VERTICAL REPLENISHMENT BY UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES.

LIU PEIDONG

Publication

VERTICAL REPLENISHMENT BY UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES.

LIU PEIDONG

Abstract

Helicopters are extensively used for vertical replenishment, which is a type of underway replenishment for seaborne vessels. This operation is commonly done by manned helicopter, which is usually labor-inefficient and possesses potential risks for pilots and ground crews especially in extreme weather conditions. Thus, the development of an unmanned helicopter for vertical replenishment is presented in this thesis. The thesis covers the helicopter platform construction, dynamic modeling of the helicopter, automatic controller design, state estimation algorithms development and system integration. Real flight experiments were conducted and it was verified that the developed system is capable of precise cargo grabbing, automatic delivery and unloading. The developed system was brought to an international unmanned aerial vehicle competition and was the only helicopter which completed all the cargo transportation tasks in the competition.