Robotic System for Inspection by Contact of Bridge Beams Using UAVs

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

Grau

et al. 2019

Self Cite

This paper presents the design, modelling and control of a multirotor for inspection of bridges with full contact. The paper analyzes the aerodynamic ceiling effect when the aerial robot approaches the bridge surface from below, including its aerodynamic characterization using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The proposed multirotor design takes the modelled aerodynamic effects into account, improving the performance of the aerial platform in terms of the stability and position accuracy during the inspection. Nonlinear attitude and position controllers to manage the aerodynamic effects are derived and tested. Last, outdoor experiments in a real bridge inspection task have been used to validate the system, as well as, the controller and the aerodynamic characterization. The experiments carried out also include a complete autonomous mission of the aerial platform during a structural assessment application.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contact-Based Bridge Inspection Multirotors: Design, Modeling, and Control Considering the Ceiling Effect

Jimenez-Cano

IEEE Robot. Autom. Lett.

Grau

et al. 2019

Self Cite

“…The application range of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) is significantly growing year after year [1]. However, most previous studies have been only focused from the operation point of view or showing experimental applications of this new technology, such as aerial manipulation [2] or inspection of infrastructure [3]. Nevertheless, there are more aspects that must be considered in real applications to guarantee that this technology can be applied in security conditions and commercially exploited.…”

Section: Section I Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Securing UAV communications using ROS with custom ECIES-based method

Fernández

2019 Workshop on Research, Education and Development of Unmanned Aerial Systems (RED UAS)

Heredia

et al. 2019

Self Cite

This paper is about an application of a method based on the ECIES (Elliptic Curve Integrated Encryption Scheme) to improve the security against malicious attacks of the UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) communications system. This system is focused on improving the security conditions in extreme situations and preventing the aircraft for man-made incidents and cyber attacks. The paper briefly describes the different attacks that can affect to the operation of UAVs and the security methods that, nowadays, are used to guarantee the security during the operations. Moreover, it presents a solution to a strong vulnerability detected in the classical scheme used in UAV. This scheme uses ROS (Robot Operating System) as the core of the communication system to interconnect different devices and nodes in this paper, it is demonstrated that if an Intruder is able to enter in the local network of the UAV system, he/she is also able to impersonate the GCS (Ground Control Station) of the UAV and take control of it leading to an undesirable maneuver or even a dangerous crash against a building or a person. The security system proposed to avoid this consists of a simplified method based on ECIES sending packets, between UAV and GCS, which uses ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature) and are ciphered in RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman). Thus, it is possible to guarantee that the high level computer of the UAV is able to identify the identity of their GCS and prevent of being commanded by an unauthorized Intruder. Both, the vulnerability and the solution proposed have been experimentally tested and validated through software-in-the-loop simulations and in a outdoor scenario using a small UAV.Index Terms-UAV,security,software,drone,attack SECTION I. INTRODUCTIONThe application range of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) is significantly growing year after year [1]. However, most previous studies have been only focused from the operation point of view or showing experimental applications of this new technology, such as aerial manipulation [2] or inspection of infrastructure [3]. Nevertheless, there are more aspects that must be considered in real applications to guarantee that this technology can be applied in security conditions and commercially exploited. It means that it is not only important to reach the application goal, but also it should be secure and reliable in terms of communication.Moreover, most UAV developments lack a dedicated security system in their communication system leading to situations in which an attacker can be a dangerous and unwanted Intruder. These attacks are ranging from a MiTM (Man in The Middle) or DoS (Denial-of-Service) to a GPS spoofing or UAV hijacking. Their consequences in an unmanned system are critical and extremely dangerous.In general, data security and security in the communications are key tasks in most UAV applications. For instance, this work is one of the task in the RESIST H2020 European project [4], in which the UAVs must autonomously fly while they accomplish inspection tasks in bridges or tunn...

“…Although in most of these applications the UAV accomplish perceptive tasks such as exploration, monitoring or surveillance among others, there are some of them that directly involve interaction between the UAV and the environment and which are mainly carried out by aerial manipulators [2][3] [4]. These are a new concept of UAV with an integrated robotic manipulator which are used in tasks as contact inspection and sensor installation in inspection and maintenance (I&M) of infrastructures or industrial plants [5] [6]. These I&M tasks usually require that the aerial platform flies very close to different obstacles, for instance, the AEROARMS [7] and HYFLIERS [8] project are focused on aerial manipulation for outdoors applications in I&M in oil and gas plants or the RESIST [9] project which is about the I&M of large civil infrastructures as bridges or tunnels using UAV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These aerodynamic effects have been previously studied [11] [12][13] [14] and also by the authors. In [15] a general overview of these kinds of effects was presented and some of them were specifically studied for different applications like the ground effect in [16] or ceiling effect in [6] [17]. These previous studies have shown that it is usually necessary to model this aerodynamic behaviour to guarantee that the final application produces a results which are good enough even flying very close to obstacles.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodynamic Effects in Multirotors Flying Close to Obstacles: Modelling and Mapping

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

Martín

Heredia

et al. 2019

Self Cite

This paper aims to model the aerodynamic effects in the flight of aerial robots close to obstacles in the oil and gas industries. These models are presented in the form of an aerodynamic effects map which represents the changes in the thrust when an aerial vehicle flies very close to different obstacles. Although there are works related to the fly close to different obstacles in the literature, some of the effects needed to develop the aerodynamic map have not been previously studied and tested experimentally in a test stand. The paper also considers the case where the rotor is affected by more than one obstacle.