| KEYWORD |
UAV Risk Analysis for the development of an enhanced method for safety objective determination based on optimized courses
Thesis in external company
keywords DRONES, FLYING ROBOTS, PATH PLANNING, RISK ANALYSIS, UAV
Reference persons GIUSEPPE CARLO CALAFIORE, ALESSANDRO RIZZO
External reference persons Marco Gaspardone, TIM Joint Open Lab
Research Groups SYSTEMS AND DATA SCIENCE - SDS
Thesis type SIMULATION, THEORETICAL STUDY
Description The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) technology, especially the one related to multi-rotor vehicles of medium/small size (less than 25 kilograms), is one of the most recent and interesting progresses in the field of Service Robotics. However, its applicability is still limited, due primarily to the legislation issued by civil aviation authorities. Such legislation is particularly stringent in urban environments, where UAVs and RPAs could give an important contribution toward the realization of a Smart City.
The reason for this is basically the lack of sufficient safety measures, so the UAVs are forced to fly through specific routes, which tend to avoid populated areas, making UAVs hardly usable for smart applications. Long time ago, similar regulations were applied to helicopters, until they had been considered safe enough to fly over populated areas. There are mainly two directions to follow, in order to pursue a similar maturation with UAVs: the creation of hardware/technological innovations for the machines, or the development of software/procedural tools for operations support. This thesis proposal concerns the latter aspect.
The main goal of the thesis is to enhance the currently available risk analysis algorithms used for the calculation of the safety objective of UAV operations, including an adaptive parameterization based on the flight conditions of the UAV and the overflown terrain. Steps toward the achievement of this goal are: 1) developing a software tool able to plan a flight from point A to point B optimizing the safety of the mission rather than its length (e.g., preferring a route passing over tree-lined streets, gardens, rivers, instead of places with high density of people or vehicles); 2) re-planning the route in real-time in the case of unanticipated conditions that may hamper the flight safety, and 3) providing a scientific basis for the calculation of a safety objective function, proving the soundness of the obtained results.
The student will start from the analysis of the current risk analysis algorithms (defined by: JAA - Joint Aviation Authorities, Eurocontrol – European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, FAA – Federal Aviation Administration, etc.). Then, he/she will develop a software tool for the flight planning starting from previous research works. Further, he/she will contribute to the improvement of the flight risk analysis, to the implementation of improved adaptive strategies for flight planning, and to the the theoretical proof of the achieved results. According to the quality of the achieved results, the thesis could be submitted for evaluation by ENAC (Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile), the national authority responsible for UAV regulation in Italy.
Required skills Programming skills: Matlab, C/C++
Flexibility, proactivity, ability to work in team
Notes Thesis to be partially carried out at the TIM (Telecom) Joint Open Lab at the Politecnico di Torino
Deadline 28/11/2016
PROPONI LA TUA CANDIDATURA