military applications, Professors McLain and Beard said their
research will contribute to civil and commercial applications such
as forest fire monitoring, law enforcement surveillance and border
patrol.
(Aero-News thanks Erin Crawley, Air Force Office of
Scientific Research Public Affairs)