TY - JOUR A1 - Thoma, Andreas A1 - Gardi, Alessandro A1 - Fisher, Alex A1 - Braun, Carsten T1 - Improving local path planning for UAV flight in challenging environments by refining cost function weights JF - CEAS Aeronautical Journal N2 - Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) constantly gain in versatility. However, more reliable path planning algorithms are required until full autonomous UAV operation is possible. This work investigates the algorithm 3DVFH* and analyses its dependency on its cost function weights in 2400 environments. The analysis shows that the 3DVFH* can find a suitable path in every environment. However, a particular type of environment requires a specific choice of cost function weights. For minimal failure, probability interdependencies between the weights of the cost function have to be considered. This dependency reduces the number of control parameters and simplifies the usage of the 3DVFH*. Weights for costs associated with vertical evasion (pitch cost) and vicinity to obstacles (obstacle cost) have the highest influence on the failure probability of the local path planner. Environments with mainly very tall buildings (like large American city centres) require a preference for horizontal avoidance manoeuvres (achieved with high pitch cost weights). In contrast, environments with medium-to-low buildings (like European city centres) benefit from vertical avoidance manoeuvres (achieved with low pitch cost weights). The cost of the vicinity to obstacles also plays an essential role and must be chosen adequately for the environment. Choosing these two weights ideal is sufficient to reduce the failure probability below 10%. KW - Bio-inspired systems KW - Path planning KW - Obstacle avoidance KW - Unmanned aerial vehicles Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s13272-024-00741-x SN - 1869-5590 (eISSN) SN - 1869-5582 N1 - Corresponding author: Andreas Thoma PB - Springer CY - Wien ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Saretzki, Charlotte A1 - Bergmann, Ole A1 - Dahmann, Peter A1 - Janser, Frank A1 - Keimer, Jona A1 - Machado, Patricia A1 - Morrison, Audry A1 - Page, Henry A1 - Pluta, Emil A1 - Stübing, Felix A1 - Küpper, Thomas T1 - Are small airplanes safe with regards to COVID-19 transmission? JF - Journal of Travel Medicine Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taab105 SN - 1708-8305 VL - 28 IS - 7 PB - Oxford University Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mayntz, Joscha A1 - Keimer, Jona A1 - Tegtmeyer, Philipp A1 - Dahmann, Peter A1 - Hille, Sebastian A1 - Stumpf, Eike A1 - Fisher, Alex A1 - Dorrington, Graham T1 - Aerodynamic Investigation on Efficient Inflight Transition of a Propeller from Propulsion to Regeneration Mode T2 - AIAA SCITECH 2022 Forum N2 - This paper discusses a new way of inflight power regeneration for electric or hybrid-electric driven general aviation aircraft with one powertrain for both configurations. Three different approaches for the shift from propulsion to regeneration mode are analyzed. Numerical cal-culation and wind tunnel results are compared and show the highest regeneration potential for the "Windmill" approach, where the propeller blades are flipped, and rotation is reversed. A combination of all regeneration approaches for a realistic flight mission is discussed. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-0546 N1 - AIAA SCITECH 2022 Forum, January 3-7, 2022, San Diego, CA & Virtual PB - AIAA CY - Reston, Va. ER - TY - GEN A1 - Keimer, Jona A1 - Girbig, Leo A1 - Mayntz, Joscha A1 - Tegtmeyer, Philipp A1 - Wendland, Frederik A1 - Dahman, Peter A1 - Fisher, Alex A1 - Dorrington, Graham T1 - Flight mission optimization for eco-efficiency in consideration of electric regeneration and atmospheric conditions T2 - AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum N2 - The development and operation of hybrid or purely electrically powered aircraft in regional air mobility is a significant challenge for the entire aviation sector. This technology is expected to lead to substantial advances in flight performance, energy efficiency, reliability, safety, noise reduction, and exhaust emissions. Nevertheless, any consumed energy results in heat or carbon dioxide emissions and limited electric energy storage capabilities suppress commercial use. Therefore, the significant challenges to achieving eco-efficient aviation are increased aircraft efficiency, the development of new energy storage technologies, and the optimization of flight operations. Two major approaches for higher eco-efficiency are identified: The first one, is to take horizontal and vertical atmospheric motion phenomena into account. Where, in particular, atmospheric waves hold exciting potential. The second one is the use of the regeneration ability of electric aircraft. The fusion of both strategies is expected to improve efficiency. The objective is to reduce energy consumption during flight while not neglecting commercial usability and convenient flight characteristics. Therefore, an optimized control problem based on a general aviation class aircraft has to be developed and validated by flight experiments. The formulated approach enables a development of detailed knowledge of the potential and limitations of optimizing flight missions, considering the capability of regeneration and atmospheric influences to increase efficiency and range. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-4118 N1 - AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum, June 27-July 1, 2022 Chicago, IL & Virtual PB - AIAA CY - Reston, Va. ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ulmer, Jessica A1 - Braun, Sebastian A1 - Cheng, Chi-Tsun A1 - Dowey, Steve A1 - Wollert, Jörg T1 - A human factors-aware assistance system in manufacturing based on gamification and hardware modularisation JF - International Journal of Production Research N2 - Assistance systems have been widely adopted in the manufacturing sector to facilitate various processes and tasks in production environments. However, existing systems are mostly equipped with rigid functional logic and do not provide individual user experiences or adapt to their capabilities. This work integrates human factors in assistance systems by adjusting the hardware and instruction presented to the workers’ cognitive and physical demands. A modular system architecture is designed accordingly, which allows a flexible component exchange according to the user and the work task. Gamification, the use of game elements in non-gaming contexts, has been further adopted in this work to provide level-based instructions and personalised feedback. The developed framework is validated by applying it to a manual workstation for industrial assembly routines. KW - Human factors KW - assistance system KW - gamification KW - adaptive systems KW - manufacturing Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2023.2166140 SN - 0020-7543 (Print) SN - 1366-588X (Online) PB - Taylor & Francis ER - TY - GEN A1 - Machado, Patricia Almeida A1 - Dahmann, Peter A1 - Keimer, Jona A1 - Saretzki, Charlotte A1 - Stübing, Felix A1 - Küpper, Thomas T1 - Stress profile and individual workload monitoring in general aviation pilots – an experiment’s setting T2 - 23. Annual Meeting of the German Society of Travel Medicine, Coburg, 18.-19.9.2020 Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.55225/hppa.156 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schopen, Oliver A1 - Narayan, Sriram A1 - Beckmann, Marvin A1 - Najmi, Aezid-Ul-Hassan A1 - Esch, Thomas A1 - Shabani, Bahman T1 - An EIS approach to quantify the effects of inlet air relative humidity on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells: a pathway to developing a novel fault diagnostic method JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy N2 - In this work, the effect of low air relative humidity on the operation of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell is investigated. An innovative method through performing in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy is utilised to quantify the effect of inlet air relative humidity at the cathode side on internal ionic resistances and output voltage of the fuel cell. In addition, algorithms are developed to analyse the electrochemical characteristics of the fuel cell. For the specific fuel cell stack used in this study, the membrane resistance drops by over 39 % and the cathode side charge transfer resistance decreases by 23 % after increasing the humidity from 30 % to 85 %, while the results of static operation also show an increase of ∼2.2 % in the voltage output after increasing the relative humidity from 30 % to 85 %. In dynamic operation, visible drying effects occur at < 50 % relative humidity, whereby the increase of the air side stoichiometry increases the drying effects. Furthermore, other parameters, such as hydrogen humidification, internal stack structure, and operating parameters like stoichiometry, pressure, and temperature affect the overall water balance. Therefore, the optimal humidification range must be determined by considering all these parameters to maximise the fuel cell performance and durability. The results of this study are used to develop a health management system to ensure sufficient humidification by continuously monitoring the fuel cell polarisation data and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy indicators. KW - PEM fuel cell KW - Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy KW - Relative air humidity KW - Active humidity control KW - Impedance analysis Y1 - 2024 SN - 0360-3199 (print) U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2024.01.218 SN - 1879-3487 (online) VL - 58 IS - 8 SP - 1302 EP - 1315 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schopen, Oliver A1 - Shabani, Bahman A1 - Esch, Thomas A1 - Kemper, Hans A1 - Shah, Neel ED - Rahim, S.A. ED - As'arry, A. ED - Zuhri, M.Y.M. ED - Harmin, M.Y. ED - Rezali, K.A.M. ED - Hairuddin, A.A. T1 - Quantitative evaluation of health management designs for fuel cell systems in transport vehicles T2 - 2nd UNITED-SAIG International Conference Proceedings N2 - Focusing on transport vehicles, mainly with regard to aviation applications, this paper presents compilation and subsequent quantitative evaluation of methods aimed at building an optimum integrated health management solution for fuel cell systems. The methods are divided into two different main types and compiled in a related scheme. Furthermore, different methods are analysed and evaluated based on parameters specific to the aviation context of this study. Finally, the most suitable method for use in fuel cell health management systems is identified and its performance and suitability is quantified. KW - aviation application KW - health management systems KW - fuel cell systems Y1 - 2022 N1 - 2nd UNITED-SAIG International Conference, 23-24 May 2022, Putrajaya, Malaysia SP - 1 EP - 3 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Veettil, Yadu Krishna Morassery A1 - Rakshit, Shantam A1 - Schopen, Oliver A1 - Kemper, Hans A1 - Esch, Thomas A1 - Shabani, Bahman ED - Bin Abdollah, Mohd Fadzli ED - Amiruddin, Hilmi ED - Singh, Amrik Singh Phuman ED - Munir, Fudhail Abdul ED - Ibrahim, Asriana T1 - Automated Control System Strategies to Ensure Safety of PEM Fuel Cells Using Kalman Filters T2 - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference and Exhibition on Sustainable Energy and Advanced Materials (ICE-SEAM 2021), Melaka, Malaysia N2 - Having well-defined control strategies for fuel cells, that can efficiently detect errors and take corrective action is critically important for safety in all applications, and especially so in aviation. The algorithms not only ensure operator safety by monitoring the fuel cell and connected components, but also contribute to extending the health of the fuel cell, its durability and safe operation over its lifetime. While sensors are used to provide peripheral data surrounding the fuel cell, the internal states of the fuel cell cannot be directly measured. To overcome this restriction, Kalman Filter has been implemented as an internal state observer. Other safety conditions are evaluated using real-time data from every connected sensor and corrective actions automatically take place to ensure safety. The algorithms discussed in this paper have been validated thorough Model-in-the-Loop (MiL) tests as well as practical validation at a dedicated test bench. KW - control system KW - PEM fuel cells KW - Kalman filter Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-981-19-3178-9 SN - 978-981-19-3179-6 (E-Book) U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-3179-6_55 SN - 2195-4356 N1 - 7th International Conference and Exhibition on Sustainable Energy and Advanced Material (ICE-SEAM 2021), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM), Malaysia, in association with the Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS), Indonesia, 23 November 2021 SP - 296 EP - 299 PB - Springer Nature CY - Singapore ER -