Abstract
dc:description.abstractSmall unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs) are plagued by alarmingly high failure rates. Because these systems are small and built at lower cost than full-scale aircraft, high quality components and redundant systems are often eschewed to keep production costs low. This thesis proposes a process to ``design in'' reliability in a cost-effective way. Fault Tree Analysis is used to evaluate a system's (un)reliability and Dempster-Shafer Theory (Evidence Theory) is used to deal with imprecise failure data. Three unique sensitivity analyses highlight the most cost-effective improvement for the system by either spending money to research a component and reduce uncertainty, swap a component for a higher quality alternative, or add redundancy to an existing component. A MATLAB\circledR toolbox has been developed to assist in practical design applications. Finally, a case study illustrates the proposed methods by improving the reliability of a new SUAV design: Virginia Tech's SPAARO UAV.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- Master of Science
- Level thesis:degree_level
- masters
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
- Department dc:contributor.department
- Aerospace and Ocean Engineering
- Grantor dc:publisher
- Virginia Tech
- Year dc:date.issued
- 2009
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Murtha, Justin Fortna
- Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
-
- Woolsey, Craig A.
- Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
-
- Marchman, James F. III
- Kochersberger, Kevin B.
Subjects
dc:subject × 6Rights
dc:rights- Statement dc:rights
-
- In Copyright
- Licence dc:rights.uri
Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Dc Identifier Other
- etd-06262009-141905
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33762