| Use of unmanned vehicles is expected to continue to grow. As the variety of missions conducted by unmanned vehicles increases, these vehicles will require greater precision while operating in environments with stochastic disturbances. Thus, understanding the nature of the impact of stochastic disturbances on the vehicles, developing methods to control vehicles in the presence of disturbances, and planning missions using the knowledge of the disturbances will be required for unmanned vehicles to reach their full potential.;This dissertation presents a methodology for planning missions for unmanned vehicles operating in the presence of stochastic disturbances. The methodology is shown for a micro air vehicle flying in significant turbulence. Wind tunnel testing characterizes the effect of turbulence intensity on the open loop dynamics of a micro air vehicle. This knowledge and understanding of atmospheric turbulence is combined in the framework of polynomial chaos to make it possible to control and simulate micro air vehicle flight using known methods. Path evaluation strategies are developed to select mission profiles to reduce likelihoods of collision and increase likelihoods of sensory mission success. |
