Bio-Inspired Navigation of Chemical Plumes

Abstract

The ability of many insects, especially moths, to locate either food or a member of the opposite sex is an amazing achievement. There are numerous scenarios where having this ability embedded into ground-based or aerial vehicles would be invaluable. This paper presents results from a 3-D computer simulation of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) autonomously tracking a chemical plume to its source. The simulation study includes a simulated dynamic chemical plume, 6-degree of freedom, nonlinear aircraft model, and a bio-inspired navigation algorithm. The emphasis of this paper is the development and analysis of the navigation algorithm. The foundation of this algorithm is a fuzzy controller designed to categorize where in the plume the aircraft is located: coming into the plume, in the plume, exiting the plume, or out of the plume.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2006
Accession Number
ADA521660

Entities

People

  • Juan R. Vasquez
  • Maynard J. Porter Iii

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Aircrafts
  • Algorithms
  • Altitude
  • Automatic Pilots
  • Birds
  • Computer Simulations
  • Control Systems
  • Engineering
  • Fuzzy Sets
  • Navigation
  • Simulations
  • Statistics
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Wind

Readers

  • Adaptive Control and Estimation with Uncertainty in Dynamic Systems.
  • Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Technology.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy