Unmanned Systems for Civilian Operations

Professor George Vachtsevanos
Professor Emeritus
Georgia Institute of Technology
USA
E-mail: [email protected]
 

Abstract: In this plenary talk we will introduce fundamental concepts of unmanned systems (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Unmanned Ground Vehicles) and their emerging utility in civilian operations. We will discuss a framework for multiple UAVs tasked to perform forrest fire detection and prevention operations. A ground station with appropriate equipment and personnel functions as the support and coordination center providing critical information to fire fighter as derived from the UAVs. The intent is to locate a swarm of vehicles over a designated area and report at the earliest the presence of such fire precursors as smoke, etc. the UAVs are equipped with appropriate sensors, computing and communications in order to execute these surveillance tasks accurately and robustly. Meteorological sensors monitor wind velocity, temperature and other relevant parameters. The UAV observations are augmented, when appropriate, with satellite data, observation towers and human information sources. Other application domains of both aerial and ground unmanned systems refer to rescue operations, damage surveillance and support for areas subjected to earthquakes and other natural disasters, border patrol, agricultural applications, traffic control, among others.

Short biography: Dr. George Vachtsevanos is currently serving as Professor Emeritus at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He served as Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1984 until September, 2007. Dr Vachtsevanos directs at Georgia Tech the Intelligent Control Systems laboratory where faculty and students began research in diagnostics in 1985 with a series of projects in collaboration with Boeing Aerospace Company funded by NASA and aimed at the development of fuzzy logic based algorithms for fault diagnosis and control of major space station subsystems. His work in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles dates back to 1994 with major projects funded by the U.S. Army and DARPA. He has served as the Co-PI for DARPA’s Software Enabled Control program over the past six years and directed the development and flight testing of novel fault-tolerant control algorithms for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. He has represented Georgia Tech at DARPA’s HURT program where multiple UAVs performed surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking missions in an urban environment. Under AFOSR sponsorship, the Impact/Georgia Team is developing a biologically-inspired micro aerial vehicle. His research work has been supported over the years by ONR, NSWC, the MURI Integrated Diagnostic program at Georgia Tech, the U,S. Army’s Advanced Diagnostic program, General Dynamics, General Motors Corporation, the Academic Consortium for Aging Aircraft program, the U.S. Air Force Space Command, Bell Helicopter, Fairchild Controls, among others. He has published over 300 technical papers and is the recipient of the 2002-2003 Georgia Tech School of ECE Distinguished Professor Award and the 2003-2004 Georgia Institute of Technology Outstanding Interdisciplinary Activities Award. He is the lead author of a book on Intelligent Fault Diagnosis and Prognosis for Engineering Systems published by Wiley in 2006.