Diss. ETH No. 14402 Navigation Algorithms with Applications to Unmanned Helicopters A dissertation submitted to the SWISS FEDERAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ZURICH for the degree of Doctor of Technical Sciences presented by CHRISTOPH ECK Dipl. El-Ing. University of Bremen born May 5, 1969 citizen of Germany accepted on the recommendation of Prof. Dr. H.P. Geering, examiner Prof. Dr. W. Schaufelberger, co-examiner Zurich 2001Preface The helicopter project was initiated in the late 1980's by Prof. H.P. Geer- ing, head of the Measurement and Control Laboratory at the Swiss Fed- eral Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Since the establishment of the project, both theoretical as well as practical aspects have been covered. In consequence, a remarkable laboratory environment for indoor testing of an electrical helicopter has been developed. Subsequent to successful flight experiments with the indoor electrical heli- copter (Weilenmann, 1994), the author was offered to continue and comple- ment the helicopter project with an unmanned, free-flying helicopter based on INS/GPS navigation and modern control theory. During 1995 until 2000, the Swiss Heli Team ETH, which was initiated by the writer, succeeded to develop two helicopter prototypes, whereby the latter has demonstrated completely autonomous flights, including lift-off and landing. In 1996 the Swiss Heli Team ETH participated in the International Aerial Robotics Competition which was organized by the Association for Un- manned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The Swiss team achieved the second place behind the team from MIT. Subsequent to the successful participation at the competition, Prof. W. Schaufelberger and Prof. N. Wirth significantly supported the helicopter project for further develop- ments. During 1997 until 2000, the helicopter project of ETH was chosen as a case study for the research program “Control of Complex Systems (COSY)”. The program, led by Prof. K. Astrém, was sponsored by the European Science Foundation (ESF), France. A major contribution to the book (Chapuis et al., 2000) “Control of Complex Systems”, Springer 2001, edited by K. Astrém et al. was made by the Swiss Heli Team ETH.iiAcknowledgements The author would like to express his gratitude to numerous persons that have motivated and enabled this work. At first, I wish to thank Prof. H.P. Geering for his continuous support, advice, and guideline allowing me to fulfill this interesting project at the Measurement and Control Laboratory of ETH Zurich. I want to thank Prof. W. Schaufelberger for his promotion of the project and his assistance as co-examiner. I wish to thank U. Isenring for his valuable comments, discussions, and the mathematical insights. In particular I want to thank Jacques Chapuis for many years of friendship and support as well as the whole helicopter team, including Werner Hun- ziker and his family, Markus Kottmann, Oliver Tanner, and Marco Sanvido for the excellent collaboration during several years. Many thanks belong to all colleagues and former colleagues at the IMRT, where I want to men- tion in particular Oskar Brachs, Brigitte Rohrbach, Hugo Schmid, Ayman Hamdy, Roger Wimmer, David Zogg, Esther Baumann, Michael Simons, Essi Shafai, Lino Guzzella, and Georges Bammatter. Finally, I wish to thank many persons that have supported me during the doctoral studies in many valuable ways. Special thanks belong to Debora Mongelli and her family, Sam Bose, Bruno Schneuwly, Heinz Allenspach, Manuel Villalaz, Martin Landolt, Peter Raimann, Huamin Jia, Hausdienst ML, Elektrotechnik-Werkstatt, Alain Geiger, Marc Cocard, Beat Biirki, Prof. N. Wirth, Anke Poiger, ETH Big Band, and of course my family. iiiSeite Leer / Blank leafAbstract This thesis deals with the design, the analysis, and the implementation of new navigation algorithms. The main focus lies on integrated naviga- tion systems based on inertial measurement data combined with external navigation aids. The new concept of model based INS/GPS navigation is introduced and discussed. Here, the mathematical model of the craft is taken into account in order to improve the navigation performance. The inertial navigation error dynamics are derived in a conceptually new way, allowing a more detailed interpretation of the navigation error model. The results are compared with former derivations. Likewise, the error dy- namics of model based navigation are developed. Various concepts of im- plementation are presented. Simulation results as well as real flight data reveal the characteristics of the derived navigation algorithms. The navigation analysis has been motivated by the development of an un- manned, autonomously fiying helicopter. Subsequent to the introduction on unmanned aerial vehicles, further insights are given on rotary-wing air- craft. This includes several aspects of the mechanical, the electrical, and the software environment. The major development: progress is presented from the engineering point of view. Numerous flight experiments demonstrate the successful development of the autopilot system.Seite Leer / Blank leafKurzfassung Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit dem Entwurf, der Analyse und der Im- plementation von neuen Navigationsalgorithmen. Das wesentliche Augen- merk richtet sich auf integrierte Navigation, bei der inertiale Messdaten mit externen Navigationshilfen miteinander verarbeitet werden. Das neue Verfahren der modellbasierten Navigation wird vorgestellt und diskutiert. Hierbei wird das mathematische Modell des Fahrzeugs mitberiicksichtigt, um die Navigationseigenschaften zu verbessern. Die Fehlerdynamik der Tragheitsnavigation wird konzeptionell neu herge- leitet und erlaubt eine weiterfiihrende Interpretation des Fehlermodells der Navigation. Die Ergebnisse werden mit der Herleitung bestehender Litera- tur verglichen. Gleichermassen wird die Fehlerdynamik der modellbasierten Navigation berechnet. Unterschiedliche Konzepte der Implementation wer- den prasentiert. Sowohl mit Simulationsdaten als auch anhand von echten Flugdaten werden die Eigenschaften der hergeleiteten Navigationsalgorith- men aufgezeigt. Die Untersuchungen zur Navigation wurden motiviert durch die Entwick- lung eines unbemannten, vollstandig autonom fliegenden Helikopter. Nach einer Einfiihrung zu unbemannten Flugsystemen wird vertieft auf Rotor- fliigler eingegangen. Dabei werden verschiedene Aspekte der Mechanik, der Elektronik sowie der Softwareumgebung erértert. Die wesentlichen Entwicklungsschritte erfolgen aus dem Blickwinkel des Ingenieurs. Zahl- reiche Flugexperimente bestitigen die gelungene Entwicklung des Auto- pilotensystems.Seite Leet / Blank leatAbbreviations and Acronyms 3D ACTD AHRS ATM AUVSI cosy DCM DGPS DME DoD DOF EA ECEF ESA ESF EuroUVS FCS GCs GLONASS GNSS three-dimensional advanced concept of technological demonstration attitude heading reference system air traffic management Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Control of Complex Systems direction cosine matrix differential GPS distance measurement equipment Department of Defense degree(s) of freedom Euler angles Earth-centered Earth-fixed European Space Agency European Science Foundation European Organization on Unmanned Vehicle Systems flight control system ground control station global navigation satellite system global navigation satellite systemGPS HALE HelyOS IMU INS MBN MEMS MICOLA MIPS NASA NED NiCd NIMA NiMH ONERA PWM RISC RPV RT SMi StrongARM TACAN UART UAV VHF global positioning system high altitude, long endurance real-time helicopter operating system. inertial measurement unit. inertial navigation system model based navigation micro-electrical mechanical sensors mission control language million instructions per second National Aeronautics and Space Administration north, east, and down coordinate frame nickel cadmium National Imagery & Mapping Agency nickel metal hybrid Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aérospatiales pulse-width modulated reduced instruction set computer remotely piloted vehicle real-time strategic management information Intel processor based on ARM architecture tactical air navigation data universal asynchronous receiver transmitter unmanned aerial vehicle very high frequencyVOR VTOL WGS-84 VHF omni-directional range vertical take-off and landing World Geodetic System 1984 xiSeite Leer / Blank leafSymbols Navigation variables @ o,0,0 % a, b,e,d oS 11s +++ C33 Pe Pry Pys Pz tn, Te,tD TY z Lh on Ve, Vy, Uz UN, VE; UD attitude vector based on the Euler angles roll, pitch, and yaw angle of the craft (Euler angles) attitude vector based on quaternion representation quaternion vector components direction cosine matrix (transformation matrix from body fixed frame to navigation frame) direction cosine matrix components position vector of the craft with respect to the local navi- gation frame position components of the craft with respect to a local cartesian coordinate frame position components of the craft with respect to the local north, east, down cartesian coordinate frame Earth-centered-Earth-fixed coordinates (ECEF) position components of the craft with respect to the ge- ographic coordinate frame (latitude, longitude, height above ground) velocity vector of the craft with respect to the local nav- igation frame velocity components of the craft with respect to a local cartesian coordinate frame velocity components of the craft with respect to the north, east, down coordinate frame xiiiSensor variables ib Par Wey Wy, We Wabs Wyb, Wzb b ib Ses Sys fe Fab; fybs feo fu, fe, fo accelerometer bias component gyroscope bias component accelerometer scale factor error gyroscope scale factor error accelerometer mounting misalignment and cross-coupling error gyroscope mounting misalignment and cross-coupling er- ror error noise vector angular rate vector with respect to the body fixed coor- dinates as measured by the onboard gyroscopes gyroscope raw measurements angular rate components angular rate bias components body acceleration vector with respect to the body fixed coordinates as measured by the onboard accelerometers body acceleration components body acceleration bias components body acceleration components with respect to the local navigation frame Mathematical variables A,B,H A, B, 1 Fy, Gx, He FG xiv continuous time system matrices continuous time system matrices of the transformed sys- tem discrete time system matrices system matrices of the Pinson error modelFin, Gm G(s) Q Ques Gays Guz Gaz» Jay; daz Gly -+ +s Upp R Tyee Pez “es 5 B dt, 5t, AT tr ersyas(t) em(t) fo) sus (t) Spara(t) system matrices of the linearized mathematical model transfer function identity matrix Kalman gain zero matrix system noise covariance matrix noise covariance coefficients for the gyroscopes noise covariance coefficients for the accelerometers noise covariance coefficients for the model parameters measurement noise covariance matrix noise covariance coefficients for the measurement noise of the mathematical model system transformation matrix auto-correlation function error state vector covariance matrix standard deviation time constant of first-order system time increments time error state vector of the integrated navigation system error state vector of the mathematical model nonlinear system equations for the time derivative of the state vector system equations for the time derivative of the state vec- tor of the mathematical model system equations for the time derivative of the parameter vector of the mathematical model xv1) Nm(t) fis +++ sls3 xvi nonlinear (navigation) measurement vector nonlinear measurement vector of the mathematical model matrix components constant parameter vector parameter vector of the mathematical model uncertain model parameter quaternion vectors system input vector nominal system input vector (operating point) control input signal for the craft continuous time (navigation) system state vector state vector components discrete time system state vector nominal system state vector (operating point) state vector of the mathematical model (navigation) measurement vector Dirac impulse disturbance input vector error state vector measurement error vector general system and measurement noise vectors quaternion error component direction cosine error component attitude error vectorba, 58, dy attitude error components with respect to the local nav- igation frame oy skew symmetric matrix of dv 6b attitude error vector with respect to the Euler angles Coordinate systems, transformations, and angular rates Xi Yi, Z axes of the inertial navigation frame Xe, Ye, Ze axes of the Earth fixed navigation frame a transformation matrix from coordinate frame a to frame b Ts angular rate transformation matrix Ty matrix to express the relationship between velocity and the geographic position data Tx,T3;Tay1Ts — nonlinear similarity transformation matrices dys distance vector between point M and S with respect to the body fixed coordinate frame u,v", w™ (mathematical) vectors with respect to the local naviga- tion frame Pv? we (mathematical) vectors with respect to the body fixed frame w, angular rate vector between system a and 6 with respect to the cartesian coordinates of system b 08, skew-symmetric form of w®, wk Earth rate vector with respect to the NED coordinate frame wr, transport rate vector with respect to the NED coordinate frame wh, angular rate vector between the navigation frame and the body fixed frame with respect to the body fixed frame xviiWN, WE, wD Pro PN: PE: PD Earth model 2 R Ya &n g(h, L) x Ry Rp Ro angular rate of the navigation frame quaternion vector representing the navigation to body frame rotation rate (body rate) transport rate coefficients with respect to north, east, and down direction Earth’s rotation rate length of the Earth’s semi-major axis length of the Earth’s semi-minor axis flattening of the Earth’s ellipsoid major eccentricity of the Earth’s ellipsoid equatorial value of the Earth’s gravity gravity deflection parameters Earth gravity model depending on height and latitude local gravity component Earth meridian radius of curvature Earth transverse radius of curvature mean Earth radius Mathematical model of the helicopter Ag, Aga; Avg; By system matrices of the linearized error model Ais, Bis, Am, Ar control input signals of the helicopter (cyclic pitch, cyclic Q Q1,..., 016 Ugas Gas Gy To, Uo roll, collective pitch of the main and tail rotor, resp.) main rotor speed of the helicopter model parameters of the helicopter fuel engine input signal disturbance inputs of wind gusts operating point of the aerial vehicleContents 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Contribution of this Work . 1 1.2 Structure of the Thesis... . . 3 2 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft: Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? 5 2.1 Capabilities and Applications ... 2... ........0- 6 2.1.1 Motivation and Research Interest . . . 6 2.1.2 Need for Information 7 2.1.3 Present and Future Applications . . . 7 2.2 Survey of Helicopter Projects . 8 2.2.1 Introductory Remarks . 8 2.2.2 Research-Oriented Helicopter Projects 9 2.2.3. Military and Industrial Rotary-Wing Projects... . 12 2.3. Risks and Side Effects 17 2.3.1 Safety Aspects 7 2.3.2 Technological Points of View 17 2.3.3. Lessons Learned a 19 2.4 General Conditions of UAVs . . 19 2.4.1 Manned and Unmanned Aircraft . . . eee Halo, 2.4.2 Aircraft Certification... 2.2... 0.00022 ee 20 3 Design and Construction of the Autonomously Flying Helicopter at ETH 23 3.1. Structure of the Autopilot . . . 24 3.2. Components for the Autopilot . 27 3.2.1 Overview ........ 7 3.2.2 Hardware Configuration 28 3.2.3 Onboard Electronics . 6... 0... ee ee 30 3.2.4 Software Configuration and Ground Control Station 33 3.3 Flight Experiments . 3.4 Project Summary... ..... 41 xixContents 4 Navigation Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicles 4.1 Navigation as a Problem of Data Fusion 4.1.1 Formulation of the General Problem 4.1.2 Navigation Raw Data Analysis and Error Models . . 4.1.3 Summary of the Extended Kalman Filter 4.2 Strapdown Inertial Navigation ............. 4.2.1 Coordinate Frames and Earth Geodetic Parameters 4.2.2 Attitude Computation and Representation 4.2.3 Velocity and Position Differential Equations . . 4.2.4 Navigation System Alignment . . 4.2.5 Remarks on Strapdown Inertial Navigation . . 4.3 Integrated Navigation Systems .. . Ri ere es 4.3.2 Filtering vs. Smoothing Algorithms .... . . 4.3.3. Simplified INS/GPS Integrated Navigation 4.4 Aspects of Implementation and Filtering Results 4.4.1 Computational Aspects : 4.4.2 Filtering Examples... ......0....2.00005 5 Concept of “Model Based INS/GPS Navigation” 5.1 Introduction 5.2. Integrated INS/GPS Navigation 5.3 Recursive Model Identification 5.4 Model Based Navigation... ..... 5.5 Discussion and Practical Example 5.6 MBN: Summary and Outlook... . . 6 Error Analysis of Model Based INS/GPS Navigation 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The Nominal INS Error Model 6.2.1 Classical Direction Cosine Matrix Approach . 6.2.2 New Approach Based on Euler Angles . . . . 6.3 The Augmented INS/GPS Error Model 6.4 Uncertainty of the Mathematical Model 6.4.1 ‘The Nominal Mathematical Error Model. . . 6.4.2. The Forced Mathematical Error Dynamics. . 6.5 The Helicopter Error Dynamics . . . 66 Summary... 2... eee 7 Generalized Derivation of the Inertial Navi (ale litalierin ooognooodeAayOUbHedUbo0 dd05 xx 123 ion Error Dynamics125 125Contents 7.2 Development of the General Algorithm 126 7.3 Practical Example 131 7.4 Precise Inertial Navigation Error Model fe. 135 75 Summary .................0000. 22. M1 8 Computer-Aided Design and Analysis of Navigation Algorithms 143 8.1 Introduction... ......... 143 8.2 Low-cost Navigation Unit... . 145 8.3 System Design and Error Simulation wees 17 8.4 Simulation Environment ...................- 152 8.5 Simulation Analysis and Interpretation wee. 154 8.6 Summary .........0 00.0.0 e eee 2... 157 9 Summary and Outlook 159 Appendix 161 A.1 INS Error Dynamics 2.2.2... ee 163 A.2 Derivation of the Transformation matrix Ty . 165 A.3_ Derivation of the Transformation matrix T . 167 Bibliography 1691 Introduction During the last two decades, research activities as well as planning and pro- duction processes for unmanned, autonomous vehicles have grown consid- erably. Especially in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), a wide variety of systems have been developed both in the military and civilian markets. UAVs have been recognized as attractive alternatives to manned aircraft since they can be tailored to specific tasks without risking human life. While the operating costs can be much below those of manned air- planes, it is too early to make this statement in general. The technology required for UAVs consists of highly integrated electronic components with enormous computational power as well as highly miniaturized sensors and systems, and it depends on the availability of satellite navigation and high- bandwidth data communication systems. From the theoretical point of view, flying “robots” remain a promising research topic, as they offer a wide field of interdisciplinary work, including system theory, electrical and mechanical engineering, computer science, computer vision, and software engineering. Some of the most relevant research and development aspects are shown in Fig. 1.1. 1.1 Contribu in of this Work The main focus of this work lies on unmanned, autonomously flying heli- copters belonging to the category of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The primary research topic deals with the navigation concept for an autopilot system. The autopilot represents the computer-controlled flight stabilization and guidance system which is based on various sensor information and adequate mathematical filtering and control algorithms. The task of navigation is to provide the flight controller with precise and continuous information on the vehicle’s position, velocity, attitude, and at- titude rate. The process of navigation represents an integral part of the autopilot system and is tailored to the requirements of the autonomous flight system. Based on the background of representative UAV developments as given in1 Introduction Figure 1.1: Various aspects of requirements and limitations for unmanned aerial vehicles. the next chapter, the state of the art of autonomous flight will be discussed. A separation will be made with respect to fixed-wing and rotary-wing air- craft. Fixed-wing aircraft have been dominating the military as well as the commercial market, yet new applications have steadily increased the interest in the deployment of small helicopters. Although helicopters are difficult to control, the relevant reasons for the deployment of helicopters are their ability to hover at a reference position and to allow more flexibility in the design of the 3D flight trajectory. Although the number of UAVs increases continuously, national and inter- national legislation for UAV certification is missing as yet. The airspace for UAVs is still strictly limited and even for researchers is provided only within military general flight testing areas. The certification process of UAVs as well as the air traffic management (ATM) have lately been sub-1.2 Structure of the Thesis jects of numerous discussions and conferences. In particular, safety aspects and handling qualities of the craft stand in the foreground. Both will be of fundamental interest to allow UAVs to enter the civilian market and to use UAVs to solve multiple tasks as mentioned below. 1.2 Structure of the Thesis The thesis is structured as follows: Chapter 2 provides a substantial review of commercial, military, and research-oriented UAV projects with focus on autonomous model helicopters. The development of the autonomous helicopter project at ETH is presented within Chapter 3, where the system design as well as a number of flight results are described also. In Chapter 4, the concepts of integrated navigation for autonomous vehicles are explained. The navigation is based on strapdown sensor technology and the global positioning system (GPS). The new concept of “model based INS/GPS navi- gation” described in Chapter 5 is then applied to the linearized dynamics of the model helicopter. Several aspects of implementation as well as various practical examples are presented. The error analysis of model based navi- gation is presented in Chapter 6. Finally, Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the computer-aided design of navigation algorithms. They represent a new way to compute the navigation error dynamics of the inertial navigation system (INS). In Chapter 7, the development of the new algorithm is formulated in a general manner. The procedure shown is then confirmed by simulation results and the analysis of real flight data.1 Introduction2 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft: Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? The initial developments of UAVs were strongly motivated by military rea- sons. Starting during and after World War II, many nations initiated se- cret UAV programs. Still, the military requirements consist primarily in surveillance, reconnaissance, and penetration of hostile terrain for infor- mation gathering to allow adequate tactical and strategic decisions. The technical demands include autonomous take-off, flight, and landing, flight at high altitudes, long flight endurance, high payload capacity, and high flight velocities allowing wide flight ranges. While the developments within the United States for a long time focussed on few large (and expensive) systems to be used for various tasks, other nations like Israel and South Africa focussed on smaller UAVs which have been tailored for specific applications. Since 1995 a new guideline of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) supports the Advanced Con- cept of Technological Demonstration (ACTD) (O°Neill et al., 1998), which promotes the development of various sizes of UAVs for different applica- tions. Since then, the variety and number of UAVs has grown considerably from mini and micro UAVs to high altitude, long endurance (HALE) sys- tems. Universities as well as military and private research and development orga- nizations have provided specific contributions to the various military UAV programs, including inertial sensor technology, airframe design, propulsion systems, and system theory in general. Numerous UAVs have since been built and are operated by national military units. A general overview of UAV systems is given by the European organization on Unmanned Vehicle Systems (Euro UVS), located in Paris, founded and led by Peter van Blyen- burgh (www.euro-uvs.org). Euro UVS distinguishes UAVs on the basis of operating radius, weight of the aerial vehicle, flight altitude, and propulsion system. Shrinking military budgets on the one hand and increasing capabilities of2 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, on the other hand, have a grow- ing impact on research and development activities for UAVs for the civilian market. Particularly during the last few years, the significance of unmanned aerial vehicles for numerous civil applications has grown noticeably. Evi- dence therefor are new organizations, journals on unmanned vehicles, news- groups, internet sites, conferences, and new products. Within this frame- work, helicopters play a particular part, as helicopters are favored for many applications for which fixed-wing aircraft are not suitable. 2.1 Capabilities and Applications 2.1.1 Motivation and Research Interest Although helicopters are unstable, time-varying, and nonlinear dynamical systems, helicopters can provide impressive flight performance with a well- trained pilot. However, the flight range of the piloted helicopter is limited to the line-of-sight condition or the ability of the pilot to detect and follow the orientation of the helicopter. Furthermore, the training of the pilot takes a long time. These aspects motivate the design of an autopilot system which not only can stabilize the helicopter but also guide the helicopter precisely on a reference trajectory. The helicopter has six degrees of freedom (DOF) and is difficult to describe exactly with mathematical models. Therefore robust and optimal control concepts are required. Due to the interdisci- plinarity of the design of an autopilot system, the research activities fit into the environment of an university. The project offers various challenges both from the aspects of theory and from those of the practical realization and demonstration. Aside from the aspects of research and development, helicopters are very attractive for the consumer market. Due to their hovering flight capabili- ties and the ability of vertical lift-off and landing, the helicopter is favor- able for various commercial applications as listed in the following sections. Upcoming projects also focus on the employment and autonomous flight management of multi unmanned aerial vehicles. This will also include co- operating ground and aerial vehicles. The latest technologies in the field of micro-electrical mechanical sensors (MEMS) and systems, multi-chip mod- ules, and novel power and propulsion systems allow to build smaller UAVs, which reduces the individual costs of UAVs. Furthermore the flight dynam- ics can be increased, which makes UAVs even more attractive for various tasks,2.1 Capabilities and Applications 2.1.2 Need for Information The main advantage of UAVs is to provide additional information on a predefined region with limited effort. This information includes above all visual information and feedback. The information can be received during day and night and under adverse weather conditions. Based on specialized cameras and recorders, the visual information includes ordinary photogra- phy as well as infrared, real-time video transmission. Due to the flexible flight altitude, views from above can cover various levels of image quality without risking the UAV to hazardous conditions. The pictures received are processed by the various authorities such as humanitarian agencies, police, public transportation, radio and television stations, search and rescue units, advertising, construction industry, real estate or marketing agencies. The employment of UAVs plays a major role since in many cases the availabil- ity of the information is time-critical. Further reasons to apply UAVs arise from their ability to approach and identify suspicious objects or situations. While visual feedback represents one of the major applications, additional tasks can be solved by UAVs based on different sensors. This includes surface and ground penetrating radar information, laser scanning systems, chemical, physical, biological, electromagnetical, and meteorological sen- sors. The areas of inspection includes urban areas, countryside, mountains, rivers, forests, agricultural areas, and oceans. As unmanned, autonomous helicopters offer the ability for precise and repeatable positioning as well as for manoeuvering in densely populated areas, they are mainly tailored for local operation with limited requirements on the flight velocity and flight altitude. Due to the flexibility of the design of the flight trajectory for he- licopters, these crafts are used for geometrical and spatial scanning along horizontal and vertical meanders. 2.1.3 Present and Future Applications The list of applications suited for UAVs is quite extensive. Within this section only a few applications are mentioned that should point out the range of capabilities. Obviously there are still new ideas and concepts for UAVs that will offer novel possibilities including indoor applications and cooperating fleet management. ‘The recent survey shows that UAVs are attractive for various commercial, industrial, public, scientific, and military operations. The tasks include power line and pipeline inspection, dam observation, area mapping, pho- togrammetric survey, radioactivity measurements, inspection of flooded ar-2 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? eas and forest fires, humanitarian demining, volcano observation, border control, searching of missed or shipwrecked persons, detection of oil spills, weather forecast, object delivery, advertising, video and film industry, traf- fic surveillance, sports and cultural event transmission, terrain monitoring, animal density determination, air and area pollution measurements, agri- cultural fertilizer dissemination, radio transmission repeater, distribution of advertisements, airborne show business, area illumination, and extraction of materials. Each of the above mentioned tasks can be analyzed in detail to define the necessary operation requirements. Those requirements concern on the one hand the unmanned aerial vehicle itself which has to provide the adequate flight range, flight altitude, flight endurance, flight velocity, and payload capacity, and on the other hand the user interface which has to provide the task specific flight and trajectory management and the payload interpre- tation. In general UAVs are suited for real-time data acquisition and for dynamic generation of the waypoints, i.e. points along a trajectory to be approached by the UAV. In order to keep the operating costs for the individual tasks down, it is rec- ommended to focus on a modular system design. This modularity concerns the flight vehicle, the ground control station, the payload operation, and the data communication system. However, the variety of UAVs shows that most of them are dedicated to specific tasks and operating environments. This on the other side grants that the UAV solves the dedicated task in an optimal manner. In consequence, the design of a complete UAV system re- mains a trade-off between system generality and system individuality. The following section gives an overview on some of the latest rotary-wing UAVs. 2.2 Survey of Helicopter Projects 2.2.1 Introductory Remarks As already mentioned, there are numerous projects that have been run- ning for several years and many projects that have been started during the last few years. Especially in the field of micro UAVs, many activities are on their way. Not all projects have been published or presented at conferences, however, the following list of rotary-wing UAVs gives an good overview on the variety of systems. It is important to notice that not all UAVs shown here provide a complete autopilot system which allows com- pletely autonomous flight without a human pilot. Some of the industrial2.2 Survey of Helicopter Projects and commercial systems shown are remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) that offer the future capability to integrate an autopilot system. 2.2.2 Research-Oriented Helicopter Projects These days, many universities worldwide own an aerial robotics group, which allows dedicated research and development activities on UAVs. In view of rotary-wing aircraft, there are mainly three categories of helicopter systems. In the following, these systems will be discussed with respect to assets and drawbacks. 1. Small Size Helicopters The small size helicopters rest upon a commercial model helicopter with a rotor diameter of 1.0...1.6m. Those helicopters are very widespread available, easy to maintain and operate, and convenient for transportation. The price of the helicopter will be much lower than the costs of the electronic equipment. The system uses conven- tional accessories of the hobby market. Those systems can be flown by trained pilots within a small testing area. The operation of these helicopters can be handled by a small crew and with respect to the flight performance, these helicopters offer a wide range of dynamical investigations. Several research projects are listed in Table 2.1. However, these systems have several drawbacks as they provide a very limited payload capacity. In many the limited payload does not allow additional sensors for redundant testing or protection enclosures for the electronics. In general, the helicopters have to be trimmed and maintained for each flight and the power reserves during test flights are also limited. As the mechanical structure of the helicopter is not designed to carry additional components, the placement of the electronics is rather circumstantial. Due to the low-priced material, the helicopter’s endurance and reliabi is modest. The systems are primarily used to apply and improve navigation and control theory. ‘The commercial relevance of these systems is moderate. 2. Medium Size Helicopters The medium size helicopters with a main rotor diameter of 1.6...2.2™, offer an increased payload capacity. The price for such helicopters is still reasonable as they are already field-tested for long-term opera- tion. The mechanical design allows further integration of additional electronic components and observation systems. The engine power allows flights at higher altitudes with additional power reserves. The2 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? Table 2.1: Univer ity research projects based on small size helicopters Photograph Description and Link is ETH Zurich, Measurement and Control Lab http://www.heli.ethz.ch/ Electrical helicopter mounted on a aluminium tripod. Ground based computer system. Stanford University, Aerospace Robotics Lab http://sun-valley.stanford.edu/~heli/ Airborne computer system. Navigation with 4 GPS antennas with carrier phase calculations. University of California at Berkel http://robotics.eecs. berkeley.edu/bear/ Autonomously flying helicopter with focus on computer vision for object recognition. University of Waterloo, Aerial Robotics Group http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/~warg/ Dev. of autonomous ground and air vehicles. Systems for the Int'l. Aerial Robotics Comp. | | University of Southern California | http://www-robotics.use.edu/~avatar/ Customized computer boards, sonar sensors. Systems for the Intl, Aerial Roboties Comp. Rosewell Flyer http://www-nyblimp.com/roswell.htm System with 4 rotors and lightweight materials, | three piezo gyros, electronics for speed control. | systems still have a high dynamic special sensors for particular experiments. Some s} in Table 2.2. bandwidth and are able to carry ‘tems are shown The drawbacks of these medium size helicopters are that those heli- copters are not as widespread as before and that for further devel- 10lelicopter Proj 2.2 Survey of He ‘search projects based on medium size helicopters Table 2.2: University re “Sa pure ‘stostias [eIyJaU! 109-ai0] ‘pavoq oyndut0J prvoquo pozimoysno yt Joydooyoy Burd <[snowouomny aouatog 1ayndiuoy jo wounredag ‘upIeg Jo AysxoatuQ, /NIAMWW/ep ttpt0q-n4°so-apd//:dyy | “uonestaen SqH/SNT pur preog soyndutos ouz0qare pozttuoysna uo poseq soydooroy, Susy AqsnomoMo Ny S10 }eI0qL'T “yoqor punoad [yeurs 10A1 “KBofOMN} FOTO PUR PILOG-911I] HO paseq JaynduI0D pxeoquE /TINLH/21AMd/OUV/sdnor9/siosg /nporweutny-o80.4" iat -uolsty viep SA4D/SNI sepnpout ydoouios uoNeStAvU OU ABOUT} AoINdwios FOTDd UO paseq st SuNdUI09 prvoquO [way we8taq~reqeae/reqear ~/npo- I p pur Karv9 0} pouFisap apnyaa peLoy Aysqoaqup) WeUN|N]T-0soy rsonogor-aaat//:dy34 RIMIOFTLA Wroyynog jo Aysioaray) Aprape yor aan) /:d yy OIWOD pure WoutaMsroyy “PUNT ALLA yur] pue uoNduosog ydeaoq0qq helicopter manufacturer consists. The opments a dependency on the backup pilot has to be pretty well trained and the flight field needs to be e crew operating the system The safety. arger in order to provide s 112 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? comprises several specialists, which impl flight testing. more efforts to prepare 3. Large Size Helicopters This category includes helicopters with a main rotor diameter greater than 2.4m, typically about 3m. These helicopters provide a large payload capacity, high flight altitudes, remarkable engine power re- serves, and onboard power generation. The flight endurance can be quite long. As those systems are built for professional applications, the systems are highly reliable and maintenance-free for several hours of flight. Due to the increased payload capacity, these helicopters al- low flight demonstrations with several payload configurations. The systems can also be used for transportation of small objects. Sev- eral universities as listed in Table 2.3 as well as some national re- arch organizations, e.g., NASA Ames Research Center or ONERA, the French National Aerospace Research Establishment, are working with this type of helicopter. The drawhacks of the large size helicopters consist mainly in the fi nancial expenses and the dependency on the helicopter manufacturer as there are only few companies with professionally designed heli- copters. The piloting as well as the mechanical maintenance of the helicopters requires well-trained staff in order to prevent costly harms. For test flights a wide area is required and larger vehicles are needed for transportation. Due to the enlarged payload capacity, the need for miniaturized autopilot systems might be undervalued, Finally, the flight dynamics are not as high as in the previous cases due to the increased weight of the overall system. 2.2.3 Military and Industrial Rotary-Wing Projects This section describes some of the former developments of vertical lift-off and landing systems. It is well known that VTOL systems play a major role for naval and urban applications due to their minimal local requirements for lift-off and landing. In general, the systems presented here are essen- tially larger as they should be able to carry high performance stabilized vision systems. On the other hand, the ms are less affected by wind gusts and other adverse weather conditions. The ground stations for these kind of autonomous UAVs are quite extensive and allow system monitoring, path planning, payload surveillance, and operation decisions. Some of the autonomous UAV systems are listed in Tables 2.4 and 2.5.& a sg s g mq 8 S 5 a icts based on large size helicopters Research proje Table 2.3: ‘Surjarey pure dourjtioamns “3-9 ‘suoryeoydde peaeu oBtres-Bu0] pue aotempuo yBIY 10} opNyoa are pommeunm TOLA /quredrep-marar//:q3y (AVY) OPMPA AV pooueapy ‘vayVa “SuLOIITONT vr puR aoETToAIs se Yons ‘suorwordde shouea Jof woys4s AYP) shoMMoUOe Ue Jo yWoUTdopaAoq] /LNVUDIA/E1d/P99P/ H/F V109 Main //:V NY Joa np onbiureudg a9 sourasdg sop opueunmog adage ‘WHANO Suyuuerd yyed poureyuoo-sjos pue aourj[ioams oygesy uo sno0q “sa]oNOA SHOMTOUOINY WOBFTJoqT Jo vare oy} UI YorvOsOY, /sequa /yxo/osmyepr aaa //:d 9 Aroyesogey Broquoyeay ‘Apstoarug, Surdgyury “spreog sandutos FOTOd “BuIpUR] pue LoNRFLART pas apnpout soidoy ypxeasay “s AYA esodnd-tynut jo youd /ooy~/mpa'Xafoxsi0q's909°s9110q01/, Agpytog, ye enuOpRD Jo AysTOATIQ, Yaa stordooyayy Bury Aysnoutouoane jo sadAyoqoad yeavaog /sarat /taddoyo/so0ford/s9/spe/tipa"nut9'S9" ALLL AINISUT SOMOGOY oT, “sirup uOPoyy a1GoumwD yur] pue wonduosog ~ydessoj0y As helicopters are primarily used for aerial photography and video record- ing, some of the remotely piloted helicopters are listed in Table 2.6. Some 3 1WS SU eysed/neaouny aan | LET-Wy ‘sowey ST wayy oer -eyy/t moo ‘oTes-aanan OLA py P3UPUBIA ‘OTVS ?SU /pepins~/too-Sutadspururaaan//:d)14 ‘ouy ‘sarZojouypay, surais.’g popmy :g'T Without an autopilot system, ange to the line of sight. Furthermore it is difficult for the pilot to fly or hover the helicopter exactly at the same /poayfoo/tes01d /d.11/F10°Sep LN ody of8eq Ta SU tos-1oydooyoutfoq aaa oq oBeg [9 #S'T {t:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? dispose of an actively stabilized camera platform age qualities, Table 2.4: Industrial and military VTOL projects with autopilot systems & ron a g =< wi09“A'ys10yIs"Ataa as 2 AVN TI yday AysioMIS *SY ag = oydda/surerFo1d/tt109 AYSIOYTS MAA aoe B AVA KYdkD Ayst0y es z . 8 i /joqo.roe /t11091a]JOU- ALLL Eae [ | ee a | 886 8 /mo1/oe/sd8/[QT-pop/went/F.10°Sep Ma ices Se Ege $ LeE"1D eovdso.oy sorprequiog ig T | aoe g ydesoog | SCT pte wonduosoq | _ydeasionona ave <= Seg SES =2.2 Survey of Helicopter Projects : Industrial and military VTOL projects with autopilot systems a a —— ———— oe yep dv “R29! /wo9" n/n ‘Tard “pry 480 OL VAST /poatqoo /ureaSo1d /day/ 3.10 JONI “WOLUIEA, OBR] #SY /wtoa'doves'aanas//:yy, uoryerodiog doveg adioy, 1g /dtooepemey aasa//:d9 9 Joydovoqoy epeavyy-t07 ‘/todedaten /310" Suraurpopy position during recordings. Therefore, miniaturized autopilot systems will substantial ly improve the handling qualities of the system. 152 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century Table 2.6: Commercial and industrial RPV systems Joxtd oq wousaquryourld: suo doot[oH] [OXId ?SU tr09"1ado9-4oa.n soqdog-soaing # troo"ureo.10.A01 9 WoOKOULAT # mot AguoBesp maar 162.3 Risks and Side Effects 2.3 Risks and Side Effects 2.3.1 Safety Aspects Although helicopters and other rotary-wing aircraft have an enormous po- tential for many applications in the civilian market, the UAV systems have to prove integrity, reliability, and system safety. For any commercial ap- plication, system safety has to be guaranteed in order to prevent harms to humans and materials. ‘The safety concerns each part of the system, from the engine and the mechanics to the electronics and data links. Additional safety features such as fault detection and recovery, optical and acoustical alerts, redundant electronics, and safety recovery systems have to be inte- grated to the aircraft. The overall term concerns the airworthiness of the stem. Until now, most of the systems are prototypes with limited operation area and less field-tested experience. The operation of the UAV systems requires well-trained staff on ground and in most cases additional backup pilots. Still, an separation between flight management and payload control exists which augments the operating costs. In order to be competitive to manned aircraft, the UAV systems have to provide further levels of intelligence. This includes autonomous system monitoring, obstacle recognition, situational awareness, and payload interacted path planning. Even though the system safety has to be increased, the operating costs in personal and equipment have to be reduced. Otherwise UAVs will remain dedicated to the chosen few military and high-priority civilian applications. 2.3.2 Technological Points of View From the technological point of view, the system safety concerns to a large extent the capabilities of the flight control system (FCS). The FCS has to guarantee stable and robust flight even under tough wind and weather ditions such as wind gusts or turbulence, changes in the weather, different flight velocities and flight altitudes, or during drop of temperature. There- fore the mathematical models for the aircraft have to be improved and enlarged to include dynamical changes of the environment. For detailed analysis of the flight dynamics of a helicopter under different wind condi- the Swiss Heli Team has designed a synthetical wind generator for the laboratory environment (Gerig, 2001). A photograph of the conception is shown in Fig. 2.1 n= The development of robust FCSs for rotary-wing aircraft will also increase 172 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? Figure 2.1: Mechanical design of a wind generator for dynamical flight ana- lysis of a model helicopter under changing wind conditions. the requirements for reliable, light-weight aerial sensors, which rises the question of data fusion, data integrity, fault detection and recovery, and system monitoring. As conventionally used in manned aircraft, UAVs will also own redundant autopilot systems to augment: system safety. Another important issue represents the availability of high performance data links with high bandwidth, interference resistance, and long range transmission. These data links have to fulfill the power and frequency specifications of the national authorities for wireless data communication. Concerning the aerial vehicle itself, safety release systems as well as specified tests, scheduled maintenance, and preventive mechanical checkups have to be developed for the operation of UAVs. Potentially, UAVs will recurrently be licensed for operation by the national authorities as usual cars or manned aircraft 182.4 General Conditions of UAVs 2.3.3 Lessons Learned The author has been working in the field of rotary-wing aircraft for several years. Right from start the focus was on flight autonomy of small helicopters and the navigation concepts applied for UAVs. Within this section several lasting impressions concerning the research and development activities are described. 1. Due to the interdisciplinarity of the project, a successful deployment of UAVs requires a team of different technical specialists. At least the technical fields of electronics, computer science, and system theory have to be covered. Beside the team members, the contributions of experts from various technical fields are essential. 2. The UAV project should be presented and demonstrated several times to allow communication with people non-involved, get critical feed- back, and determine the current status of the development. In that connection the International Aerial Robotics Competition (Michelson, 1996) motivates the development of the system and makes interna- tional relations possible. 3. As UAV systems are dangerous and expensive, it is important to keep an eye on each little component of the system. This includes mount- ings, cables, and soldering joints. A well-defined backup strategy is necessary in order to prevent any crash of the system. 4. The most important lesson learned deals with endurance. This en- durance concerns the personal, financial, and temporal resources. Al- though the concepts of UAVs have been covered with several publi- cations, there are only few systems that have proven successful em- ployment, both in industry, military, and university. 2.4 General Conditions of UAVs 2.4.1 Manned and Unmanned Aircraft The steadily growing activities of international organizations such as the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) or Euro Unmanned Vehicle Systems (Euro UVS) and professional corporations such as Shephard’s publications or Strategic Management Information (SMi) in the field of air traffic management and airworthiness, show the expected future importance of civil and military UAVs. Nowadays, UAVs fly mostly 192 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? within restricted military area or within well defined uninhabited area. The coarse existing rules are mainly on a national basis and cover limitations in overall take-off weight and flight altitude. Within the coming years, new guidelines for the operation of UAVs have to be developed on an international level. These guidelines are expected to define the air traffic management (ATM) between manned and unmanned aerial vehicles. The guidelines will have impact on the future technical requirements of UAVs, especially with respect to data communication and the ability to “see and avoid”. However, a classification of UAVs with respect to their technical specifications will remain. The classification will influence the complexity of the onboard electronics, the required artificial intelligence of the systems, the capabilities of the ground control station, and the safety release systems. In future, UAVs will more and more be recognized as an alternative to manned aircraft, provided that the operating costs per hour will be reason- ably cheaper or the risk of human injury can be avoided. For several military applications, these suppositions have already been reached with fixed-wing aircraft and will be reached within several years with rotary-wing aircraft. However for the civilian market, the prices of manned aircraft (helicopters and fixed-wing) will be difficult to underbid. With regard to the future guidelines for UAVs, the unmanned aerial robots will be raised in price. The main attraction of UAVs for the civilian market consists of medium and small size systems. The focus lies on applications that cannot be solved from the ground and where manned aircraft, are uneligible. 2.4.2 Aircraft Certification As already mentioned, the certification of UAVs will be necessary in order to meet international safety standards and to prevent dangerous situations that can cause harm to humans and materials. The certification require- ments will be derived from the consisting regulations for manned aircraft with appropriate modifications. The certification process covers all compo- nents of the aircraft individually and in the compound structure. Special attention will be turned to the control algorithms, as the electronic autopi- lot replaces the human pilot. Furthermore, the safety release systems will play a major role for civilian applications. These systems include optical and acoustical alerts as well as airbags, parachutes and engine suspension. Depending on the UAV category, also the flight operator has to possess an appropriate education, which is comparable to a pilot’s education. 202.4 General Conditions of UAVs The certification process will increase substantially the costs of UAVs. Here, established aircraft industries will profit from their certification experience on manned aircraft. A fundamental separation of UAVs will be made on the basis of lift-weight weight and flight altitude. These are the main criteria for ATM and how the UAV can endanger other aircraft and humans on ground. Finally a separation will be made between a national (local) and an international (global) flight licence. 212 Autonomous Rotary-Wing Aircraft:Big Deal for the Twentieth Century? 223 Design and Construction of the Autonomously Flying Helicopter at ETH This section presents the system design of the autopilot system for the un- manned, autonomously flying helicopter of ETH. With regard to the sensor, electronic, and computer configuration, the focus lies on the engineering as- pects as well as the system particularities. As already shown in Fig, 1.1 and mentioned in Chapter 2, the autopilot system includes several technical and non-technical aspects. The technical topics discussed here are pictured in a simplified manner in Fig. 3.1. | sensors & systems |—— tools for - data analysis signal pre-processing) So Taterence dara] NOW/CHH. clgortrens| —" | generation [servos & electronics} [helicopter mechanics) Figure 3.1: Simplified arrangement of the components for the autopilot sys- tem. At the same time, several results of flight demonstrations and signal pro- cessing will be shown. The outline of this chapter is as follows. Based on the description of the schematic structure of the autopilot as shown in Fig. 3.4, various measurement results are shown. Furthermore an overview on the software structure and the user interface is described, which has gradually been developed for flight testing and data analysis. An overview on successful flight experiments as well as a short outlook concludes this chapter. 233 Design and Construction of theAutonomously Flying Helicopter at ETH 3.1 Structure of the Autopilot The general layout of an autopilot for aerial vehicles has recently been dis- cussed in several publications (Amidi, 1996), (Brandenburg et al., 1998), (Gavrilets et al., 2000). The systems are based on a set of inertial, opti- cal, ultrasonic, and further sensors, as well as on the Global Positioning System (GPS) or the more precise differential GPS, Subsequent to the sig- nal preprocessing (level shift, anti-aliasing filter, etc.), the data acquisition (sampling period, asynchronous/synchronous and analog/digital data ac- quisition, etc.), and the data conversion towards physical units, the data fusion process provides an estimate of the actual aircraft’s situation. This includes the current state variables such as position, velocity, and attitude as well as in the more advanced processing further information on height above ground, proximity and approach of obstacles or other aircraft, and relative flight information such as data required for shipboard landing. Apart from physical specifications, such as weight, dimensions, and power supply, the main differences of the autopilot systems consist of more funda- mental properties. This comprises the decision where to place (how much) of the demanded computational power. For simplified flight stabilization this will be done onboard. However, for high-performance computer vision- in-the-loop, the required computational power might be on the ground. This raises the question of safety of the wireless data communication be- tween the ground control station (GCS) and the aerial vehicle. Further distinction of the autopilot systems is based on the computer and soft- ware technology. Off-the-shelf commercial software packages and computer boards, e.g., PC104 computer systems, offer a comfortable development en- vironment and are on-hand. Yet, this approach cannot be optimized in terms of miniaturization and tailored interfaces as required for the UAV. Connected herewith is the question of the hierarchic structure of the system and the partitioning of black and white boxes. This concerns both hard- ware and software systems such as navigational attitude heading reference systems (AHRS) and data link modules on the one hand, and the real-time operating system itself on the other hand. Finally, the autopilot systems can be distinguished on the basis of sensor quality, e.g., inertial navigation capability, and the level of automation, from attitude and position stabi- lization to autonomous path planning capabilities. The two different prototypes of autopilot systems of ETH can be seen in Fig. 3.2. In both cases, the mechanical structure of the helicopter is almost the same. The helicopter was provided by Huner Technik, Switzerland. 24