Towards Flight Readiness In Unmanned Aerial Systems
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Date
2023-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Flight readiness in autonomous Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) is key in advancing their use in aiding humans in unstructured, uncertain, and hazardous environments. The objective of this thesis is to develop a framework for path planning in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) monitoring a prescribed burn. A prescribed burn is a complex, dynamic environment that contains numerous dangers to an autonomous UAS. The primary focus is on the radiative and convective heat flux from a wild-land burn, specifically, the danger that it poses to UAS operations near ground level. This danger is best described as a path-dependent resource constraint that is enforced during global planning. The Resource Constrained Shortest Path Problem (RCSPP) is solved using a novel backtracking algorithm derived from Hybrid-A* graph search. Performance gains are shown over unmodified Hybrid-A*, and a Lagrange Relaxation based method. A UAS platform is developed to meet the performance requirements necessary to operate in prescribed burn environments. Software In the Loop (SIL) driven development methods and Hardware In the Loop (HIL) testing methods are used to verify performance requirements. Field tests in a prescribed burn demonstrate the validation of algorithm design goals and performance requirements. The impact of this research is a step towards autonomous fire monitoring to accelerate the setup and execution of prescribed wildland burns.