Regulative Control in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Lagarde, S.

Regulative Control in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Files

Lagarde_S_MA_Thesis_2011.pdf (2.12 MB)

Authors

Lagarde, S.

Issue Date

2011-12-12

Language

en

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.