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An Evidence Theoretic Approach to Design of Reliable Low-Cost UAVs

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dc.contributor.authorMurtha, Justin Fortnaen
dc.contributor.committeechairWoolsey, Craig A.en
dc.contributor.committeememberMarchman, James F. IIIen
dc.contributor.committeememberKochersberger, Kevin B.en
dc.contributor.departmentAerospace and Ocean Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2014-03-14T20:40:35Zen
dc.date.adate2009-07-30en
dc.date.available2014-03-14T20:40:35Zen
dc.date.issued2009-06-18en
dc.date.rdate2009-07-30en
dc.date.sdate2009-06-26en
dc.description.abstractSmall unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) are plagued by alarmingly high failure rates. Because these systems are small and built at lower cost than full-scale aircraft, high quality components and redundant systems are often eschewed to keep production costs low. This thesis proposes a process to ``design in'' reliability in a cost-effective way. Fault Tree Analysis is used to evaluate a system's (un)reliability and Dempster-Shafer Theory (Evidence Theory) is used to deal with imprecise failure data. Three unique sensitivity analyses highlight the most cost-effective improvement for the system by either spending money to research a component and reduce uncertainty, swap a component for a higher quality alternative, or add redundancy to an existing component. A MATLAB$^{\circledR}$ toolbox has been developed to assist in practical design applications. Finally, a case study illustrates the proposed methods by improving the reliability of a new SUAV design: Virginia Tech's SPAARO UAV.en
dc.description.degreeMaster of Scienceen
dc.identifier.otheretd-06262009-141905en
dc.identifier.sourceurlhttp://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-06262009-141905/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/33762en
dc.publisherVirginia Techen
dc.relation.haspartJustinMurthaThesisFinal.pdfen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectFault Tree Analysisen
dc.subjectReliabilityen
dc.subjectSPAAROen
dc.subjectDrone aircraften
dc.subjectDempster-Shafer Theoryen
dc.subjectEvidence Theoryen
dc.titleAn Evidence Theoretic Approach to Design of Reliable Low-Cost UAVsen
dc.typeThesisen
thesis.degree.disciplineAerospace and Ocean Engineeringen
thesis.degree.grantorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State Universityen
thesis.degree.levelmastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen

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