Remote Sensing and Actuation Using Unmanned Vehicles [Hardcover]

Unmanned systems and robotics technologies have become very popular recently owing to their ability to replace human beings in dangerous, tedious, or repetitious jobs. This book fill the gap in the field between research and real-world applications, providing scientists and engineers with essential information on how to design and employ networked unmanned vehicles for remote sensing and distributed control purposes. Target scenarios include environmental or agricultural applications such as river/reservoir surveillance, wind profiling measurement, and monitoring/control of chemical leaks.

List of Figures xv

List of Tables xix

Foreword xxi

Preface xxiii

Acknowledgments xxv

Acronyms xxvii

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Monograph Roadmap 1

1.1.1 Sensing and Control in the Information-Rich World 1

1.1.2 Typical Civilian Application Scenarios 3

1.1.3 Challenges in Sensing and Control Using Unmanned Vehicles 5

1.2 Research Motivations 7

1.2.1 Small Unmanned Aircraft System Design for Remote Sensing 7

1.2.2 State Estimation for Small UAVs 8

1.2.3 Advanced Flight Control for Small UAVs 9

1.2.4 Cooperative Remote Sensing Using Multiple UAVs 10

1.2.5 Diffusion Control Using Mobile Actuator and Sensor Networks 11

1.3 Monograph Contributions 11

1.4 Monograph Organization 12

References 12

2 AggieAir: A Low-Cost Unmanned Aircraft System for Remote Sensing 15

2.1 Introduction 15

2.2 Small UAS Overview 17

2.2.1 Autopilot Hardware 19

2.2.2 Autopilot Software 21

2.2.3 Typical Autoplã1