High-Bandwidth Control and Advanced Dynamic Modelling for Unmanned Helicopters. Advanced control theory will be applied to enable precise control of unmanned helicopters in the presence of disturbances. This is critical for: operating unmanned helicopters among the buildings of urban environments, reconnaissance, investigating dangerous areas, pursuit of targets, and many other desirable capabilities for law enforcement and military purposes. The ability of a small RUAV to launch and recover to ....High-Bandwidth Control and Advanced Dynamic Modelling for Unmanned Helicopters. Advanced control theory will be applied to enable precise control of unmanned helicopters in the presence of disturbances. This is critical for: operating unmanned helicopters among the buildings of urban environments, reconnaissance, investigating dangerous areas, pursuit of targets, and many other desirable capabilities for law enforcement and military purposes. The ability of a small RUAV to launch and recover to a moving vessel would significantly enhance operational possibilities for border protection tasks and the Australian Defence Force. The research has direct application to other mechanical systems such as underwater vehicles, mobile robots, and precision control of agricultural vehicles, overhead cranes, and mining equipment.Read moreRead less
Mid-Career Industry Fellowships - Grant ID: IM230100644
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$889,472.00
Summary
Triple hybrid fuel-cell-based propulsion for long-range eVTOL operations. AMSL Aero's Vertiia is an Australian-developed electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft that will provide rapid response air ambulance and low-cost passenger transport for rural Australia. This project will optimise a fuel cell/battery/ultracapacitor triple hybrid system for Vertiia by combining dynamic energy source models, hardware-in-the-loop simulations, aero-propulsive flight mechanics models, and accel ....Triple hybrid fuel-cell-based propulsion for long-range eVTOL operations. AMSL Aero's Vertiia is an Australian-developed electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft that will provide rapid response air ambulance and low-cost passenger transport for rural Australia. This project will optimise a fuel cell/battery/ultracapacitor triple hybrid system for Vertiia by combining dynamic energy source models, hardware-in-the-loop simulations, aero-propulsive flight mechanics models, and accelerated degradation testing. The triple hybrid will extend the life of both batteries and fuel cells for eVTOL aircraft. It will allow AMSL to fast-track the improved durability needed for cost-competitive long-range eVTOL operations, giving them an up-front and industry-leading experience on hybrid systems for eVTOLs.Read moreRead less
Energy Source Durability for Electric Vertical TakeOff and Landing Aircraft. This project aims to address energy source durability for electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft by optimising a fuel cell/battery/ultracapacitor triple hybrid energy system. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of energy source durability using interdisciplinary approaches that combine energy source degradation models, hardware-in-the-loop simulations, aero-propulsive flight mechan ....Energy Source Durability for Electric Vertical TakeOff and Landing Aircraft. This project aims to address energy source durability for electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft by optimising a fuel cell/battery/ultracapacitor triple hybrid energy system. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of energy source durability using interdisciplinary approaches that combine energy source degradation models, hardware-in-the-loop simulations, aero-propulsive flight mechanics models, and accelerated degradation testing. This should provide significant benefits, allowing to fast-track the improved longevity needed for cost-competitive long-range rapid response air ambulance eVTOL operations.Read moreRead less
Automated helicopter hover and recovery system for operations at sea. The small size and simplicity of the integrated system outlined in this project will significantly improve the effectiveness of maritime surveillance for homeland security whilst enabling substantially lower operational costs. The proposal aims to develop control and sensing techniques, enabling small rotary wing unmanned air-vehicles (UAVs) weighing less than 100 kgs to operate from small-size vessels. This will be achieved ....Automated helicopter hover and recovery system for operations at sea. The small size and simplicity of the integrated system outlined in this project will significantly improve the effectiveness of maritime surveillance for homeland security whilst enabling substantially lower operational costs. The proposal aims to develop control and sensing techniques, enabling small rotary wing unmanned air-vehicles (UAVs) weighing less than 100 kgs to operate from small-size vessels. This will be achieved by resolving the current lack of integration between ship motion and the unmanned vehicle guidance systems. The proposed research will make substantial contributions in areas of ship motion prediction and sensing and hover control of tethered and non-tethered small helicopters.
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Vision Based Guidance, Navigation and Control of a Tail-Sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The development of a high precision visual guidance system for vertical takeoff and landing UAVs will significantly enhance their operational effectiveness by allowing them to land accurately on the back of small vessels or in confined clearings. Together with the extra navigation-system redundancy vis-a-vis GPS system failure and the ability to self-identify reasonable emergency landing sites, the proposed v ....Vision Based Guidance, Navigation and Control of a Tail-Sitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. The development of a high precision visual guidance system for vertical takeoff and landing UAVs will significantly enhance their operational effectiveness by allowing them to land accurately on the back of small vessels or in confined clearings. Together with the extra navigation-system redundancy vis-a-vis GPS system failure and the ability to self-identify reasonable emergency landing sites, the proposed vision-based system represents a significant capability improvement over what is currently available. It will thus enhance the ability of defence and civil-defence units to patrol Australian borders effectively and to react to threats. It will also have significant export potential to allied nations.Read moreRead less
Locating Interference to GPS: Protecting the World's Aircraft Landing Systems. GRAS is an enormous initiative that is expected to generate billions of dollars in exports for Australia. The equipment developed in this project will protect the system from radio frequency interference. It thus protects these exports, and creates a new exportable product. By protecting this system, it makes air travel safer both in Australia and in the countries that buy this Australian technology.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102645
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
The cause of the poleward shift of Earth's storm tracks and jet streams. Why do global climate models shift the atmospheric storm tracks and jet streams poleward in simulations of future climate? This project will determine the underlying causes of the most important circulation change that is projected to occur with increasing greenhouse gases, and will allow much more accurate regional climate projections.
Local climate changes caused by large bushfire burnt areas. This project aims to quantify the impact on local climate produced by large burnt areas after extreme bushfires. This project expects to generate new knowledge on these previously unexplored fire-scar induced changes to local climate. It will extend an innovative approach that combines satellite based earth observation with very high resolution regional climate modelling to quantify the impacts on land-atmosphere feedbacks and local cli ....Local climate changes caused by large bushfire burnt areas. This project aims to quantify the impact on local climate produced by large burnt areas after extreme bushfires. This project expects to generate new knowledge on these previously unexplored fire-scar induced changes to local climate. It will extend an innovative approach that combines satellite based earth observation with very high resolution regional climate modelling to quantify the impacts on land-atmosphere feedbacks and local climate. Expected outcomes of this project include enhanced methods to quantify local climate changes after extreme fires and their effect on vegetation recovery. This should provide significant benefits to the planning for, and management of, vegetation recovery after extreme fires.Read moreRead less
Role of modulating water wave groups in enhancing air-water fluxes. This project aims to investigate the importance of the group structure and breaking of wind-generated waves of various scales in the air-water exchange of mass, momentum and energy. This project expects to generate new understanding in the area of air-water exchanges using an innovative approach based on direct numerical simulation of wind over unsteady water wave groups for a wide range of wind speed and wave steepness conditi ....Role of modulating water wave groups in enhancing air-water fluxes. This project aims to investigate the importance of the group structure and breaking of wind-generated waves of various scales in the air-water exchange of mass, momentum and energy. This project expects to generate new understanding in the area of air-water exchanges using an innovative approach based on direct numerical simulation of wind over unsteady water wave groups for a wide range of wind speed and wave steepness conditions.
Expected outcomes of this project include generating fundamental knowledge of the unresolved physics and new parameterisations for air-water exchange rates. This will deliver more accurate and more comprehensive forecast models for weather, inland and ocean waterways, and numerous industrial processes.Read moreRead less
The dynamics of turbulent entrainment in sheared convective boundary layers. This project aims to develop general laws to enable the accurate prediction of boundary layer entrainment processes. This will be significant in a wide range of environmental and engineering applications. In particular, the current lack of understanding of this area is a major source of uncertainty in the latest generation of global climate models.