Category: Robotics

Robotics with applications to robot manipulators, unmanned aerial vehicles and remotely operated vehicles

Research

Fault Tolerant Air Data System

An integrated fault detection, identification, isolation, and accommodation scheme is proposed for an Air Data System with airspeed and angle of attack sensors. The system uses information from the inertial measurement unit, available air data sensors, and an aircraft digital twin model that provides virtual measurements of its aerodynamic and propulsion forces to feed a nonlinear estimator capable of detecting air sensor failure and suppressing sensor fault effects on the aircraft air data prediction.

UAV for research in Flight Mechanics and Control

A UAV was developed for research in Flight Mechanics and Flight Controls. The project involves integrating sensors with an embedded processor in a small fixed-wing aircraft and creating a flexible software infrastructure for implementing and testing flight control algorithms. The sensor suite consists of an IMU, a magnetometer, a GPS, a pitot tube with a differential pressure sensor, alpha and beta vanes, control surface position sensors, and a sensor for engine RPM. An actuator interface and RF communication link are also included for telecommand and telemetry.

Flight Data Recorder for acquisition of flight test data in a ultra light aircraft

A flight data recording system was developed for an ultralight aircraft. The aircraft was instrumented for recording data from certification flight tests and mathematical aircraft modeling.

Structure Manager, a software infrastructure for the implementation of Real Time Control Systems

Structure manager software in a Eclipse IDE

A software infrastructure for implementing real-time control systems has been developed in C language. The infrastructure, combined with a sound programming methodology (object-oriented), enables some powerful features in the real-time application, accelerating the production cycle of the software. The Structure Manager comprises a library that implements all the infrastructure functionality and a tool to automatically generate code at compilation time that connects the infrastructure with the application.

Andean Condor UAV

The Andean Condor unmanned aerial system is a tactical UAV for surveillance, exploration, reconnaissance, and intelligence. Possible applications in photogrammetry and precision agriculture are also considered. This development resulted from the project “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007-2009).

Software for modeling, analysis and design of a fixed wing aircraft

The software has been developed to model, analyze, and design a fixed-wing aircraft. The software comprises a set of functions written in the Matlab® language and is fully compatible with Octave and a collection of simulation models developed in Simulink® that include the simulation of the nonlinear aircraft model with the flight control system. Several versions of the simulation model are more refined than others.

VISOR 3 ROV

VISOR 3 is an ROV developed by the Excuela Naval Almirante Padilla (ENAP) and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), through the research groups in Naval Engineering (GIIN), Automation and Design A+D and the Institute of Energy and Thermodynamics (IET), with the support of Colciencias. The ROV is an underwater robotic platform for inspecting port structures and hulls of transport vessels to comply with the ISPS code.

Aura Jr UAV

Aura Jr was a small UAV for short-range missions, the first UAV developed at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. The prototype was a technology demonstrator for the project “Research and Design of an Automatic Remote Inspection System for Electric Power Transmission Lines” (2004-2005) sponsored by Interconectado Eléctrica SA (ISA), Colciencias and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. It led to another project, “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007-2009).

Preliminary design of Aura UAV for monitoring of Power Transmission Lines

The Aura UAV’s preliminary design resulted from the project “Research and Design of an Automatic Remote Inspection System for Electric Power Transmission Lines” (2004-2005). Its primary objective was to investigate and design an autonomous inspection system prototype for high and extra-high-voltage transmission lines.

Adaptive Mode Transition Control Architecture With an Application to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

A new approach to unmanned aerial vehicles’ adaptive mode transition control was proposed. The proposed architecture consists of three levels: mission planning routines are at the highest level, where the information about waypoints the vehicle must follow is processed; the mid-level controller uses a trajectory-planning component to coordinate the task execution and provides set points for low-level stabilizing controllers. The adaptive mode-transitioning control algorithm resides at the lowest level of the hierarchy consisting of a mode-transitioning controller and the accompanying adaptation mechanism. A flight demonstration was done as part of a Software Enabled Control research program (sponsored by DARPA) to validate the control algorithms using the GTmax, the Georgia Tech UAV testbed.

VISOR 2 ROV

VISOR 2 was an ROV developed as an underwater vehicle with dual control (1998-2000). Julio Cesar Correa Rodríguez, Luis Benigno Gutiérrez Zea, and Laszlo Jurko led the project.

Neural Network Control of a Flexible Link

A neural network (NN) tracking controller was implemented on a single flexible link, and the performance results of the neural network controller were compared to that of proportional derivative (PD) and proportional integral derivative (PID) standard controllers. The NN controller comprises an outer PD tracking loop, a singular perturbation inner loop to stabilize the fast flexible-mode dynamics, and an NN inner loop to feedback linearize the slow pointing dynamics. It is shown that the tracking performance of the NN controller is far better than that of the PD or PID standard controllers. No offline training or learning was needed for the NN. An extra friction term was added to the tests to demonstrate the ability of the NN to learn unmodeled nonlinear dynamics.

Control Theory Intelligent Control Systems Robotics

Neural Network Control of a Flexible Link

Summary

A neural network (NN) tracking controller was implemented on a single flexible link and the performance results of the neural network controller were compared to that of proportional derivative (PD) and proportional integral derivative (PID) standard controllers. The NN controller is composed of an outer PD tracking loop, a singular perturbation inner loop for stabilization of the fast flexible-mode dynamics, and an NN inner loop used to feedback linearize the slow pointing dynamics. No off-line training or learning is needed for the NN. It is shown that the tracking performance of the NN controller is far better than that of the PD or PID standard controllers. An extra friction term was added in the tests to demonstrate the ability of the NN to learn unmodeled nonlinear dynamics.

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Presentation

Related publications

[1] L. B. Gutiérrez, F. L. Lewis, and J. A. Lowe, “Implementation of a neural network tracking controller for a single flexible link: comparison with PD and PID controllers,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 45, pp. 307–318, April 1998. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/681230, ISSN: 1557-9948, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/41.681230. pdf

[2] L. B. Gutiérrez and F. L. Lewis, “Implementation of a neural net tracking controller for a single flexible link: comparison with PD and PID controllers,” in Proc. 1997 American Control Conference, (Albuquerque, NM, USA), pp. 657–661, IEEE, June 6, 1997. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/611882, ISBN:0-7803-3832-4, ISSN: 0743-1619, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACC.1997.611882. pdf

[3] L. B. Gutiérrez and F. L. Lewis, “Implementación de un controlador de seguimiento con redes neuronales para un brazo flexible sencillo: comparación con controladores PD y PID,” in 2o Congreso de la Asociacion Colombiana de Automatica, (Bucaramanga, Colombia), pp. 200-216, Asociación Colombiana de Automática, Marzo 19-22, 1997. pdf

[4] L. B. Gutiérrez, “Implementation of a neural network tracking controller for a single flexible link: comparison with PD and PID controllers,” Master’s thesis, The University of Texas at Arlington, Department of Electrical Engineering, Arlington, TX, USA, August 1996. pdf

Aircraft Flight Control Control Theory Embedded Systems Intelligent Control Systems Real-time Control Systems Robotics UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Adaptive Mode Transition Control Architecture With an Application to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Summary

A new approach to the adaptive mode transition control of unmanned aerial vehicles was proposed. The proposed architecture consists of three levels: the highest level is occupied by mission planning routines where information about way points the vehicle must follow is processed, The mid-level controller uses a trajectory-planning component to coordinate the task execution and provides set points for low-level stabilizing controllers. The adaptive mode transitioning control algorithm resides at the lowest level of the hierarchy consisting of a mode transitioning controller and the accompanying adaptation mechanism. A flight demonstration was done as part of a DARPA sponsored research program to validate the control algorithms using the GTmax, the Georgia Tech UAV testbed.

Adaptive Mode Transition Control

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are required to possess levels of autonomy in order to execute complex missions robustly and reliably. Intelligent/hierarchical control techniques have been suggested as a means to address critical autonomy issues. The objective of this research is to develop a hierarchical/intelligent control architecture for an UAV. The architecture consists of three levels: high level, middle level, and low level. Mission planning routines occupy the highest level. At this level, information about waypoints that the vehicle must follow is used to generate the sequence of actions that should be performed to go through those waypoints while maintaining some physical constraints. These actions are split into a sequence of tasks; each of them containing target position, target speed, target heading, heading mode, and target direction of the flight path. The tasks are then stored in a task queue and sent in an orderly manner to the middle level. The middle-level controller coordinates task execution while a trajectory generation component receives the task information from the high-level module and provides set points for low-level stabilizing controllers whose function is to maintain the vehicle in a stable state and follow accurately the commanded trajectory. An adaptive mode transitioning control algorithm resides at the lowest level of the hierarchy consisting of two components: a mode transitioning controller and the accompanying adaptation mechanism. The mode transition controller is composed of a mode transition manager, a set of local controllers, and a set of active control models. Local controllers operate in local modes and active control models operate in transitions between two local modes. The mode transition manager determines the actual mode of operation of the vehicle based on a set of mode membership functions and activates a local controller or an active control model accordingly. The adaptation mechanism uses an indirect adaptive control methodology to adapt the active control models. For this purpose, a set of plant models is trained based on input/output information from the vehicle and used to compute the linearized models required by the adaptation algorithms. The core of the adaptation mechanism is a finite horizon optimal control algorithm, which determines the optimal control signal that in turn is used to train the active control models. The adaptation routine may be turned on only when needed. The transitioning algorithm operates in real-time while adapting on-line to disturbances and other external inputs. This intelligent/hierarchical architecture has been implemented using a novel software infrastructure called Open Control Platform (OCP), which facilitates interoperability, plug-and-play and other functionalities. Simulation and flight test results validate the proposed scheme.

The main contributions of this research are:

Development of a hierarchical architecture for the implementation of the adaptive mode transition control, flexible enough to be able to accommodate future enhancements and more intelligent at the highest level of the hierarchy.
Development of a new approach to the adaptive mode transition control problem addressing main concerns from previous accomplishments in this area.
Exploitation of new software technologies including the OCP and hybrid controls API to show how they enable the implementation of advanced control algorithms for UAVs.

Presentation

Related Publications

[1] G. Vachtsevanos, L. Tang, G. Drozeski, and L. Gutiérrez, “From mission planning to flight control of unmanned aerial vehicles: Strategies and implementation tools,” Annual Reviews in Control, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 101–115, 2005. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S136757880500009X, ISSN: 1367-5788, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arcontrol.2004.11.002. pdf

[2] G. Vachtsevanos, L. Tang, G. Drozeski, and L. Gutiérrez, “Intelligent control of unmanned aerial vehicles for improved autonomy and reliability,” in IFAC/EURON Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles, (Lisbon, Portugal), pp. 852–861, International Federation of Automatic Control, IFAC, July 5-7, 2004. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474667017320876, ISSN: 1474-6670, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1474-6670(17)32087-6. pdf

[3] L. B. Gutiérrez, G. Vachtsevanos, and B. Heck, “A hierarchical architecture for the adaptive mode transition control of unmanned aerial vehicles,” in Proc. AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference and Exhibit, (Austin, Texas, USA), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, AIAA, August 11-14, 2003. Available: https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2003-5740, eISBN: 978-1-62410-090-1, doi: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2003-5740. pdf

[4] L. B. Gutiérrez, “Vehículos aéreos autónomos,” in Memorias del V Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Medellı́n, Colombia), Asociación Colombiana de Automática, ACA, Julio 17-19, 2003. ISBN: 9588173515. Presentation

[5] L. B. Gutiérrez, G. Vachtsevanos, and B. Heck, “A hierarchical/intelligent control architecture for unmanned aerial vehicles,” in Proc. of the 11th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation MED’03, (Rhodes, Greece), Mediterranean Control Association, June 18-20, 2003. Available: http://med-control.org/medproceedings/MED11-2003.zip. pdf

[6] L. B. Gutiérrez, G. Vachtsevanos, and B. Heck, “An approach to the adaptive mode transition control of unmanned aerial vehicles,” in Proc. 2003 American Control Conference, (Denver, Colorado), pp. 3911–3912, IEEE, June 4-6, 2003. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1240446, ISBN: 0-7803-7896-2, ISSN: 0743-1619, doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACC.2003.1240446. pdf

[7] L. B. Gutiérrez, G. Vachtsevanos, and B. Heck, “A hierarchical/intelligent control architecture for unmanned aerial vehicles,” in Proc. of the 21st Digital Avionics Systems Conference, (Irvine, CA, USA), pp. 8.B.3–1/8.B.3–10, IEEE, October 27-31, 2002. ISBN: 0-7803-7896-0 Softbound Edition / 0-7803-7896-0 CD-ROM Edition, ISSN: 0743-1619. pdf

Aircraft Flight Control Control Theory Robotics UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Aura Jr UAV

Summary

Aura Jr was a small UAV for short-range missions. This was the first UAV developed at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. This was a prototype built as a technology demonstrator for the project “Research and Design of an Automatic Remote Inspection System for Electric Power Transmission Lines” (2004-2005) sponsored by Interconectado Eléctrica SA (ISA), Colciencias and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. It was the starting point of the project “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007 – 2009).

Specs

Wingspan: 3.1 m
Length: 2.3 m
Maximum takeoff weight: 15 kg
Engine: 23.2cc 3.7 HP, glow

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Presentation

Construction

Related Publications

[1] J. A. Ramírez, R. E. Vásquez, and L. B. Gutiérrez, “An iterative feedback tunning scheme for the multiloop PID control of a UAV,” in Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Volume 8: Dynamic Systems and Control, Parts A and B, (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), pp. 75–84, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, ASME, November 12–18, 2010. Available: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/proceedings-abstract/IMECE2010/44458/75/344287, ISBN: 978-0-7918-4445-8, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2010-38384. pdf

[2] J. A. Ramírez, R. E. Vásquez, and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Robust gain-scheduled control of a UAV based on a polytopic model approximation,” in Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Volume 8: Dynamic Systems and Control, Parts A and B, (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), pp. 91–99, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, ASME, November 12–18, 2010. Available: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/proceedings-abstract/IMECE2010/44458/91/344343, ISBN: 978-0-7918-4445-8, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2010-38437. pdf

[3] P. A. Ortiz and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Modelo matemático para un vehículo aéreo no tripulado de ala fija, usando un estimador de parámetros ’filtro de Kalman’,” TecnoLógicas, vol. 22, pp. 75–98, 2009. Available: https://repositorio.itm.edu.co/handle/20.500.12622/827, ISSN: 1367-5788. pdf

[4] L. Cardona, M. Osorio, and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Sistema de navegación para vehículos no tripulados,” in Memorias XIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Control Automatico, (Mérida, Venezuela), IFAC, Noviembre 25-28, 2008. ISBN: 978-980-11-1224-2. pdf

[5] L. B. Gutiérrez, “Sistemas no tripulados,” in Memorias IV Colombian IEEE Workshop of Robotics and Automation, (Cali, Colombia), IEEE Colombia, Agosto 13-15, 2008. ISBN: 978958-8122-75-5. Presentation

[6] C. A. Zuluaga and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Infraestructura de simulacion para vehiculos no tripulados,” in Memorias VII Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Cali, Colombia), Asociación Colombiana de Automática, Marzo 21-24, 2007. ISBN: 9789484408. pdf

[7] J. F. Franco and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Análisis de dominio de un marco de tiempo real para vehiculos autonomos no tripulados,” in Memorias VII Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Cali, Colombia), Asociación Colombiana de Automática, Marzo 21-24, 2007. ISBN: 9789484408. pdf

[8] L. B. Gutiérrez Z., M. Osorio Cárdenas, and J. A. Álvarez J., “Sistema de guía, navegación y control para aeronaves autónomas,” in CWRA 2005 IEEE Colombian Workshop on Robotics and Automation, (Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia), IEEE Colombia, Agosto 11, 2005. ISBN: 958-695-182-0. pdf

Remotely Operated Vehicles Robotics ROV

VISOR 3 ROV

Summary

Due to the events that occurred on September 11, 2001, international concern regarding terrorism has increased, and how the latter has taken as its objective to affect the world economy according to its precepts. That is why the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has taken as a policy to strengthen international port security, taking into account the importance that the means of maritime transport has in international trade, and for that reason it has issued the International Code for the protection of Ships and Port Facilities (ISPS Code), where clear security policies are established for all ports that have international trade.

However, Colombia has a privileged location as it is bathed by 2 oceans, through which the shipping trade flows, and that is why it has a port infrastructure that must be in accordance with the precepts ordered in the ISPS. This code establishes underwater inspection practices for port structures, ship hulls and underwater soil. To carry out this task, this project seeks to develop a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) in order to reduce the costs of underwater inspection without risking human lives, thus appropriating a technology that has been developed in the rest of the world. quite a lot, but in our country it is accessible only through large investments without appropriation of technology.

This is why the Almirante Padilla Naval Cadet School (ENAP) and the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), through the research groups in Naval Engineering (GIIN), Automation and Design A+D and the Institute of Energy and Thermodynamics (IET), decided to join efforts in pursuit of the integration of this technology to our country through the development of an underwater robotic platform in order to inspect the port structures and hulls of transport vessels, in order to comply with the ISPS code.

The remotely operated submersible vehicle has been fully developed, from preliminary design to detailed design. In addition, a prototype has been built and tested in the water, showing the effectiveness of the design. The ROV has been developed using the most modern design techniques from the mechanical point of view, with CAD, CAE and CAM software for some parts. Regarding the electronic hardware, the equipment was designed including state-of-the-art equipment to allow manual and semi-automatic operation of the ROV. The control software on board the ROV allows the software operation mode to be controlled from a console, allows monitoring of all the software variables and also allows communication with the surface station software that implements a graphical user interface to monitor the most important variables and control the movement of the robot with a joystick. The ROV has a robotic camera that allows remote inspection tasks to be carried out. The data communication system between the ground control station and the ROV is via ethernet for maximum flexibility. In this way, the processor and the camera on board the ROV can communicate with the surface station using the UDP/IP and TCP/IP protocols. The modularity and flexibility of the hardware and software design will allow future changes with great ease, for example to add other sensors and to modify the algorithms and logic of the control system. This underwater robotic system constitutes an important technological development that can be used for the planned inspection tasks in ports and other underwater investigation tasks.

Presentation

Construction

Related publications

[1] L. B. Gutiérrez, C. A. Zuluaga, J. A. Ramírez, R. E. Vásquez, D. A. Flórez, E. A. Taborda, and R. A. Valencia, “Development of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for surveillance and inspection of port facilities,” in Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Volume 11: New Developments in Simulation Methods and Software for Engineering Applications; Safety Engineering, Risk Analysis and Reliability Methods; Transportation Systems, (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), pp. 631–640, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, ASME, November 12–18, 2010. Available: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/proceedings-abstract/IMECE2010/44489/631/340083, ISBN: 978-0-7918-4448-9, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2010-38217. pdf

[2] R. Valencia, J. A. Ramírez, L. B. Gutiérrez, and M. García, “Simulation of the thrust forces of a ROV,” in Primer Congreso Internacional de Diseno e Ingenieria Naval CIDIN 09, (Cartagena, Colombia), Corporación de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo de la Industria Naval Marítima y Fluvial COTECMAR, Marzo 25-27, 2009. Presentation

[3] J. A. Ramírez, R. E. Vásquez, L. B. Gutiérrez, and D. A. Flórez, “Mechanical/naval design of an underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) for surveillance and inspection of port facilities,” in Proceedings of the ASME 2007 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition IMECE2007, Volume 16: Transportation Systems, (Seattle, WA, USA), pp. 351–361, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, ASME, November 11-15, 2007. Available: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/proceedings-abstract/IMECE2007/43106/351/326622, ISBN: 0-7918-4310-6, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2007-41706. pdf

[6] L. B. Gutiérrez, J. A. Ramírez, C. A. Zuluaga, R. E. Vásquez, D. A. Flórez, and R. A. Valencia, “Diseno básico de un vehículo operado remotamente (ROV) para inspección subacuática de instalaciones portuarias,” in Memorias 3rd IEEE Colombian Workshop on Robotics and Automation-CWRA 2007, (Cartagena, Colombia), IEEE Colombia, August 21-22, 2007. ISBN: 978-958-44-0805-1. pdf

[7] C. A. Zuluaga and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Infraestructura de simulacion para vehiculos no tripulados,” in Memorias VII Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Cali, Colombia), Asociación Colombiana de Automática, Marzo 21-24, 2007. ISBN: 9789484408. pdf

[8] J. F. Franco and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Análisis de dominio de un marco de tiempo real para vehiculos autonomos no tripulados,” in Memorias VII Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Automática, (Cali, Colombia), Asociación Colombiana de Automática, Marzo 21-24, 2007. ISBN: 9789484408. pdfParagraphParagraph

Aircraft Flight Control Robotics UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Andean Condor UAV

Summary

The Andean Condor unmanned aerial system is a tactical UAS for surveillance, exploration, reconnaissance, intelligence. Possible applications in photogrammetry and precision agriculture are also considered. This development is the result of the project “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007-2009). The project developed with UPB’s own funds consisted of the development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system in a comprehensive manner, including aerodynamics; propulsion; structural design; detailed design; hardware design; development of guidance, navigation and control algorithms; software development. In-house software tools with computational numerical methods were developed to make the calculations of the aerodynamics, propulsion system and the optimized performance-based design. The design is an evolution of a UAV previously developed in 2005 called the Aura jr, that weighted 18 kg, had 3.1 m wingspan and was 2.3 m long. The new optimized design called Andean Condor is a UAV of 23 Kg, 5.08 m wingspan, 2.5 m long, payload of 5 Kg, and 4h of autonomy.

Specs

Wingspan: 5.08 m
Length: 2.5 m
Maximum takeoff weight: 23 Kg
Autonomy: 4 hr
Minimum speed: 24 ktas
Maximum speed: 65 ktas
Operating ceiling: 5000 m asl
Engine: twin 86cc 7.5 HP, gasoline / oil
Communications system: Separate data and video links.
Power: It has a generator for feeding avionics and payload systems.

Design features.

The design has been optimized with proprietary software to allow high altitude short runway clearance and the development of surveillance, exploration, reconnaissance or intelligence missions at low speeds, minimizing the chances of being detected.

Development of guidance, navigation and control systems.

The guidance system is a hybrid system capable of autonomous and semi-autonomous operation. In autonomous mode you can develop a mission that can be reprogrammed in flight at any time from the ground station. The mission consists of a succession of tasks in which the waypoint mode, coordinates, speed and altitude are specified. In semi-autonomous operation the autopilot controls the aircraft based on commands generated from the earth station.
The navigation system is based on the fusion of the sensors using an extended Kalman filter. Sensors include GPS, IMU, magnetometer, barometric altimeter, pitot tube, and sonar altimeter.
The flight control system integrates with the guidance and navigation systems allowing autonomous or remotely commanded flight from the ground station. Includes autonomous take off and landing capabilities.

Gallery

Presentation

Construction

Related Publications

[1] L. B. Gutiérrez, O. Hazbón, and B. Appel, “UAS design requirements for operation in colombian mountain environments,” in 28th Congress of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences (ICAS 2012), (Brisbane, Australia), International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, September 2328, 2012. Available: https://www.icas.org/ICAS_ARCHIVE/ICAS2012/ABSTRACTS/5 95.HTM, ISBN: 978-0-9565333-1-9. pdf

[2] J. A. Ramírez, R. E. Vásquez, and L. B. Gutiérrez, “An iterative feedback tunning scheme for the multiloop PID control of a UAV,” in Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Volume 8: Dynamic Systems and Control, Parts A and B, (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), pp. 75–84, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, ASME, November 12–18, 2010. Available: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/proceedings-abstract/IMECE2010/44458/75/344287, ISBN: 978-0-7918-4445-8, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2010-38384. pdf

[3] J. A. Ramírez, R. E. Vásquez, and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Robust gain-scheduled control of a UAV based on a polytopic model approximation,” in Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Volume 8: Dynamic Systems and Control, Parts A and B, (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), pp. 91–99, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASME, ASME, November 12–18, 2010. Available: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/proceedings-abstract/IMECE2010/44458/91/344343, ISBN: 978-0-7918-4445-8, doi: https://doi.org/10.1115/IMECE2010-38437. pdf

[4] P. A. Ortiz and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Modelo matemático para un vehículo aéreo no tripulado de ala fija, usando un estimador de parámetros ’filtro de Kalman’,” TecnoLógicas, vol. 22, pp. 75–98, 2009. Available: https://repositorio.itm.edu.co/handle/20.500.12622/827, ISSN: 1367-5788. pdf

[5] L. Cardona, M. Osorio, and L. B. Gutiérrez, “Sistema de navegación para vehículos no tripulados,” in Memorias XIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Control Automatico, (Mérida, Venezuela), IFAC, Noviembre 25-28, 2008. ISBN: 978-980-11-1224-2. pdf

[6] L. B. Gutiérrez, “Sistemas no tripulados,” in Memorias IV Colombian IEEE Workshop of Robotics and Automation, (Cali, Colombia), IEEE Colombia, Agosto 13-15, 2008. ISBN: 978958-8122-75-5. Presentation

[9] L. B. Gutiérrez Z., M. Osorio Cárdenas, and J. A. Álvarez J., “Sistema de guía, navegación y control para aeronaves autónomas,” in CWRA 2005 IEEE Colombian Workshop on Robotics and Automation, (Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia), IEEE Colombia, Agosto 11, 2005. ISBN: 958-695-182-0. pdf

Aircraft Flight Control Aircraft Flight Dynamics Aircraft Flight Mechanics Embedded Systems Real-time Control Systems Robotics UAV Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

UAV for research in Flight Mechanics and Control

Summary

Research in flight mechanics and control requires good mathematical models for the aircraft under study. In particular, for fixed wing aircraft is well documented in the literature the mathematical model based on the equations of motion that are stated assuming that the aircraft is a rigid body, but the heart of these equations that determine the actual dynamic behavior of the aircraft is the knowledge of a good model for propulsive and aerodynamic forces and moments. There are approximate analytical methods to model propulsive and aerodynamic forces and moments but all those methods require validation and it is difficult to model all of the nonlinear behavior involved. It was recognized that to leverage the research if flight mechanics and control it is fundamental to get good mathematical models based on actual flight data. For that purpose many UAV test beds have been implemented. Some of them are reported in the literature, see for instance. In this work the hardware selection and integration, and the software development for a test bed based on a small fixed wing UAV is presented.

Presentation

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Related Publication

L. B. Gutiérrez, “Instrumentation of a small fixed wing UAV for research in flight mechanics and control.” Poster presentation in the 2019 IEEE 4th Colombian Conference on Automatic Control (CCAC) (Medellı́n, Colombia), October 15-18, 2019. pdf

Projects

Fault Tolerant Air Data System

An integrated airspeed and angle of attack sensor failure detection identification, isolation and accommodation scheme is proposed. The system uses information from the inertial measurement unit, available air data sensors, and an aircraft digital twin that provides virtual measurements of the aircraft’s aerodynamic and propulsion forces to feed a nonlinear estimator capable of detecting air sensor failure and suppress its effect on the aircraft air data prediction.

UAV for research in Flight Mechanics and Control

A UAV was developed for research in Flight Mechanics and Flight Controls. The project consists of the integration of a set of sensors with an embedded processor in a small fixed-wing aircraft and the development of a flexible software infrastructure for the implementation and testing of flight control algorithms. The sensor suite consists of an IMU, a magnetometer, a GPS, a pitot tube with a differential pressure sensor, alpha and beta vanes, control surface position sensors, and a sensor for engine RPM. An actuator interface and RF communication link are also included to allow telecommand and telemetry.

Flight Data Recorder for acquisition of flight test data in a ultra light aircraft

A flight data recording system was developed for an ultralight aircraft. The aircraft was instrumented to record data from certification flight tests and for mathematical modeling of the aircraft.

Structure Manager, a software infrastructure for the implementation of Real Time Control Systems

A software infrastructure for the implementation of real time control systems have been developed in C language. The Structure Manager is composed of a library that implements all the infrastructure functionality and a tool to generate code automatically at compilation time, that connects the infrastructure with the application at hand. The infrastructure, combined with a sound programming methodology (object oriented like) enables some powerful features in the real time application accelerating the production cycle of the software.

Andean Condor UAV

The Andean Condor unmanned aerial system is a tactical UAV for surveillance, exploration, reconnaissance, intelligence. Possible applications in photogrammetry and precision agriculture are also considered. This development is the result of the project “Development of a fixed-wing unmanned aerial system for short-range missions – Aura Jr” (2007-2009).

Software for modeling, analysis and design of a fixed wing aircraft

Software has been developed for the modeling, analysis and design of a fixed wing aircraft. The software is composed of a set of functions written in the Matlab® m language and is fully compatible with Octave. There is also a set of simulation models developed in Simulink® that include the simulation of the aircraft non-linear model with the flight control system. There are several versions of the simulation model, some more refined than others.

VISOR 3 ROV

VISOR 3 is an ROV developed by the Almirante Padilla Naval Cadet School (ENAP) and Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), through the research groups in Naval Engineering (GIIN), Automation and Design A+D and the Institute of Energy and Thermodynamics (IET), with the support of Colciencias. The ROV is an underwater robotic platform for inspecting port structures and hulls of transport vessels, in order to comply with the ISPS code.

Aura Jr UAV

Preliminary design of Aura UAV for monitoring of Power Transmission Lines

The preliminary design of the Aura UAV was the result of the project “Research and Design of an Automatic Remote Inspection System for Electric Power Transmission Lines” (2004-2005) had as its main objective to investigate and design the prototype of an autonomous inspection system for high and extra high voltage transmission lines.