Date of Award
1-3-2020
Access Type
Thesis - Open Access
Degree Name
Master of Science in Unmanned and Autonomous Systems Engineering
Department
Electrical, Computer, Software, and Systems Engineering
Committee Chair
Dr. Hever Moncayo
First Committee Member
Dr. Richard Stansbury
Second Committee Member
Dr. Richard Prazenica
Abstract
In this thesis, a formation flight architecture is described along with the implementation and evaluation of a state-of-the-art vision-based algorithm for solving the problem of estimating and tracking a leader vehicle within a close-formation configuration. A vision-based algorithm that uses Darknet architecture and a formation flight control law to track and follow a leader with desired clearance in forward, lateral directions are developed and implemented. The architecture is run on a flight computer that handles the process in real-time while integrating navigation sensors and a stereo camera. Numerical simulations along with indoor and outdoor actual flight tests demonstrate the capabilities of detection and tracking by providing a low cost, compact size and low weight solution for the problem of estimating the location of other cooperative or non-cooperative flying vehicles within a formation architecture.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Irigireddy, Ashok Sarath Chandra Reddy, "Close Formation Flight Missions Using Vision-Based Position Detection System" (2020). Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses. 499.
https://commons.erau.edu/edt/499
