Date of Award

6-1999

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

First Advisor

Curtis H. Spenny, PhD

Abstract

Closely Supervised Reactive Control is an alternative control method for uninhabited aerial vehicles that incorporates some of the benefits of both manual and autonomous operations. Utilizing an onboard camera, an operator can control a UAV by manually choosing desired targets. The flight path of the uninhabited vehicle is determined autonomously from the camera gimbal angles. The operator of the payload (i.e. camera), has close supervision of the aircraft. The aircraft, using an onboard computer, is given autonomous control to alter flight path to fly towards a target and at a specified range, loiter over the target. In the basic mode of operation, the camera operator must manually track the target providing continuous updates to the camera angles. In an advanced mode of operation with the use of an INS or GPS, the aircraft autonomously determines the camera angles from a single locked position that the operator specifies. In this mode, the operator is free to look for other targets. This control method is being validated in the CAVE Automated Virtual Environment (CAVE) facility located at Wright Patterson AFB and owned and operated by Wright State University. The aircraft flight simulator used is FLSIM with the F-16 flight characteristics.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GAE-ENY-99J-01

DTIC Accession Number

ADA364819

Comments

The author's Vita page is omitted.

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