Acquisition of Cooperative Small Unmanned Aerial Systems for Advancing Man-Machine Interface Research
Abstract
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 and the Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriations Act for 2014 allocated $10.7M to assist Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions (HBCU/MI) and to enhance their research and education capabilities in scientific areas relevant to the defense mission. The FY 2014 program supports the acquisition of research equipment and instrumentation to augment existing capabilities and to develop new capabilities that will facilitate greater participation in DoD research programs and encourage more students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. This proposal from Principal Investigator, Dr. Daniel Pack, requests support for the acquisition of small, unmanned aerial systems to establish cooperative man-machine systems research at the University of Texas, San Antonio (UTSA). The long term goal of this effort is to form a strong research and education center at UTSA, developing technologies for systems made of small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) and humans. The need to develop cooperative man-machine technologies for our nation to remain as the worldÕs technology leader is widely addressed in the National Robotics Initiative (NRI), the DoD Unmanned Systems Integrated Roadmap, and the BRAIN initiative. Our goal is to contribute toward this national effort, using the proposed equipment, by initiating a new and important area of research in cooperative man and aerial machine systems at UTSA. We propose to acquire the following equipment for both research and educational use: (1) small, technology proven unmanned fixed wing aerial vehicles (SUAVs); (2) small vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles; (3) ground control stations for both fixed wing and VTOL vehicles; and (4) onboard sensors. The equipment will support the following research programs led by PI and four key personnel: cooperative sensing using SUAVs (Dr. Daniel Pack, PI), human-machine interface research (Dr. Yufei Huang), research experience for undergraduates using multiple unmanned systems (Dr. CJ Qian), multi-scale flow control of SUAVs (Dr. Victor Maldonado), and communications among distributed mobile systems (Dr. David Akopian). On the education side, the equipment will be used to support both undergraduate and graduate level courses in five engineering programs (Electrical, Computer, Civil, Mechanical, and Biomedical) and in one science program (Computer). As part of the recruitment efforts, the equipment will also be used by middle/high school students in summer engineering and technology camps. The equipment will play a critical part in advancing research in neuroergonomics, system of systems, cooperative control, sensor networks, and wireless communications at UTSA.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 23, 2017
- Source ID
- W911NF1510042
Entities
People
- Daniel Pack
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of Texas at San Antonio