17th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation

HALF-DAY WORKSHOP
Tuesday, June 23, PM

UAS CIVILIAN APPLICATIONS: FIRE DETECTION, FOREST PROTECTION, EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Summary

This Workshop aims at presenting an overview of the current state of research in the areas of fire detection, forest protection, emergency response, traffic monitoring, as well as other public domains, using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Emphasis will be given to how such systems may assist in, and prevent or minimize damages to the environment, contributing to better quality of life, among other things.

The focus of the Workshop will center on single and multiple unmanned vehicles, as well as cooperation, coordination, communication, cooperative control and swarms The list of topics to be covered will include, but will not be limited to: Designs, Sensing and Control for Improved Autonomy, Software/Hardware Platforms, Integrated Control and Diagnostics.

Benefits to Participants

It is postulated that the participant will acquire a comprehensive and wide knowledge related to the current state of research in unmanned systems, advances, challenges, barriers, and unsolved issues, followed by the most recent cutting edge technology used to build such vehicles. In addition, the participant will be informed about the wide range of applications such vehicles may be used for.

Targeted Audience

The Workshop is suitable for academicians, research scientists and engineers, practitioners, government and industry employees working or conducting research in control systems, robotics, electronics, modeling and design, sensors, smart materials, networks and communication systems.

List of Confirmed Presentations

1. J. Ratti, J. Kim, G. Vachtsevanos, A Biologically Inspired Micro Aerial Vehicle.
2. L. Merino, A. Ollero, J.R. Martinez de Dios, F. Caballero, Multi-UAV Cooperative Perception for Fire Detection, Monitoring and Measurement.
3. K. P. Valavanis et al, A Minimalistic Design of a Vision System for Small Unmanned Rotorcraft.
4. R. D. Garcia, Helicopter Tail Rotor Failure Control and Limitations.
5. F. Lebras, T. Hamel, C. Barat and R. Mahony, Image-Based Visual Servo controller for automatic landing guidance of a fixed-wing Aircraft.
6. N. C. Tsourveloudis, N. Vitzilaios, UAS for Fire Management: State-of-the-art, Early Warning and Trends
7. A. Cesetti, E. Frontoni, A. Mancini, P. Zingaretti, S. Longhi, Detection of Landmines Using a UAV: Architecture and Control Issues
A. Tzes, K. Alexis and G. Nikolakopoulos, Constrained Finite Time Optimal Controllers for Helicopters subject to Wind-Gust Disturbances

Short Course on

NEW FRONTIERS IN ROBOT NAVIGATION

June 23, 2009
Aristotle University
Thessaloniki, Greece

Robot navigation entails an ensemble of problems around the ancient question: how to go from A to B?  NASA vehicles Spirit and Opportunity have been roving on Mars for five years now, solving visual odometry, under supervised autonomy, avoiding obstacles, and following path directions. However, real-time constraints and the complexity and dynamics of common urban outdoor and indoor environments make navigation of robots in our daily life a challenging task.

Navigation questions can be cast in two broad challenges, perception and planning/control. How can we sense, map, and interpret the environment around us and how to plan a trajectory from A to B if we know or environment. This short course gives the opportunity to be updated in a comprehensive lectures about the basics and the state of the art from experts in perception and planning and control.

PERCEPTION (9:30-13:00):
Anastassios Mourikis (U. of California, Riverside), Visual and inertial odometry
Stergios Roumeliotis (U. of Minnesota), Localization and Mapping
Kostas Daniilidis (U. of Pennsylvania), Vision-only metric and topological mapping
Yiannis Rekleitis (McGill University), Robot exploration

PLANNING AND CONTROL (14:30-18:00):
Kostas Kyriakopoulos (NTUA),  Navigation Functions in Multi-Robot Navigatio
Nikos Papanikolopoulos (U. of Minnesota), Advanced Locomotion
Kimon Valavanis (U. of Denver), Autonomous Navigation and Control in Unmannned Air Systems
Dimitris Hristu-Varsakelis (U. of Macedonia), Higher-level languages for navigation