Unmanned aerial systems are more and more being incorporated into maritime military operations, notably due to the advantages they pose for tactical planning. Technological advances have rendered these unmanned aerial vehicles fairly easy to operate for in-flight manoeuvres, as now advanced software tools are available to assist the human pilots in order to avoid crashes or to optimize the flight performance or in some cases to completely automate the flight operations. However, in comparison with land operations, one aspect remains a stringent bottleneck for the widespread deployment of unmanned aerial systems for maritime operations: the capability for these unmanned aerial systems to automatically take off and land on vessels in all kind of environmental conditions. Indeed, landing a relatively small aerial vehicle (that is therefore inherently very receptive to wind gusts) on the pitching and rolling deck of a moving ship is a very difficult control problem that requires the careful consideration of the kinematics and dynamics of both the unmanned aerial vehicle and the ship. In response to this requirement, this research study proposes to provide a proof of concept solution and practical implementation for a helicopter-type drone with the capability to land autonomously on the Belgian Navy vessels.
This project is a collaboration project between the Royal Military Academy and the Belgian Navy.
Project Publications
2024
- Y. Geers, T. Willems, C. Nita, T-T. Nguyen, and J. Aelterman, “Maritime surveillance using unmanned vehicles: deep learning-based vessel re-identification," in 2024 SPIE: Security + Defence, Artificial Intelligence for Security and Defence Applications II, 2024.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF] [DOI]@inproceedings{spie2024, title={Maritime surveillance using unmanned vehicles: deep learning-based vessel re-identification}, author={Geers, Yoni and Willems, Tim and Nita, Cornelia and Nguyen, T-T. and Aelterman, Jan}, booktitle={2024 SPIE: Security + Defence, Artificial Intelligence for Security and Defence Applications II}, editors ={}, publisher = {}, year = {2024}, vol = {13206}, location = {Edinburgh, United Kingdom}, unit= {meca-ras}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3028805}, url={https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/13206/3028805/Maritime-surveillance-using-unmanned-vehicles--deep-learning-based-vessel/10.1117/12.3028805.full}, unit= {meca-ras}, project= {MarLand} } - T-T. Nguyen, A. Crismer, G. De Cubber, B. Janssens, and H. Bruyninckx, “Landing UAV on Moving Surface Vehicle: Visual Tracking and Motion Prediction of Landing Deck," in 2024 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII)., 2024.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF] [DOI]@inproceedings{sii2024, title={Landing UAV on Moving Surface Vehicle: Visual Tracking and Motion Prediction of Landing Deck}, author={Nguyen, T-T. and Crismer, A and De Cubber, G. and Janssens, B. and Bruyninckx, H.}, booktitle={2024 IEEE/SICE International Symposium on System Integration (SII).}, editors ={}, publisher = {IEEE}, year = {2024}, vol = {}, location = {Ha Long, Vietnam}, unit= {meca-ras}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1109/SII58957.2024.10417303}, url={https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UiF4uPF9VkxgMxMX_JCBOFiZJPmoDSRv/view?usp=drive_link}, project= {MarLand} }
2023
- T-T. Nguyen, L. Somers, J. Van den Bosch, G. De Cubber, B. Janssens, and H. Bruyninckx, “Affordable and Customizable Research and Educational Aerial and Surface Vehicles Robot Platforms – first implementation," in 17th Mechatronics Forum International Conference., 2023.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF]@inproceedings{mechatronics20203usv, title={Affordable and Customizable Research and Educational Aerial and Surface Vehicles Robot Platforms – first implementation}, author={Nguyen, T-T. and Somers, L. and Van den Bosch, J. and De Cubber, G. and Janssens, B. and Bruyninckx, H.}, booktitle={17th Mechatronics Forum International Conference.}, editors ={}, publisher = {}, year = {2023}, vol = {}, location = {Leuven, Belgium}, unit= {meca-ras}, doi = {}, url={https://mechatronics2023.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/MX_2023_session_3_paper_3_nguyen.pdf}, project= {MarLand} } - T-T. Nguyen, J. Duverger, G. De Cubber, B. Janssens, and H. Bruyninckx, “Development of Dual-function Adaptive Landing Gear and Gripper for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles," in 17th Mechatronics Forum International Conference., 2023.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF]@inproceedings{mechatronics20203gripper, title={Development of Dual-function Adaptive Landing Gear and Gripper for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles}, author={Nguyen, T-T. and Duverger, J. and De Cubber, G. and Janssens, B. and Bruyninckx, H.}, booktitle={17th Mechatronics Forum International Conference.}, editors ={}, publisher = {}, year = {2023}, vol = {}, location = {Leuven, Belgium}, unit= {meca-ras}, doi = {}, url={https://mechatronics2023.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/MX_2023_session_3_paper_1_nguyen.pdf}, project= {MarLand} }
2022
- T. Halleux, T. Nguyen, C. Hamesse, G. De Cubber, and B. Janssens, “Visual Drone Detection and Tracking for Autonomous Operation from Maritime Vessel," in Proceedings of TC17-ISMCR2022 – A Topical Event of Technical Committee on Measurement and Control of Robotics (TC17), International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO), Theme: “Robotics and Virtual Tools for a New Era", 2022.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF] [DOI]@INPROCEEDINGS{ismcr2022_1, author={Halleux, Timothy and Nguyen, Tien-Thanh and Hamesse, Charles and De Cubber, Geert and Janssens, Bart}, booktitle={Proceedings of TC17-ISMCR2022 - A Topical Event of Technical Committee on Measurement and Control of Robotics (TC17), International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO), Theme: "Robotics and Virtual Tools for a New Era"}, title={Visual Drone Detection and Tracking for Autonomous Operation from Maritime Vessel}, year={2022}, volume={}, number={}, url={https://mecatron.rma.ac.be/pub/2022/ISMCR-Drone_detection_tracking_FullPaper.pdf}, project={MarLand, COURAGEOUS}, publisher={IMEKO}, address={}, doi={10.5281/zenodo.7074445}, month={September}, unit= {meca-ras} } - T. Dutrannois, T. Nguyen, C. Hamesse, G. De Cubber, and B. Janssens, “Visual SLAM for Autonomous Drone Landing on a Maritime Platform," in Proceedings of TC17-ISMCR2022 – A Topical Event of Technical Committee on Measurement and Control of Robotics (TC17), International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO), Theme: “Robotics and Virtual Tools for a New Era", 2022.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF] [DOI]@INPROCEEDINGS{ismcr2022_2, author={Dutrannois, Thomas and Nguyen, Tien-Thanh and Hamesse, Charles and De Cubber, Geert and Janssens, Bart}, booktitle={Proceedings of TC17-ISMCR2022 - A Topical Event of Technical Committee on Measurement and Control of Robotics (TC17), International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO), Theme: "Robotics and Virtual Tools for a New Era"}, title={Visual SLAM for Autonomous Drone Landing on a Maritime Platform}, year={2022}, volume={}, number={}, url={https://mecatron.rma.ac.be/pub/2022/ISMCR-Visual_SLAM_FullPaper.pdf}, project={MarLand}, publisher={IMEKO}, address={}, doi={10.5281/zenodo.7074451}, month={September}, unit= {meca-ras} }
2021
- Y. Baudoin, G. De Cubber, and E. Cepolina, “Mobile Robots Supporting Risky Interventions, Humanitarian actions and Demining, in particular the promising DISARMADILLO Tool," in Proceedings of TC17-VRISE2021 – A VIRTUAL Topical Event of Technical Committee on Measurement and Control of Robotics (TC17), International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO), Theme: “Robotics for Risky Interventions and Environmental Surveillance", Houston, TX, USA, 2021, pp. 5-6.
[BibTeX] [Download PDF]@INPROCEEDINGS{knvrise, author={Baudoin, Yvan and De Cubber, Geert and Cepolina, Emanuela}, booktitle={Proceedings of TC17-VRISE2021 - A VIRTUAL Topical Event of Technical Committee on Measurement and Control of Robotics (TC17), International Measurement Confederation (IMEKO), Theme: "Robotics for Risky Interventions and Environmental Surveillance"}, title={Mobile Robots Supporting Risky Interventions, Humanitarian actions and Demining, in particular the promising DISARMADILLO Tool}, year={2021}, volume={}, number={}, pages={5-6}, url={https://mecatron.rma.ac.be/pub/2021/TC17-VRISE2021-Abstract%20Proceedings.pdf}, project={AIDED, Alphonse, MarSur, SSAVE, MarLand, iMUGs, ICARUS, TIRAMISU}, publisher={IMEKO}, address={Houston, TX, USA}, month=oct, unit= {meca-ras} }