School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing (SATM)

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Browsing School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing (SATM) by Course name "MSc in Aerospace Dynamics"

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    Machine vision and scientific imaging for autonomous air vehicles (UAV).
    (Cranfield University, 2008-08) Jameson, Pierre-Daniel; Cooke, Alastair K.; Hobbs, Stephen E.
    This thesis outlines the necessary requirements to determine an Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) pose relative to a lead aircraft or target, thus enabling a UAV to successfully follow a lead aircraft or target. The use of Machine Vision for Autonomous navigation has been investigated and two flight scenarios were chosen for analysis. Firstly, following a manoeuvring lead aircraft, and secondly, maintaining a steady heading behind a target/lead aircraft (as would be required for in-flight refuelling). In addition, the author has performed a literature review of current research in this field which is significantly dominated by eventual military requirements in order to improve UAV endurance. In addition, experimental work towards developing a passive vision based navigation system has been undertaken. It is hoped that after further research and development this will lead to an eventual flight trial using the flight dynamics department’s UAV’s. The experimental work has been performed using both equipment and software already available within the department and furthermore, it has enabled an analysis of the department’s currently available capabilities for passive visual navigation to be undertaken. Key points for further work have been outlined for the future advancement of the visual navigation project.
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    Performance evaluation of UAM configurations cost estimation for the eVTOLs.
    (Cranfield University, 2021-08) Wu, Xiaolong; Lu, Linghai
    With the development and progress of society, the pressure on road traffic is increasing daily, causing enormous time and economic losses to the public. The concept of electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) was proposed in order to identify a speedy and effective way of commuting in congested cities. There are many different categories of eVTOLs on the market and many countries and companies are developing it, however the various types of vehicles have different target scenarios and will incur different operating costs. This research project will identify the most suitable configuration of eVTOL in the given scenario, predict its cost and present the lowest cost optimisation solution. The research project started with a reference and evaluation of the similarities and differences between the cost structure of electric general aviation and eVTOL. Top-down, bottom-up and parametric methods were then used to initially determine the cost structure and cost formula. Furthermore, the Lilium five-seater configuration was identified as the target for this project based on the requirements of the specified scenario. Finally, the operating cost per seat-mile, operating cost per hour, annual operating cost and the optimal trajectory schedule were obtained for the specified scenario.