Foreign Studies

    Kennepp (2012) noted that the Army Reserve Aerial Reconnaissance Multi-Sensor (ARMS) Aircraft are no longer required to provide over watch in Iraq. With budgetary constraints, both the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must employ fiscal responsibility by sharing assets. The ARMS aircraft can provide DHS similar over watch capability as in Iraq, limiting the need for other more costly aerial assets and adding capacity. Additional mapping missions would increase operational reach for DHS. Such missions can be conducted without infringing on the Posse Commitatus Act by establishing proper control measures. Both DoD and DHS will benefit and show fiscial responsibility.

       On the other hand, Reyes (2012) proposed a study entitled "How will Emerging Aerial Surveillance and Detection Technology Contribute to the Mission of U.S. Customs and Border Protection” that stressed out that as the United States (U.S) has established better control of the border, traffickers and smugglers. Investigating how emerging technologies in aerial surveillance and detection (AS&D) might be applied to border security and the potential implications of fielding such technology by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), will provide a foundation for countering this evolving threat. This thesis examines possible contributions of such technology to the mission of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

       Du (2013) in the study entitled “An Intelligent Portable Aerial Surveillance System: Modeling and Image Stitching”, pointed that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have been widely used in modern warfare for surveillance, reconnaissance and even attack missions. They can provide valuable battlefield information and accomplish dangerous tasks with minimal risk of loss of lives and personal injuries. However, existing UAV systems are far from perfect to meet all possible situations. One of the most notable situations is the support for individual troops. Besides the incapability to always provide images in desired resolution, currently available systems are either too expensive for large-scale deployment or too heavy and complex for a single solder. Intelligent Portable Aerial Surveillance System (IPASS), sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), is aimed at developing a low-cost, light-weight unmanned aerial vehicle that can provide sufficient battlefield intelligence for individual troops. The main contributions of this thesis are two-fold (1)the development and verification of a model-based flight simulation for the aircraft, (2) comparison of image stitching techniques to provide a comprehensive aerial surveillance information from multiple vision. To assist with the design and control of the aircraft, dynamical models are established at different complexity levels. Simulations with these models are implemented in Mat lab to study the dynamical characteristics of the aircraft. Aerial images acquired from the three onboard cameras are processed after getting the flying platform built. How a particular image is formed from a camera and the general pipeline of the feature-based image stitching method are first introduced in the thesis. To better satisfy the needs of this application, a homograph based stitching method is studied. This method can greatly reduce computation time with very little compromise in the quality of the panorama, which makes real-time video display of the surroundings on the ground station possible. By implementing both of the methods for image stitching using OpenCV, a quantitative comparison in the performance is accomplished. 

       In the study of Huffine (2009) entitled “Adapting a Tier 2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to Provide an Electronic Surveillance and Geolocation Capability” he emphasized the integration of developmental Radar Warning Receiver named “The Puffer” onto a Tier 2 Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, and the Multifunctional Information Display System/Low Volume Terminal into the UAV’s ground control station. This integration of systems would become a low cost platform that could provide an Electronic Surveillance and geolocation capability of known mobile threat systems. The results of this investigation showed that the Puffer could be integrated on to the Tier 2 UAV with minor modifications. To control and fully integrate the downlink messages from multiple UAVs plus add the capability to send the information out to other units over Link16 would require a major hardware effort with a sizable software integration effort. While this would be an extensive project, the results could be done at a significant cost saving compared to the manned platforms in use today.

       The article on “Unmanned Aerial Vehicle 100% Report” displayed a design of an unmanned aerial to be entered into the 2013 Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) competition that is organized every year by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. (Bayliss, Bolanos & Martinez, 2013). This design project does not entail manufacturing UAV from the ground up. Rather, it requires adequate selection, customization, and modification of a pre-fabricated product. The SUAS competition consists of several factors, which determine components that will need to be added to the UAV body. The final design will be able to achieve sustained flight for a minimum of 40 minutes with the added payload of GPS, altimeter, computer, autopilot, camera, etc. The body of the UAV is an RC plane. Several designs are being considered. The final design choice will hinge on manufacturer specifications. Additionally, an adequate motor (liquid fuel vs. electric) will be chosen depending on the thrust-to-weight ratio required and the necessary range. The fuselage of the design needs to be sufficiently large enough to accommodate the electronic components necessary for autonomous flight. Wing loading is also of concern, thus the wing design needs to be appropriate.