Development of a Finite State Machine for a Small Unmanned Aircraft System Using Experimental Design
Date of Award
3-26-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Department of Operational Sciences
First Advisor
Brian B. Stone, PhD.
Abstract
This research presents a methodology for improving the capability of a small unmanned aircraft system (SUAS) to autonomously track a moving ground vehicle. One drawback of the most common open source SUAS autopilot software, APM:Plane, is the inability to maintain a consistent following distance from the target vehicle under varying conditions defined by wind direction, wind speed, and target vehicle maneuver. Finite state machine (FSM) logic was developed to improve the APM:Plane software by reducing the variability in the following distance between the SUAS and the target vehicle. The FSM consists of 36 individual states defined by a combination of four wind directions, three wind speeds, and three ground maneuvers. Once the SUAS enters a particular state, the FSM modifies the default APM:Plane firmware parameter settings to optimal settings. The parameter settings for each state were determined from the statistical analysis of a sequence of designed experiments conducted in a simulated environment. During a real-world software validation experiment, the FSM reduced following distance variance by an average of 50 percent when compared to the default software settings.
AFIT Designator
AFIT-ENS-MS-15-M-146
DTIC Accession Number
ADA615562
Recommended Citation
Young, Jonathan D., "Development of a Finite State Machine for a Small Unmanned Aircraft System Using Experimental Design" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 136.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/136