Regulative Control in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
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Issue Date
2011-12-12
Language
en
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Abstract
Regulative control is an extension of reactive control. It regulates the behavioral
responses of the reactive structure, based on the current situation the agent is
in. This focus of this thesis is on the application of regulative control to the field
of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). One of the problems with implementing
regulative control in UAVs is that a typical control system for UAVs is not
reactive in nature. Therefore only the idea of regulative control (i.e. regulating
the control flow) is used as source of inspiration in implementing a regulative
component. Two regulative modules with functional relevance in the field of
UAVs are implemented: a wind module and a location module. The wind
module monitors the wind conditions the UAV is in and adjusts the route of
the UAV when it is found the UAV is not able to follow its route anymore (i.e.
it will be blown o track). The location module keeps track of the environment
and detects dangerous zones (e.g. when there is a re, the smoke creates a
dangerous zone). When a dangerous zone is found the module leads the UAV
around it.
By analyzing the control structure of the UAV used in this thesis, an analysis
is made of how the regulative component should be implemented. The two
modules are used to test the regulative component and check how well it works
in practice. Results show that both modules work as expected. With respect
to regulative control, the regulative component preserves the idea of regulative
control. There are also some significant differences. One of the main differences
is that the regulative component can only trigger functionality as opposed to
also block functionality. Another difference is that the modules in the regulative
component need to be clearly specified. The black box approach is not suitable,
since the operator needs to know what is happening during flight.
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen