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This paper presents details of experimental tests of an approach to measure the distance to obstacles in a hemispherical area around a vertical takeoff and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that has been designed to explore the hard-to-reach areas such as caves, hollows, grottoes, or mines. The idea of the explorer UAV emerged from the need to draw a sketch of the rooms before a man entered, no matter the interior is a newly discovered cave or building. Thus, the system for point cloud data acquisition has been designed for feeding simultaneous localization and mapping algorithm. The developed system is based on an infrared depth sensor that returns data as a range image. The sensor is rotated at a constant speed so that the measurements are performed at predefined angles, which results with the data about distances to objects in a hemisphere around the position of the sensor. The system was tested in static and dynamic laboratory conditions. Static tests include measurements of the distance to the fixed obstacles made around a sensor placed on the fixed platform. In dynamic tests, the platform with the sensor and the obstacle is also linearly moved relative to each other. The laboratory stand was designed, where the platform on the trolley was moved along the linear trail with controlled speed. Results obtained from those tests reassure its suitability as a basis for the future development of the collision avoidance system and three-dimensional modeling sensor.

This paper describes the development process of the quadcopter-based unmanned flying platform, designed for testing and experimentation purposes. The project features custom-made hardware, which includes the prototype quadcopter frame and the flight controller, and software solutions, such as control loop setup. The article specifies the controller tuning used for the initialization of the flight stabilization system and presents the final results of the quadcopter performance evaluation.

The research on an assistive instrument for hang-gliders and paragliders resulted in the three prototypes of the integrated device for sensing, processing and displaying data to the pilot. The data processing contains innovative data fusion and filtration algorithms with cascaded filter build with Kalman and complementary filters. The developed prototypes have been successfully tested in the laboratories and during flight tests.

Precision and reliability are critical requirements in the aerospace field, relying on suitable measurement methods to assure their achievement. As a consequence, the role of aerospace metrology is becoming more widely recognized as a value-added component. The paper presents a brief overview of the research and testing activities performed at the advanced laboratories of the Military University of Technology in Warsaw dealing with the test of airplane subsystems.

The paper summarizes the development of a flight control system for a quadcopter-based unmanned flying platform. The project features custom-built hardware which includes a prototype quadcopter used as a test-bed for the developed system as well as a proposed controller tuning method, which was used for the control loop setup.

The research on motion detection methods with IR camera resulted in the system based on the intensity of regions in two consequent frames. In the system, the camera motion compensation is followed by the background image subtraction which conduces to extraction of the moving objects only

The research on an assistive instrument for hang-gliders and paragliders resulted in the three prototypes of the integrated device for sensing, processing and displaying data to the pilot. The data processing contains innovative data fusion and filtration algorithms with complementary filters. The developed prototypes have been successfully tested in the laboratories and during flight tests.

The skyrocketing development of the civilian drones' market, which follows the military solutions, results in boosting research on UAV avionics systems. The research includes a development of classic navigation and control as well as innovative methods that require e.g. infrared and visible light cameras, laser or magnetic field sensors. In this paper, we focus on the research on UAV's navigation and control systems, state-of-the-art measurement sensors involved in classic systems as well as the research on innovative methods of navigation and control.

This paper presents in details design and development of a probe for measuring airflow data for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The research regards the definition of the requirements and dimensions of the device and limits the measurements to selected aerodynamic parameters only. In the design concept the five parameters gauged in the two independent sections of the probe were envisaged. In the first section temperature, stagnation and static pressure and in the second section flow angles — sideslip and angle of attack (AoA) were determined. The development has been divided into three stages. The first stage included a formulation of the guidelines for the construction of the mechanical elements. The specified requirements included the maximum size of the probe and the resultant restriction on the size of the sensors and their electronics hardware circuits. The next stage was focused on sensors selection and electronics hardware development. Additionally, an appropriate microcontroller system for sensors control and data acquisition was developed. The final stage included formulation of a software algorithm and its implementation. Eventually, the probe was installed on a mini UAV for inflight tests which verified the correctness of the design.

This paper presents a conception of an indoor positioning system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The measurement of magnetic field is a main source of information required to estimate a position of the platform. It is a parameter which can be measured with affordable sensors and is easy to obtain. In order to use acquired data, a magnetic field map of the specified environment should be previously determined. Thus, a few ideas of using this information were elaborated. First of all, dedicated hardware had to be designed to implement the method. In this process, a multipurpose measurement system was developed. The measurement system consists of three axis digital magnetometers and battery powered microprocessor system with SD memory card and LCD display. The module was installed on the specially designed chassis that enable testing on 3 different heights. The verification tests were performed in designated room, where permanent magnets were used to modify local magnetic field that could work as beacons.

Maintenance of aircraft is a complex process and therefore, in order to optimize the process, integrated information systems are increasingly used. Rapid development and wide availability of mobile devices equipped with powerful processors and with a wide range of modern communication connections suggests their high usability for enterprise IT systems. In the Department of Avionics and Air Armament of the Military University of Technology (WAT) an ERP-class (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, intended to support aircraft maintenance [4] has been designed and developed. The main concept of the system is to store the aircraft related and maintenance information in a central repository, i.e. in databases hosted on a central database server. This solution ensures concurrent availability of the data to a large group of authorized users. The key components of the system include the database server and client applications, which ensure access to centralized information resources, according to assigned user rights. The project involves development of client applications using three technologies: web, desktop and mobile one. Developed client applications have successfully passed integration tests perfomed using sample maintenance data. Currently works on user authorization security and wireless data security are under way.