Keywords

Multi agent systems, radar deception, phantom track generation, constrained systems, differential geometry, object oriented programming

Abstract

This thesis studies the control algorithms used by a team of ECAVs (Electronic Combat Air Vehicle) to deceive a network of radars to detect a phantom track. Each ECAV has the electronic capability of intercepting the radar waves, and introducing an appropriate time delay before transmitting it back, and deceiving the radar into seeing a spurious target beyond its actual position. On the other hand, to avoid the errors and increase the reliability, have a complete coverage in various atmosphere conditions, and confronting the effort of the belligerent intruders to delude the sentinel and enter the area usually a network of radars are deployed to guard the region. However, a team of cooperating ECAVs could exploit this arrangement and plans their trajectories in a way all the radars in the network vouch for seeing a single and coherent spurious track of a phantom. Since each station in the network confirms the other, the phantom track is considered valid. This problem serves as a motivating example in trajectory planning for the multi-agent system in highly constrained operation conditions. The given control command to each agent should be a viable one in the agent limited capabilities, and also drives it in a cumulative action to keep the formation. In this thesis, three different approaches to devise a trajectory for each agent is studied, and the difficulties for deploying each one are addressed. In the first one, a command center has all information about the state of the agents, and in every step decides about the control each agent should apply. This method is very effective and robust, but needs a reliable communication. In the second method, each agent decides on its own control, and the members of the group just communicate and agree on the range of control they like to apply on the phantom. Although in this method much less data needs to communicate between the agents, it is very sensitive to the disturbances and miscalculations, and could be easily fell apart or come to a state with no feasible solution to continue. In the third method a differential geometric approach to the problem is studied. This method has a very strong backbone, and minimizes the communication needed to a binary one. However, less data provided to the agents about the system, more sensitive and infirm the system is when it faced with imperfectionalities. In this thesis, an object oriented program is developed in the Matlab software area to simulate all these three control strategies in a scalable fashion. Object oriented programming is a naturally suitable method to simulate a multi-agent system. It gives the flexibility to make the code more iv close to a real scenario with defining each agent as a separated and independent identity. The main objective is to understand the nature of the constrained dynamic problems, and examine various solutions in different situations. Using the flexibility of this code, we could simulate several scenarios, and incorporate various conditions on the system. Also, we could have a close look at each agent to observe its behavior in these situations. In this way we will gain a good insight of the system which could be used in designing of the agents for specific missions.

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2013

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Jayasuriya, Suhada

Degree

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (M.S.M.E.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Degree Program

Mechanical Engineering; Mechanical Systems

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0004857

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0004857

Language

English

Release Date

August 2013

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Engineering and Computer Science, Engineering and Computer Science -- Dissertations, Academic

Download

Share

COinS