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Indy Autonomous Challenge

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This document describes the technical requirements, architectural options, and recommended interface standards to support an Autonomous Distress Tracking (ADT) System intended to meet global regulatory requirements for locating aircraft in distress situations and after an accident.

This document defines a set of standard application layer interfaces called JAUS Autonomous Capabilities Services. JAUS Services provide the means for software entities in an unmanned system or system of unmanned systems to communicate and coordinate their activities. ...JAUS Services provide the means for software entities in an unmanned system or system of unmanned systems to communicate and coordinate their activities. The Autonomous Behaviors Services represent the platform-independent capabilities commonly found in platforms across domains, including air, maritime, and ground.

Over the years, the DARPA Challenges in the United States have galvanized interest in autonomous cars, making them a real possibility in the mind of the public, but autonomous and unmanned vehicles have been increasingly employed in many roles on land, in the water, and in the air. ...This book examines a number of economically important areas in which unmanned and autonomous vehicles, also understood here as autonomous technologies, are already used or soon will be. ...Some of these are quite familiar (such as the Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner), while others remain largely out of the public eye (such as autonomous farm equipment).

Autonomous control technology for satellites is under development to provide long lifetimes of uninterrupted service at minimal costs. ...True autonomy, unattended satellite operation, can only occur after solar array power systems become autonomous. Distributed intelligence on the array, employment of expert systems, modularization and on-array processing play key roles in achieving the goals of true solar array autonomy.

This paper describes the work done in autonomous operation of mobile robot at the Canadian Space Agency. The Mobile Robotic Test bed (MRT) components are presented.

The paper submits the description and the temperature performances of an autonomous adsorption refrigerator. The volume of the chamber is equal to 7 litres. As the refrigerant was used the distilled water.

Today we have approximately 250 Flight Management Systems (FMS) equipped airplanes operating in the United States and an additional 250 worldwide. This represents approximately 100 million dollars (minimum) in purchased technology. Knowledgeable sources estimate that we are using this technology at a 30% efficiency level. I believe that we have a plan for gaining much of the additional 70% capability of these systems and that by moving forward with this plan we can achieve a degree of autonomy that will broaden the horizon of commercial air transportation. By advancing the technology and utilization of flight management systems, we can greatly reduce our dependence on ground-based systems. By way of an overview, we will first define what goes into a candidate flight management system. Then, in order to better understand FMS capabilities we will cover the background associated with development and certification of current production flight management systems.

This study involved refining a vehicle for computer guidance and GPS position control. The vehicle was powered by a small diesel engine coupled to a hydrostatic drive transmission adaptable to computer control. By interfacing GPS and a computer with the control portions of the vehicle, it was controlled automatically with no driver interference. The computer interface for the vehicle was built to use TTL level inputs and outputs on a standard parallel port configuration. All control aspects of the vehicle were dictated by two parallel ports with vehicle position and heading read simultaneously through two nine pin-serial connectors. This interface configuration was flexible so the vehicle’s software control could be executed by a variety of computers, not just one built specifically for the application. A hydraulic power steering valve driven by a single bidirectional DC motor controlled the electro-hydrostatic steering system.

Practically any processes vital for autonomous inhabited systems require forced transfer of liquids. Therefore, such systems normally incorporate pumps of various types. ...The specific features of the autonomous inhabited systems result in the fact that the pumping equipment of these systems also has some specific features. ...The methods of selecting a particular type of pump and general estimate of its specific features are considered for one typical kind of autonomous inhabited system, i.e., for the life-support and survival systems of space vehicles.

The Autonomous Power System (APS) project at the NASA Lewis Research Center is designed to demonstrate the applications of integrated intelligent diagnosis, control and scheduling techniques to space power distribution systems. ...The project consists of three elements: the Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) for Fault Diagnosis, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR); the Autonomous Intelligent Power Scheduler (AIPS) to efficiently assign activities start times and resources; and power hardware (Brassboard) to emulate a space-based power system. ...The project consists of three elements: the Autonomous Power Expert System (APEX) for Fault Diagnosis, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR); the Autonomous Intelligent Power Scheduler (AIPS) to efficiently assign activities start times and resources; and power hardware (Brassboard) to emulate a space-based power system.

A concept is presented for remote, autonomous sensors, which includes an on-board power supply, signal transmission, a sensing element, and a controller.

One of the significant challenges to implementing MEMS is a viable power supply strategy for autonomous devices. A suitable approach appears to be a hybrid of energy scavengers and microscopic energy storage.

This paper describes a software system that makes real time decisions for an autonomous airplane in a simulated combat environment. It utilizes a network of plans and goals and selects them dynamically, according to the changing circumstances and to the mission goals. ...Commands may be very specific, but the system can also follow commands on higher levels of abstraction, deciding autonomously on necessary details.

An outer loop guidance architecture was designed to control autonomous aerial refueling mission from the trail aircraft side. The design utilized bank, yaw rate, velocity and climb rate commands implemented using a previously developed adaptive trajectory concept.

In this paper, an intelligent autonomous deck landing system is designed for an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV). First, the design specifications and requirements are identified for the design of UAV flight control and landing systems. ...Then the longitudinal models of the UAV are established for the design of an autonomous UAV landing system. The system is designed using fuzzy logic, which is able to provide longitudinal stability and to improve the tracking performance.

The Full Aircraft Separation Transfer (FAST) study of the Freer-Flight Project looks at the “autonomous aircraft” mode in the context of free flight airspace by 2015. This can be allied to free route operations and support the introduction of designated Free Flight Airspace as proposed in the EUROCONTROL ATM2000+ Strategy. ...The experiment described in this paper aimed at gathering more data on autonomous operations from an aircraft perspective, specifically on the acceptability of the concept by pilots, through the evaluation of a prototype interface and of the corresponding procedures. ...A number of other enhancements to the tools were suggested by the pilots, warranting more experiments for a better understanding of the feasibility of autonomous operations.

The Space Station Module Power Management and Distribution (SSM/PMAD) testbed system uses cooperating expert systems to autonomously manage the power distribution process. There are several cooperating expert systems continually interacting to provide this management. ...Whenever other subsystems activities are considered, they also must provide either portions of or complete autonomous management elements which can interact with other subsystems. This poses two problems. ...First, how do the subsystems agree on an acceptable level of performance; and, second, how do the autonomous management elements determine relative levels of importance amongst each other. Martin Marietta, through its independent research, and under contract to NASA George C.

Abstract This article addresses the design, testing, and evaluation of rigorous and verifiable prognostic and health management (PHM) functions applied to autonomous aircraft systems. These PHM functions—many deployed as algorithms—are integrated into a holistic framework for integrity management of aircraft components and systems that are subject to both operational degradation and incipient failure modes. ...This article tackles all three aspects of the use of PHM systems in autonomous systems. It outlines how some of the technical challenges have been overcome and demonstrates why PHM could be essential in this ecosystem and why regulatory authorities are increasingly open to the use of PHM systems even in the most safety-critical areas of aviation.