Matching Items (10)
Description
Unmanned aerial vehicles have received increased attention in the last decade due to their versatility, as well as the availability of inexpensive sensors (e.g. GPS, IMU) for their navigation and control. Multirotor vehicles, specifically quadrotors, have formed a fast growing field in robotics, with the range of applications spanning from surveil- lance and reconnaissance to agriculture and large area mapping. Although in most applications single quadrotors are used, there is an increasing interest in architectures controlling multiple quadrotors executing a collaborative task. This thesis introduces a new concept of control involving more than one quadrotors, according to which two quadrotors can be physically coupled in mid-flight. This concept equips the quadro- tors with new capabilities, e.g. increased payload or pursuit and capturing of other quadrotors. A comprehensive simulation of the approach is built to simulate coupled quadrotors. The dynamics and modeling of the coupled system is presented together with a discussion regarding the coupling mechanism, impact modeling and additional considerations that have been investigated. Simulation results are presented for cases of static coupling as well as enemy quadrotor pursuit and capture, together with an analysis of control methodology and gain tuning. Practical implementations are introduced as results show the feasibility of this design.
ContributorsLarsson, Daniel (Author) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis (Thesis advisor) / Marvi, Hamidreza (Committee member) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
There has been a vast increase in applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in civilian domains. To operate in the civilian airspace, a UAV must be able to sense and avoid both static and moving obstacles for flight safety. While indoor and low-altitude environments are mainly occupied by static obstacles, risks in space of higher altitude primarily come from moving obstacles such as other aircraft or flying vehicles in the airspace. Therefore, the ability to avoid moving obstacles becomes a necessity
for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Towards enabling a UAV to autonomously sense and avoid moving obstacles, this thesis makes the following contributions. Initially, an image-based reactive motion planner is developed for a quadrotor to avoid a fast approaching obstacle. Furthermore, A Dubin’s curve based geometry method is developed as a global path planner for a fixed-wing UAV to avoid collisions with aircraft. The image-based method is unable to produce an optimal path and the geometry method uses a simplified UAV model. To compensate
these two disadvantages, a series of algorithms built upon the Closed-Loop Rapid Exploratory Random Tree are developed as global path planners to generate collision avoidance paths in real time. The algorithms are validated in Software-In-the-Loop (SITL) and Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulations using a fixed-wing UAV model and in real flight experiments using quadrotors. It is observed that the algorithm enables a UAV to avoid moving obstacles approaching to it with different directions and speeds.
for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Towards enabling a UAV to autonomously sense and avoid moving obstacles, this thesis makes the following contributions. Initially, an image-based reactive motion planner is developed for a quadrotor to avoid a fast approaching obstacle. Furthermore, A Dubin’s curve based geometry method is developed as a global path planner for a fixed-wing UAV to avoid collisions with aircraft. The image-based method is unable to produce an optimal path and the geometry method uses a simplified UAV model. To compensate
these two disadvantages, a series of algorithms built upon the Closed-Loop Rapid Exploratory Random Tree are developed as global path planners to generate collision avoidance paths in real time. The algorithms are validated in Software-In-the-Loop (SITL) and Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulations using a fixed-wing UAV model and in real flight experiments using quadrotors. It is observed that the algorithm enables a UAV to avoid moving obstacles approaching to it with different directions and speeds.
ContributorsLin, Yucong (Author) / Saripalli, Srikanth (Thesis advisor) / Scowen, Paul (Committee member) / Fainekos, Georgios (Committee member) / Thangavelautham, Jekanthan (Committee member) / Youngbull, Cody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The fight for climate justice has been ongoing for decades. However, in a recent effort to address climate change, U.S. congressional leaders Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts proposed a resolution known as the Green New Deal (GND). Though congress defeated the proposal, the policy changes envisioned within it have gained political momentum from states and municipalities. So much so, municipalities in the United States have decided to implement their own versions of the GND proposal. Throughout this paper, I analyze the components of three nationally recognized climate proposals that offer a unique approach to actualize the federal GND objectives: New York City's Climate Mobilization Act, Los Angeles's Green New Deal – Sustainable City pLAn, and Seattle's Green New Deal. From these proposals, I draw comparisons to Tempe's Climate Action plan to evaluate their efforts. Though this paper is primarily focused on analyzing the components of municipal GNDs across the nation, this paper also contends that municipalities' are a necessary complement to national efforts in mitigating climate change.
ContributorsMazariegos, Ashley (Author) / Fong, Benjamin Y. (Thesis director) / Calhoun, Craig (Committee member) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Public Affairs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
Environmental activism has played a major role in American politics since the late 1800s, with major victories including the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 that established the National Park Service to help protect parks and monuments, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts of the 1960s and 1970s, and the phase-out of ozone depleting chemicals in the 1990s. Yet mainstream activism has stagnated in recent years, facing a variety of problems such as continuing to perpetuate a corporate system in which frontline and minority communities are left behind and only focusing on traditional methods like lobbying and indirect activism that fail to generate mass public support. In contrast, the Sunrise Movement is a new youth-oriented environmental and social organization that has become prevalent in the last five years for their aim to combat both climate change and socioeconomic inequalities through the Green New Deal. With the growing need for climate action that is fair and equitable, this project intended to contextualize the Sunrise Movement within past and current environmental movements as well as the current environmental and political climate in order to then investigate how Sunrise operates and their level of effectiveness in promoting the Green New Deal. I performed a literature review of both past and present news articles as well as journal articles in addition to interviewing experts in the theory and practice of activism to characterize the three waves of environmentalism and lessons learned, the current political sphere and what mainstream activism is working toward, and Sunrise itself. While mainstream and localized radical activism had victories and a certain degree of effectiveness, their lack of inclusivity has failed to encourage the mass mobilization needed for long-term climate legislation. The Sunrise Movement distinguishes itself through disruptive activism and direct engagement: disruptive by challenging the status quo of profit over people, the two party system where both groups are moving toward the right, and the whiteness and liberal locations of the mainstream environmental movement; direct by working with partners across the environmental, social, and labor sphere and working with actionable, hands-on items that encourage participation. Though they have major limitations like ensuring that they are as inclusive as they recognize an environmental movement must be and the risk of being seen as a partisan organization, Sunrise shows that the attitude of the public is moving in favor of the climate and social equity.
ContributorsAlzamora, Madeline Kate (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Brian, Jennifer (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
DescriptionThis thesis reviews the successes and failures of the New Deal Federal Public Art Projects. Considering these, it makes recommendations for a socially engaged public arts program under a Green New Deal to engage and inspire people across party lines behind a shared vision of a Green New Future.
ContributorsWhiteman, Elizabeth Anne (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Calhoun, Craig (Committee member) / Dean, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
The goal of this research was to identify why the federal government should invest in solar research and development, and which areas of solar improvement should be focused on. Motivation for this can be found in the pressing need to prevent and reverse the effects of climate change, the inevitability of fossil fuel resources eventually running out, and the economic and job creation potential which solar energy holds. Additionally, it is important to note that the best course of action will involve a split of funding between current solar rollout and energy grid updating, and the R&D listed in this research. Upon examination, it can be seen that an energy revolution, led by a federal solar jobs program and a Green New Deal, would be both an ethically and economically beneficial solution. A transition from existing fossil fuel infrastructure to renewable, solar-powered infrastructure would not only be possible but highly beneficial in many aspects, including massive job creation, a more affordable, renewable energy solution to replace coal-fired plants, and no fuel spending or negotiation required.<br/>When examining which areas of solar improvement to focus on for R&D funding, four primary areas were identified, with solutions presented for each. These areas for improvement are EM capture, EM conversion efficiency, energy storage capacity, and the prevention of overheating. For each of these areas of improvement, affordable solutions that would greatly improve the efficiency and viability of solar as a primary energy source were identified. The most notable area that should be examined is solar storage, which would allow solar PV panels to overcome their greatest real and perceived obstacle, which is the inconsistent power generation. Solar storage is easily attainable, and with enough storage capacity, excess solar energy which would otherwise be wasted during the day can be stored and used during the night or cloudy weather as necessary. Furthermore, the implementation of highly innovative solutions, such as agrivoltaics, would allow for a solar revolution to occur.
ContributorsWhitlow, Hunter Marshall (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Andino, Jean (Committee member) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
In the United States, healthy food is much more expensive than heavily processed meat, grains, and sugars. Meanwhile, heart disease and other autoimmune disorders are the leading causes of death in the country. The Green New Deal explicitly mentions that the agriculture system is in need of reformation and that healthy food must be supplied as a right to all citizens, however, there is no mention whatsoever of government farm subsidies. While corrupt subsidization is the main culprit for the broken agriculture system of today, the same tool can be used to transition to a regenerative system that not only can provide environmental support, but also supply healthy food as a right to everyone in the country.
ContributorsSanta Cruz, Diego Carlos (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Aly El Sayed, Sara (Committee member) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
The global climate crisis threatens to negatively affect all human activity on earth. Within the United States, the Green New Deal is the only proposal that plans to address and stop the climate crisis in full, promising net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, green jobs, rebuilt infrastructure, access to resources, and reparations for frontline and vulnerable communities, achieved within it's 10-year mobilization period. If enacted, public transportation would be one of the first areas for intervention. Within the Phoenix Valley, a shift to public transportation would not only aid in stopping the climate crisis, but would improve resident equity, comfortability, and increase quality of life. In order to build up an effective public transportation system, all potential and current obstacles that public transit faces and will face in the wake of a Green New Deal must be analyzed: local government capacity, resident attitudes, current city layout and urban sprawl, the security of federal funding, and corporate opposition are addressed in this thesis. The security of federal funding and corporate opposition are the biggest obstacles of transit growth and create four distinct scenarios that the Phoenix Valley can utilize to understand progress towards the Green New Deal's Goals.
ContributorsDelgado, Miranda Margaret (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Datu Buyung, Agustinata (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is an organization promoting itself as "The National Voice of American Agriculture." However, small independent family farmers are losing their livlihoods, having their rural communities destroyed, and are suffering from mental illness due to the covert actions of the AFBF. In reality, the AFBF is a national advocate for agricultural conglomerates and industrial agriculture practice. The AFBF drives the American agribusiness sector and demobilizes small farmer mobilization for any iteration of a modern and sustainable agricultural revolution. This thesis seeks to evaluate the ways in which the Farm Bureau demobilizes farmers in their ideology, education, and activism and seeks to recommend effective ways challenge the American Farm Bureau in pursuit of an agriculturally just Green New Deal (GND). A GND for agriculture emphasizes the need for independent family farmers and ensuing components of sustainability, regenerative practice, and an integrated, healthy food system.
ContributorsRaderstorf, Alia Mcpherson (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Calhoun, Craig (Committee member) / School of Sustainable Engineering & Built Envirnmt (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
In the 1960s, prominent Civil Rights leaders proposed a Freedom Budget For All Americans, a policy proposal pamphlet with ambitious goals such as the abolition of poverty, universal healthcare and housing, fair wages for workers, a progressive tax, and more. These economic goals were meant to alleviate racial inequality by attacking the deep roots of inequality in the United States. While the Freedom Budget did not pass, the movement for the goals was incredibly remarkable and modern progressive movements like that for the Green New Deal can learn much from the successes and failures of the Freedom Budget. This thesis aims to identify strengths and weaknesses, analyze the causes behind them, and synthesize these factors into the modern context of the Green New Deal's fight.
ContributorsKhan, Myra Amir (Author) / Fong, Benjamin (Thesis director) / Calhoun, Craig (Committee member) / School of Transborder Studies (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12