Design, Integration and Sea Trials of 3D Printed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Unmanned Surface Vehicle for Cooperative Missions
This work addresses maritime surveillance challenges by enabling cooperative missions between UAVs and USVs, though it is incremental as it builds on existing vehicle technologies.
The researchers tackled the limited detection range of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) by developing a cooperative UAV-USV platform, resulting in a 3D-printed waterproof UAV that can land on the sea and a system with IR beacons for precise landing in various conditions, tested through sea trials.
In recent years, Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV) have been extensively deployed for maritime applications. However, USV has a limited detection range with sensor installed at the same elevation with the targets. In this research, we propose a cooperative Unmanned Aerial Vehicle - Unmanned Surface Vehicle (UAV-USV) platform to improve the detection range of USV. A floatable and waterproof UAV is designed and 3D printed, which allows it to land on the sea. A catamaran USV and landing platform are also developed. To land UAV on the USV precisely in various lighting conditions, IR beacon detector and IR beacon are implemented on the UAV and USV, respectively. Finally, a two-phase UAV precise landing method, USV control algorithm and USV path following algorithm are proposed and tested.