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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 107 - Boulder - March 2011
Agenda Location	8 SUBCOMMITTEE E – FLIGHT, PROPULSION, AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE CONTROL SYSTEMS 8.2 Enabling Small Air Systems to Operate in Challenging Environments with Onboard Sensors and Processing
Title	Enabling Small Air Systems to Operate in Challenging Environments with Onboard Sensors and Processing
Presenter	Eric Johnson
Affiliation	Georgia Tech
Available Downloads*	presentation
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Abstract	Eric N. Johnson Lockheed Martin Associate Professor of Avionics Integration School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology Abstract Typical current small unmanned aircraft systems require the human operator to do obstacle avoidance when vehicle is closer to obstacles than resolution of terrain database (or altitude measurement). Operations without GPS often imply increased human operator workload. To truly enable operations with in environments with these challenges with desired operator workload (i.e., no direct human operator, or human’s role is primarily to interpret ISR data) automatic obstacle avoidance and GPS denied operations are desired. In addition, one must accomplish this with purely onboard sensors and processing to achieve tolerance to communication failures. Automatic obstacle avoidance implies obstacle sensing. Small aircraft are particularly sensitive the weight and power penalties associated with active sensing systems. It also implies guidance for obstacle avoidance. GPS denied operations (including indoor) imply alternate sensor choices to bound inertial system drift, typically by sensing landmarks of opportunity in the environment. Estimation/navigation algorithms that these sensed feature are needed, such as the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) concept. This presentation includes sample vision-based navigation systems and an example of vision-based obstacle avoidance. For ranging sensor systems: a concept for a system that uses only ranging sensors is presented, as well as laser-aided inertial navigation and automatic nap-of-the-Earth helicopter flight using laser ranging sensors.