Drones最新文献

{"title":"Fed4UL: A Cloud–Edge–End Collaborative Federated Learning Framework for Addressing the Non-IID Data Issue in UAV Logistics","authors":"Chong Zhang, Xiao Liu, Aiting Yao, Jun Bai, Chengzu Dong, Shantanu Pal, Frank Jiang","doi":"10.3390/drones8070312","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070312","url":null,"abstract":"Artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) have brought great convenience to people’s everyday lives. With the emergence of edge computing, IoT devices such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can process data instantly at the point of generation, which significantly decreases the requirement for on-board processing power and minimises the data transfer time to enable real-time applications. Meanwhile, with federated learning (FL), UAVs can enhance their intelligent decision-making capabilities by learning from other UAVs without directly accessing their data. This facilitates rapid model iteration and improvement while safeguarding data privacy. However, in many UAV applications such as UAV logistics, different UAVs may perform different tasks and cover different areas, which can result in heterogeneous data and add to the problem of non-independent and identically distributed (Non-IID) data for model training. To address such a problem, we introduce a novel cloud–edge–end collaborative FL framework, which organises and combines local clients through clustering and aggregation. By employing the cosine similarity, we identified and integrated the most appropriate local model into the global model, which can effectively address the issue of Non-IID data in UAV logistics. The experimental results showed that our approach outperformed traditional FL algorithms on two real-world datasets, CIFAR-10 and MNIST.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141659713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Lightweight Neural Network for the Real-Time Dehazing of Tidal Flat UAV Images Using a Contrastive Learning Strategy","authors":"Denghao Yang, Zhiyu Zhu, Huilin Ge, Haiyang Qiu, Hui Wang, Cheng Xu","doi":"10.3390/drones8070314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070314","url":null,"abstract":"In the maritime environment, particularly within tidal flats, the frequent occurrence of sea fog significantly impairs the quality of images captured by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This degradation manifests as a loss of detail, diminished contrast, and altered color profiles, which directly impact the accuracy and effectiveness of the monitoring data and result in delays in the execution and response speed of monitoring tasks. Traditional physics-based dehazing algorithms have limitations in terms of detail recovery and color restoration, while neural network algorithms are limited in their real-time application on devices with constrained resources due to their model size. To address the above challenges, in the following study, an advanced dehazing algorithm specifically designed for images captured by UAVs over tidal flats is introduced. The algorithm integrates dense convolutional blocks to enhance feature propagation while significantly reducing the number of network parameters, thereby improving the timeliness of the dehazing process. Additionally, an attention mechanism is introduced to assign variable weights to individual channels and pixels, enhancing the network’s ability to perform detail processing. Furthermore, inspired by contrastive learning, the algorithm employs a hybrid loss function that combines mean squared error loss with contrastive regularization. This function plays a crucial role in enhancing the contrast and color saturation of the dehazed images. Our experimental results indicate that, compared to existing methods, the proposed algorithm has a model parameter size of only 0.005 M and a latency of 0.523 ms. When applied to the real tidal flat image dataset, the algorithm achieved a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) improvement of 2.75 and a mean squared error (MSE) reduction of 9.72. During qualitative analysis, the algorithm generated high-quality dehazing results, characterized by a natural enhancement in color saturation and contrast. These findings confirm that the algorithm performs exceptionally well in real-time fog removal from UAV-captured tidal flat images, enabling the effective and timely monitoring of these environments.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141661666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Intelligent Maneuvering Strategy for the High-Speed UAV Pursuit-Evasion Game","authors":"Tian Yan, Can Liu, Mengjing Gao, Zijian Jiang, Tong Li","doi":"10.3390/drones8070309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070309","url":null,"abstract":"Given the rapid advancements in kinetic pursuit technology, this paper introduces an innovative maneuvering strategy, denoted as LSRC-TD3, which integrates line-of-sight (LOS) angle rate correction with deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for high-speed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) pursuit–evasion (PE) game scenarios, with the aim of effectively evading high-speed and high-dynamic pursuers. In the challenging situations of the game, where both speed and maximum available overload are at a disadvantage, the playing field of UAVs is severely compressed, and the difficulty of evasion is significantly increased, placing higher demands on the strategy and timing of maneuvering to change orbit. While considering evasion, trajectory constraint, and energy consumption, we formulated the reward function by combining “terminal” and “process” rewards, as well as “strong” and “weak” incentive guidance to reduce pre-exploration difficulty and accelerate convergence of the game network. Additionally, this paper presents a correction factor for LOS angle rate into the double-delay deterministic gradient strategy (TD3), thereby enhancing the sensitivity of high-speed UAVs to changes in LOS rate, as well as the accuracy of evasion timing, which improves the effectiveness and adaptive capability of the intelligent maneuvering strategy. The Monte Carlo simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a high level of evasion performance—integrating energy optimization with the requisite miss distance for high-speed UAVs—and accomplishes efficient evasion under highly challenging PE game scenarios.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"108 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141666065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Optimizing Drone Logistics: A Scoring Algorithm for Enhanced Decision Making across Diverse Domains in Drone Airlines","authors":"Diyar Altinses, David Orlando Salazar Torres, Michael Schwung, Stefan Lier, Andreas Schwung","doi":"10.3390/drones8070307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070307","url":null,"abstract":"The complexities of decision-making in drone airlines prove to be pivotal and challenging as the dynamic environment introduces variability and many decisions are conventionally static. This paper introduces an advanced decision-making system designed for the multifaceted landscape of drone applications. Our proposed system addresses various aspects, including drone assignment, safety zone sizing, priority determination, and more. The scoring model enhances adaptability in real-time scenarios, particularly highlighted by the dynamic adjustment. Based on the scenario concerning the definition of the safety zone, we have successfully applied this method and evaluated all potential scores. The user-friendly and intuitive configuration further augments the system’s accessibility, facilitating efficient deployment. In essence, the proposed system stands as an innovative approach with decision-making paradigms in the dynamic landscape of drone operations.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"124 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141665250","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Design and Flight Simulation Verification of the Dragonfly eVTOL Aircraft","authors":"Wen Zhao, Yingqi Wang, Liqiao Li, Fenghua Huang, Hanwen Zhan, Yiqi Fu, Yunfei Song","doi":"10.3390/drones8070311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070311","url":null,"abstract":"Recently, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft have become a top priority for urban air transportation due to their ability to overcome urban ground traffic congestion. In this research, a new type of scaled lift–cruise ‘Dragonfly’ has been designed. The ‘Dragonfly’ combines the characteristics of an octocopter and a fixed-wing aircraft. Compared with the same type of eVTOL aircraft, it has a longer wingspan and a more stable aircraft structure, it can not only take off and land vertically without the need for a runway, but also fly quickly in a straight line and hover in mid-air. In order to ensure the success of the flight test, it was also simulated in this paper. A simulation scenario highly fitting with the flight test environment of eVTOL is designed in the Gazebo simulation platform, and then combined with the PX4 flight control platform, the system SITL of the constructed aircraft simulation model is carried out on the Gazebo platform, Finally, simulation flight test data for accurate analysis are obtained, the accuracy and stability of the control algorithm are fed back, and scientific support for the follow-up ‘Dragonfly’ aircraft hardware-in-the-loop simulation and physical flight test is provided.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"111 47","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141665823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Autonomous UAV Safety Oriented Situation Monitoring and Evaluation System","authors":"Zhuoyong Shi, Jiandong Zhang, Guoqing Shi, Mengjie Zhu, Longmeng Ji, Yong Wu","doi":"10.3390/drones8070308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070308","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, a LabVIEW-based online monitoring and safety evaluation system for UAVs is designed to address the deficiencies in UAV flight state parameter monitoring and safety evaluation. The system consists of a lower unit for UAV recording and an upper unit on the ground. The lower unit collects and detects flight data and connects to the upper unit through a wireless digital transmission module via a serial port. The upper unit receives the data and carries out the monitoring and safety situation evaluation of the UAV. The lower unit of the system adopts multi-sensors to collect UAV navigation information in real time to achieve flight detection, while the upper unit adopts LabVIEW to design the UAV online monitoring and safety situation prediction system, enabling monitoring and safety situation prediction during UAV navigation. The test results show that the system can detect and comprehensively display the navigation information of the UAV in real time, and realize the safety evaluation and warning function of the UAV.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"37 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141663756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"DLSW-YOLOv8n: A Novel Small Maritime Search and Rescue Object Detection Framework for UAV Images with Deformable Large Kernel Net","authors":"Zhumu Fu, Yuehao Xiao, Fazhan Tao, Pengju Si, Longlong Zhu","doi":"10.3390/drones8070310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070310","url":null,"abstract":"Unmanned aerial vehicle maritime search and rescue target detection is susceptible to external factors, which can seriously reduce detection accuracy. To address these challenges, the DLSW-YOLOv8n algorithm is proposed combining Deformable Large Kernel Net (DL-Net), SPD-Conv, and WIOU. Firstly, to refine the contextual understanding ability of the model, the DL-Net is integrated into the C2f module of the backbone network. Secondly, to enhance the small target characterization representation, a spatial-depth layer is used instead of pooling in the convolution module, and an additional detection head is integrated into the low-level feature map. The loss function is improved to enhance small target localization performance. Finally, a UAV maritime target detection dataset is employed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, whose results show that DLSW-YOLOv8n achieves a detection accuracy of 79.5%, which represents an improvement of 13.1% compared to YOLOv8n.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"44 22","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141663830","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Feature-Enhanced Attention and Dual-GELAN Net (FEADG-Net) for UAV Infrared Small Object Detection in Traffic Surveillance","authors":"Tuerniyazi Aibibu, Jinhui Lan, Yiliang Zeng, Weijian Lu, Naiwei Gu","doi":"10.3390/drones8070304","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070304","url":null,"abstract":"With the rapid development of UAV and infrared imaging technology, the cost of UAV infrared imaging technology has decreased steadily. Small target detection technology in aerial infrared images has great potential for applications in many fields, especially in the field of traffic surveillance. Because of the low contrast and relatively limited feature information in infrared images compared to visible images, the difficulty involved in small road target detection in infrared aerial images has increased. To solve this problem, this study proposes a feature-enhanced attention and dual-GELAN net (FEADG-net) model. In this network model, the reliability and effectiveness of small target feature extraction is enhanced by a backbone network combined with low-frequency enhancement and a swin transformer. The multi-scale features of the target are fused using a dual-GELAN neck structure, and a detection head with the parameters of the auto-adjusted InnerIoU is constructed to improve the detection accuracy for small infrared targets. The viability of the method was proved using the HIT-UAV dataset and IRTS-AG dataset. According to a comparative experiment, the mAP50 of FEADG-net reached more than 90 percent, which was higher than that of any previous method and it met the real-time requirements. Finally, an ablation experiment was conducted to demonstrate that all three of the modules proposed in the method contributed to the improvement in the detection accuracy. This study not only designs a new algorithm for small road object detection in infrared remote sensing images from UAVs but also provides new ideas for small target detection in remote sensing images for other fields.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"116 12","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141667556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Motion Estimation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Axial Velocity Using Blurred Images","authors":"Yedong Mao, Quanxi Zhan, Linchuan Yang, Chunhui Zhang, Ge Xu, Runjie Shen","doi":"10.3390/drones8070306","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070306","url":null,"abstract":"This study proposes a novel method for estimating the axial velocity of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using motion blur images captured in environments where GPS signals are unavailable and lighting conditions are poor, such as underground tunnels and corridors. By correlating the length of motion blur observed in images with the UAV’s axial speed, the method addresses the limitations of traditional techniques in these challenging scenarios. We enhanced the accuracy by synthesizing motion blur images from neighboring frames, which is particularly effective at low speeds where single-frame blur is minimal. Six flight experiments conducted in the corridor of a hydropower station demonstrated the effectiveness of our approach, achieving a mean velocity error of 0.065 m/s compared to ultra-wideband (UWB) measurements and a root-mean-squared error within 0.3 m/s. The results highlight the stability and precision of the proposed velocity estimation algorithm in confined and low-light environments.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"116 35","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141667765","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Attitude Control of a Mass-Actuated Fixed-Wing UAV Based on Adaptive Global Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Control","authors":"Laohu Yuan, Jinxin Zheng, Xiaoguang Wang, Le Ma","doi":"10.3390/drones8070305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8070305","url":null,"abstract":"Compared with traditional control methods, moving mass control (MMC) enhances the aerodynamic efficiency and stealth performance of fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (FWUAVs), thereby facilitating their broader application in military and civilian fields. Nevertheless, this approach increases system complexity, nonlinearity, and coupling characteristics. To address these challenges, a novel attitude controller is proposed using adaptive global fast terminal sliding mode (GFTSM) control. Firstly, a dynamic model is established based on aerodynamics, flight dynamics, and moving mass dynamics. Secondly, to improve transient and steady-state responses, prescribed performance control (PPC) is adopted, which enhances the controller’s adaptability for mass-actuated aircraft. Thirdly, a fixed-time extended state observer (FTESO) is utilized to solve the inertial coupling issue caused by mass block movement. Additionally, the performance of the entire control system is rigorously proven through the Lyapunov function. Finally, numerical simulations of the proposed controller are compared with those of PID and linear ADRC in three different conditions: ideal conditions, fixed aerodynamic parameters, and nonlinear aerodynamic parameter changes. The results indicate that the controller effectively compensates for the system’s uncertainty and unknown disturbances, ensuring rapid and accurate tracking of the desired commands.","PeriodicalId":507567,"journal":{"name":"Drones","volume":"113 49","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141668025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}