Sensors and Methods to Handle UAV

To gain acceptance into the fleet, the new generation of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) must mix seamlessly with the existing traffic on an aircraft carrier deck, where up to 50 aircraft and a numerous flight deck personnel may be present. Toward this end,the Navy is setting a UAV requirement to recognize the hand signals that directors (or Yellow Shirts) currently use to direct manned aircraft. We are proposing an approach that will minimally change deck procedures, but should produce reliable hand signalrecognition in essentially any weather and operating conditions. Our approach will rely on light-weight motion sensors and a communication device worn by the Yellow Shirts that will allow them to control the movements of all the UAV onboard the carrier.The focus of our Phase I effort will be on building motion detection instrumentation for the Yellow Shirts, and demonstrating that we can recognize and discriminate hand signals based on the motion detector output. We will also demonstrate that we can useour interpretation of a Yellow Shirt's hand signals to control a UAV surrogate (i.e., a mobile robot in a laboratory environment). Two different commercialization strategies can be envision for this technology. The first involves controlling the taxiingbehavior of UAVs in tight quarters, such as an aircraft carrier deck, although this type of control may also be desirable on ground bases. Another potential market is the training of military or civilian directors in a much safer environment. A PC basedconsole could provide a low cost simulator that would help directors practice theirs signaling skills. Direct feedback would indicate if the signals are performed correctly, and emergency situations that come up rarely on a flight deck could be staged. Arelated use might be the testing of new hand signals or signaling devices in a controlled environment.