Advances in Industrial Control Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems

Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems explores the research and development of fully-functional miniature UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) rotorcraft, and provides a complete treatment of the design of autonomous miniature rotorcraft UAVs. Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems explores the research and development of fully-functional miniature rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and provides a complete treatment of their design. The unmanned system is an integration of advanced technologies developed in communications, computing, and control areas. It is a useful testing ground for trialing and implementing modern control techniques despite the challenges introduced by the limitations on direct scalability between the systems of a small-scale rotorcraft and those of its full-scale counterpart. Included are detailed expositions of: systematic hardware construction; software systems integration; aerodynamic modeling; and automatic flight control system design. Emphasis is placed on the cooperative control and flight formation of multiple UAVs, vision-based ground-target tracking, and landing on moving platforms. Other issues such as the development of indoor micro aerial vehicles (that have to operate without access to a global positioning system) and vision-based navigation are also discussed in depth. The text is rounded out with a presentation of possible future research directions for relevant fields of study. Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems will be of great value to practicing engineers in aerospace-related industries and to academic researchers from aerospace, electrical or mechanical engineering backgrounds working on the development of unmanned systems. Unmanned Rotorcraft Systems explores the research and development of fully-functional miniature UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) rotorcraft, and provides a complete treatment of the design of autonomous miniature rotorcraft UAVs. The unmanned system is an integration of advanced technologies developed in communications, computing, and control areas, and is an excellent testing ground for trialing and implementing modern control techniques. Included are detailed expositions of systematic hardware construction, software systems integration, aerodynamic modeling; and automatic flight control system design. Emphasis is placed on the cooperative control and flight formation of multiple UAVs, vision-based ground target tracking, and landing on moving platforms. Other issues such as the development of GPS-less indoor micro aerial vehicles and vision-based navigation are also discussed in depth: utilizing the vision-based system for accomplishing ground target tracking, attacking and landing, cooperative control and flight formation of multiple unmanned rotorcraft; and future research directions on the related areas.