A distributed approach for lidar-based relative state estimation of multi-UAV in GPS-denied environments

In this paper, we present a distributed framework for the lidar-based relative state estimator which achieves highly accurate, real-time trajectory estimation of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) in GPS-denied environments. The system builds atop a factor graph, and only onboard sensors and computing power are utilized. Benefiting from the keyframe strategy, each UAV performs relative state estimation individually and broadcasts very partial information without exchanging raw data. The com...     

Deep-reinforcement-learning-based UAV autonomous navigation and collision avoidance in unknown environments

In some military application scenarios, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) need to perform missions with the assistance of on-board cameras when radar is not available and communication is interrupted, which brings challenges for UAV autonomous navigation and collision avoidance. In this paper, an improved deep-reinforcement-learning algorithm, Deep Q-Network with a Faster R-CNN model and a Data Deposit Mechanism(FRDDM-DQN), is proposed. A Faster R-CNN model(FR) is introduced and optimized to obtain...     

Numerical investigation on unsteady characteristics of ducted fans in ground effect

Ducted fans are widely used in various applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) due to the high efficiency, low noise and high safety. The unsteady characteristics of ducted fans flying near the ground are significant, which may bring stability problems. In this paper, the sliding mesh technology is applied and the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes(URANS)method is adopted to evaluate the influence of ground on the aerodynamic performance of ducted fans. The time-averaged results sho...     

Multiple model predictive control of perching maneuver based on guardian maps

Considering the strong nonlinearity of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) resulting from high Angle of Attack(AOA) and fast maneuvering, we present a multi-model predictive control strategy for UAV maneuvering, which has a small amount of online calculation. Firstly, we divide the maneuver envelope of UAV into several sub-regions on the basis of the gap metric theory. A novel algorithm is then developed to determine the ploytopic model for each sub-region.According to this, a Robust Model Predictive...     

Template-guided frequency attention and adaptive cross-entropy loss for UAV visual tracking

This paper addresses the problem of visual object tracking for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs). Most Siamese trackers are used to regard object tracking as classification and regression problems. However, it is difficult for these trackers to accurately classify in the face of similar objects, background clutters and other common challenges in UAV scenes. So, a reliable classifier is the key to improving UAV tracking performance. In this paper, a simple yet efficient tracker following the basic a...     

Design,modeling, and control of morphing aircraft:A review

A morphing aircraft can adapt its configuration to suit different types of tasks, which is also an important requirement of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV). The successful development of an unmanned morphing aircraft involves three steps that determine its ability and intelligent: configuration design, dynamic modeling and flight control. This study conducts a comprehensive survey of morphing aircraft. First, the methods to design the configuration of a morphing aircraft are presented and analyzed...     

Improving multi-target cooperative tracking guidance for UAV swarms using multi-agent reinforcement learning

Multi-Target Tracking Guidance(MTTG) in unknown environments has great potential values in applications for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) swarms. Although Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning(MADRL) is a promising technique for learning cooperation, most of the existing methods cannot scale well to decentralized UAV swarms due to their computational complexity or global information requirement. This paper proposes a decentralized MADRL method using the maximum reciprocal reward to learn cooper...     

LoS sensing-based superimposed CSI feedback for UAV-assisted mmWave systems

In Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)-assisted millimeter Wave(mmWave) systems,Channel State Information(CSI) feedback is critical for the selection of modulation schemes,resource management, beamforming, etc. However, traditional CSI feedback methods lead to significant feedback overhead and energy consumption of the UAV transmitter, therefore shortening the system operation time. To tackle these issues, inspired by superimposed feedback and Integrated Sensing and Communications(ISAC), a Line of Sigh...     

无人攻击机技术现状及发展前景

无人机技术的发展和完善使无人攻击机的出现成为可能.本文介绍了无人攻击机的发展现状及各国的重视程度,分析了无人攻击机的技术特点和存在的问题,根据美俄两国发展作战飞机的惯例和规律,展望了无人攻击机的发展前景.     

Timeliness optimization of unmanned aerial vehicle lossy communications for internet-of-things

Information freshness is a key factor for Internet-of-Things(Io T) to make appropriate decisions and operations. This paper proposes an analytical framework for evaluating the timeliness performance of the Io T system based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) lossy communications.The performance analysis consists of the outage probability analysis and the Age-of-Information(Ao I) analysis with outages. To begin with, we solve a lossy coding problem formulated from the UAV communication system, and d...     

A multi-strategy pigeon-inspired optimization approach to active disturbance rejection control parameters tuning for vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing UAV

In this paper, Active Disturbance Rejection Control(ADRC) is utilized in the pitch control of a vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) to address the problem of height fluctuation during the transition from hover to level flight. Considering the difficulty of parameter tuning of ADRC as well as the requirement of accuracy and rapidity of the controller, a Multi-Strategy Pigeon-Inspired Optimization(MSPIO) algorithm is employed. Particle Swarm Optimization(PSO), Gen...     

Robust leaderless time-varying formation control for unmanned aerial vehicle swarm system with Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics and directed switching topologies

This paper tackles the robust leaderless Time-Varying Formation(TVF) control problem for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) swarm system with Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics, external disturbances and directed switching topologies. In comparison with the previous achievements on formation control problems, the UAV swarm system with Lipschitz nonlinear dynamics can accomplish the pre-designed TVF while tracking a pre-given trajectory which is produced by a virtual leader UAV in the presence of externa...     

Resilience optimization for multi-UAV formation reconfiguration via enhanced pigeon-inspired optimization

This paper develops a novel optimization method oriented to the resilience of multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(multi-UAV) formations to achieve rapid and accurate reconfiguration under random attacks. First, a resilience metric is applied to reflect the effect and rapidity of multi-UAV formation resisting random attacks. Second, an optimization model based on a parameter optimization problem to maximize the system resilience is established. Third, an Adaptive Learning-based Pigeon-Inspired Optim...     

Distributed bearing-based formation control of unmanned aerial vehicle swarm via global orientation estimation

Most existing formation control approaches for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)swarm assume that global position and global coordinate frame are directly available for each agent. To extend the application domain, this paper proposes a distributed bearing-based formation control scheme, without any reliance on global position or global coordinate frame. The interactions among UAVs are described by a directed topology with two-leader structure. To address the issue of unavailable global coordinate fr...     

Modified attitude factor graph fusion method for unmanned helicopter under atmospheric disturbance

The Unmanned Aerial Helicopter(UAH) has attracted increasing attention in the military and civil areas with the unique flight performance. The significant impact on the attitude measurement performance of UAHs by the strong airflow disturbance is an essential factor threatening flight safety. To improve the attitude measurement performance of UAHs under atmospheric disturbance, an attitude fusion method over the factor graph is applied and provides the plug-and-play capability. Based on the rela...     

Modified attitude factor graph fusion method for unmanned helicopter under atmospheric disturbance

The Unmanned Aerial Helicopter(UAH) has attracted increasing attention in the military and civil areas with the unique flight performance. The significant impact on the attitude measurement performance of UAHs by the strong airflow disturbance is an essential factor threatening flight safety. To improve the attitude measurement performance of UAHs under atmospheric disturbance, an attitude fusion method over the factor graph is applied and provides the plug-and-play capability. Based on the rela...     

Distributed coordinated control scheme of UAV swarm based on heterogeneous roles

This paper proposes a new distributed coordinated control scheme based on heterogeneous roles for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) swarm to achieve formation control. First, the framework of the distributed coordinated control scheme is designed on the basis of Distributed Model Predictive Control(DMPC). Then, the effect of heterogeneous roles including leader, coordinator and follower is discussed, and the role-based cost functions are developed to improve the performance of coordinated control for...     

Transition control of a tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicle with L1 neural network adaptive control

The main task of this work is to design a control system for a small tail-sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV) during the transition process. Although reasonable control performance can be obtained through a well-tuned single PID or cascade PID control architecture under nominal conditions, large or fast time-varying disturbances and a wide range of changes in the equilibrium point bring nonlinear characteristics to the transition control during the transition process, which leads to control prec...     

Optimization design of airfoils under atmospheric icing conditions for UAV

Natural ice accretion on the lifting surface of an aircraft is detrimental to its aerodynamic performance, as it changes the effective streamlined body. The main focus of this work considers the optimization design of airfoils under atmospheric icing conditions for the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV). The ice formation process is simulated by the Eulerian approach and the three-dimensional Myers model. A three-equation turbulence model is implemented to accurately predict the stall performance of t...     

无人攻击机技术现状及发展前景

无人机技术的发展和完善使无人攻击机的出现成为可能。本文介绍了无人攻击机的发展现状及各国的重视程度,分析了无人攻击机的技术特点和存在的问题,根据美俄两国发展作战飞机的惯例和规律,展望了无人攻击机的发展前景。