Browsing by Author "Mukherjee, Anurag"

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    Autonomous detect and avoid algorithm respecting airborne right of way rules
    (AIAA, 2024-01-04) Mukherjee, Anurag; Mondal, Sabyasachi; Tsourdos, Antonios
    Robust conflict resolution systems are crucial for BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) operations of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) in the unsegregated airspace. The present conflict resolution research focus is skewed towards optimal path planning, often ignoring the airborne Right-of-way rules prescribed by the FAA and CAA. Although this approach might result in the most optimal path to resolve the conflict, it can cause confusion among other airspace users if the rules of the air are not obeyed when operating in the vicinity of other aircraft. In the present work, a real-time model predictive control approach is proposed that heavily prioritizes adherence to the prescribed right-of-way rules of the air. The maneuvering limitations of the involved aircraft are also taken into account. Several conflict scenarios were simulated, and the results show that the developed algorithm could resolve all conflicts.
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    Co-simulation digital twin framework for testing future advanced air mobility concepts: a study with BlueSky and AirSim
    (IEEE, 2023-11-10) Zhao, Junjie; Conrad, Christopher; Fremond, Rodolphe; Mukherjee, Anurag; Delezenne, Quentin; Su, Yu; Xu, Yan; Tsourdos, Antonios
    The UK Future Flight Vision and Roadmap outlines the anticipated development of aviation in the UK by 2030. As part of the Future Flight demonstration segment, project HADO (High-intensity Autonomous Drone Operations) will develop, test, and deploy fully automated unmanned aircraft system (UAS) operations at London Heathrow Airport. Cranfield University is leading the synthetic test environment development within the HADO project, and a digital twin (DT) prototype was developed to enable mixed-reality tests for autonomous UAS operations. This paper enhances the existing DT by introducing new co-simulation capacities. Specifically, a co-simulation DT framework for autonomous UAS operations is proposed and tested through a demonstrative use case based on BlueSky and AirSim. This prototype integrates the traffic simulation capabilities of BlueSky with the 3D simulation capabilities of Airsim, to efficiently enhance the simulation capacities of the DT. Notably, the co-simulation framework can leverage the 3D visualization modules, UAS dynamics, and sensor models within external simulation tools to support a more realistic and high-fidelity simulation environment. Overall, the proposed co-simulation method can interface several simulation tools within a DT, thereby incorporating different communication protocols and realistic visualization capabilities. This creates unprecedented opportunities to combine different software applications and leverage the benefits of each tool.
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    Developing a digital twin for testing multi-agent systems in advanced air mobility: a case study of Cranfield University and airport
    (IEEE, 2023-11-10) Conrad, Christopher; Delezenne, Quentin; Mukherjee, Anurag; Mhowwala, Ali Asgher; Ahmed, Mohammad; Zhao, Junjie; Xu, Yan; Tsourdos, Antonios
    Emerging unmanned aircraft system (UAS) and advanced air mobility (AAM) ecosystems rely on the development, certification and deployment of new and potentially intelligent technologies and algorithms. To promote a more efficient development life cycle, this work presents a digital twin architecture and environment to support the rapid prototyping and testing of multi-agent solutions for UAS and AAM applications. It leverages the capabilities of Microsoft AirSim and Cesium as plugins within the Unreal Engine 3D visualisation tool, and consolidates the digital environment with a flexible and scalable Python-based architecture. Moreover, the architecture supports hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and mixed-reality features for enhanced testing capabilities. The system is comprehensively documented and demonstrated through a series of use cases, deployed within a custom digital environment, comprising both indoor and outdoor areas at Cranfield University and Airport. These include collaborative surveillance, UTM flight authorisation and UTM conformance monitoring experiments, that showcase the modularity, scalability and functionality of the proposed architecture. All 3D models and experimental observations are critically evaluated and shown to exhibit promising results. This thereby represents a critical step forward in the development of a robust digital twin for UAS and AAM applications.