The ever-burgeoning growth of autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has demonstrated a promising platform for utilization in real-world applications. In particular, a UAV equipped with a vision system could be leveraged for surveillance applications. This paper proposes a learning-based UAV system for achieving autonomous surveillance, in which the UAV can be of assistance in autonomously detecting, tracking, and following a target object without human intervention. Specifically, we adopted the YOLOv4-Tiny algorithm for semantic object detection and then consolidated it with a 3D object pose estimation method and Kalman filter to enhance the perception performance. In addition, UAV path planning for a surveillance maneuver is integrated to complete the fully autonomous system. The perception module is assessed on a quadrotor UAV, while the whole system is validated through flight experiments. The experiment results verified the robustness, effectiveness, and reliability of the autonomous object tracking UAV system in performing surveillance tasks. The source code is released to the research community for future reference.

This work aimed to develop an autonomous system for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to land on moving platforms such as an automobile or a marine vessel, providing a promising solution for a long-endurance flight operation, a large mission coverage range, and a convenient recharging ground station. Unlike most state-of-the-art UAV landing frameworks that rely on UAV onboard computers and sensors, the proposed system fully depends on the computation unit situated on the ground vehicle/marine vessel to serve as a landing guidance system. Such a novel configuration can therefore lighten the burden of the UAV, and the computation power of the ground vehicle/marine vessel can be enhanced. In particular, we exploit a sensor fusion-based algorithm for the guidance system to perform UAV localization, whilst a control method based upon trajectory optimization is integrated. Indoor and outdoor experiments are conducted, and the results show that precise autonomous landing on a 43 cm × 43 cm platform can be performed.

Visual simultaneous localization and mapping (v-SLAM) and navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are receiving increasing attention in both research and education. However, extensive physical testing can be expensive and time-consuming due to safety precautions, battery constraints, and the complexity of hardware setups. For the efficient development of navigation algorithms and autonomous systems, as well as for education purposes, the ROS-Gazebo-PX4 simulator was customized in-depth, integrated into our previous released research works, and provided as an end-to-end simulation (E2ES) solution for UAV, v-SLAM, and navigation applications. Unlike most other similar works, which can only stimulate certain parts of the navigation algorithms, the E2ES platform simulates all of the localization, mapping, and path-planning kits in one simulator. The navigation stack performs well in the E2ES test bench with the absolute pose errors of 0.3 m (translation) and 0.9 degree (rotation), respectively, for an 83 m length trajectory. Moreover, the E2ES provides an out-of-box, click-and-fly autonomy in UAV navigation. The project source code is opened for the benefit of the research community.

To meet a growing need in biological and medical applications, innovative micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) technologies have realized important progress on the micropump as one of the essential fluid handling devices to deliver and control precise amounts of fluid flowing along a specific direction. This research proposes a piezoelectric (PZT) valveless micropump adopting an integrated diffuser/nozzle bulge-piece design. The pump mainly consisted of a stainless-steel structured chamber with dimensions of 8 mm in diameter and 70 μm in depth to enhance its long-term reliability, low-cost production, and maximized liquid compatibility. A PZT diaphragm was also used as a driving source to propel the liquid stream under actuation. As commonly used indices to describe pump operation, the delivered volumetric flow rates and pressures were determined at bulge-piece diameters of 2, 4 and 6 mm, with a driving voltage of 160 Vpp and frequency ranging from 50 to 550 Hz. Measurements and simulations have successfully shown that this micropump is capable of operating at a greater volumetric flow rate of up to 1.2 ml min−1 with a maximum back pressure of 5.3 kPa. In addition, the time-recurring flow behavior in the chamber and its relationship to the pumping performance were examined in detail.