Advanced UAV lecture report

This report will analyse four advanced topics related to Advanced Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The use of UAV in commercial and private sectors are increasing, as a result, the UAV must perform a complex task autonomously in many environments. The four topics which are reviewed and analysed in this report will explore some of the complex manipulations performed by UAV in extreme and dangerous environment. The first topic is in Remote Sensing and Targeted Weed Control, which explains the purpose of remote sensing, how it is performed and how to detect specific targets. For a Targeted Weed Control, detecting is not enough, what to do after detection and how to act to the specific command is also important. These Targeted Sensing – OODA (Observe – Orient – Decide – Act) loop is discussed and ways to achieve each part OODA loop is presented. The second topic is about Dynamic, Control and Aerial Manipulation, where a summary of dynamics of a quadcopter and ways to control the UAV is discussed. This topic contains a summary of PID control method, controlling quadcopter attitude and position. On the later part, the dynamics of an extended part like slung load, robotic arm of the UAV and its aerial manipulation is presented. The third topic is about Navigation and mission planning in GPS denied environments. This topic discusses planning a UAV’s flight path in the environment where GPS signal is hard to acquire like indoor, large civil infrastructure, mountains etc. and how other sensors could be used for navigation in those situations. The final topic is about Navigation Systems where fundamentals of navigation and navigation systems are discussed. The topic discusses the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and INS systems used to navigate using inertial navigation and its advantage and disadvantages. The topic summarises the global positioning system, the sensors associated with GPS and its working principle is discussed