Autolanding system in the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is an important function to assist operators with more precise flight manipulation. Accompanying with GPS waypoint navigation, an ILS-like (Instrument Landing System) approach to landing is proposed based on visual-aid runway recognition and autopilot flight control. Simple mature and reliable detection algorithm is formulated to implement into Paparazzi autopilot system. In addition to the conventional RGB detection, the Hue-Saturation-Value (HSV) color space is introduced to give more precise result. The Line Segment Detector (LSD) is added to search for runway edge during approach to touch down at Waypoint 0. An approach procedure close to runway is established for UAV homing guidance and merged to a holding point before heading to runway. Similar to ILS glide slope, markers are created for UAV with a specific glide slope process to touchdown.

A Conflict Detection and Resolution (CD&R) system for manned/unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based on Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) concept is designed and verified in this paper. The 900 MHz XBee-Pro is selected as data transponder to broadcast flight information among participating aircraft in omnirange. Standard Compact Position Report (CPR) format packet data are automatically broadcasted by ID sequencing under Quasi-ADS-B mechanism. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) monitoring checks the designated time slot and reallocates the conflict ID. This mechanism allows the transponder to effectively share data with multiple aircraft in near airspace. The STM32f103 microprocessor is designed to handle RF, GPS, and flight data with Windows application on manned aircraft and ground control station simultaneously. Different conflict detection and collision avoidance algorithms can be implemented into the system to ensure flight safety. The proposed UAV/CD&R using Quasi-ADS-B transceiver is tested using ultralight aircraft flying at 100–120 km/hr speed in small airspace for mission simulation. The proposed hardware is also useful to additional applications to mountain hikers for emergency search and rescue. The fundamental function by the proposed UAV/CD&R using Quasi-ADS-B is verified with effective signal broadcasting for surveillance and efficient collision alert and avoidance performance to low altitude flights.

Multi-rotor systems have been developed into better performance for mature applications. Due to lift to weight balance on motor power and battery energy, they are limited in payload and flight endurance. Since gasoline power has 44 times better energy density than battery, integration of gas engine and DC brushless motor into a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) system will gain much higher lift and longer flight duration in performance. A hybrid power multi-rotor system is designed by dual system of engine-driven quad-rotor and motor-driven quad-rotor, with contributions on lift power by gas engine and flight control, respectively. The proposed multi-rotor system is termed as Quad-in-Quad (QiQ) system. System design considerations on high thrust, reverse torque, vibration, heat dissipation, structure and weight balance are included by carefully weight reduction into fabrication. Microprocessor control system is designed and implemented to make gas engine in both directions in steady balanced operation. A preliminary flight test has completed on this dual quad-rotor VTOL.

Smart phones are ubiquitous to suit for many real time applications in data acquisition and image display. When the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) is operating to meet most requirements for civilian missions, flight surveillance is important to operators on the ground. This paper presents a simple way to build UAS surveillance into a smart phone to remotely visualize flight situation. A cloud system is established on telecommunication web to allow UAS mission partners to down flight watch information. A 3D terrain is constructed on Google Earth to present better terrain awareness for the operators. It offers a good virtual reality for remote visualization to assist UAS flight maneuvering.

This paper presents a fuzzy logic control (FLC) implementation on a ball and plate system for dynamic control verification using CCD position sensing. A two degree-of-freedom (DOF) platform is constructed for experiments using four magnetic suspension (MS) actuators. The mathematical model of the ball and plate operation is derived in Euler-Lagrange equation. From CCD position sensing, a microcontroller is implemented to control MS actuators by PWM current drivers. The position tracking performance on the MS ball and plate system is verified on different cases by adopting an enforced fuzzy logic controller.

UAV aerial photography is quite useful development for documentation and monitor on ground feature in remote areas. This paper proposes an aerial photography configuration on camera gimbal control in conjunction with UAV autopilot system. In order to properly control remote photography, coordinate conversions for camera from gimbal fixture to UAV frame until the ground coordinate should be fixed to correctly aiming at the target. Supporting from GPS and UAV attitude estimation, the relationship between UAV and tracking target can be used to implement a reliable autopilot flight control for target aiming and photography.

Remediation of heavy-metal-contaminated sediment is often hampered by the availability of heavy metals to the added chemical agents because the heavy metals are often shielded by the sediment matrix. Effective heavy-metal extraction technique becomes an important factor in enhancing the treatment efficiency. A novel extraction/washing technique utilizing chelating agent and elevated pressure in consecutive cycles of compression and decompression has been developed for heavy-metal-contaminated sediment washing in the presence of chelating agent. In this study, the optimal operational conditions of pressure-assisted cyclic washing of Cu-contaminated sediments (initial Cu concentration = 23.177 mg/kg) were determined in a laboratory-scale system. The control factors included applied pressure level, washing time, applied chelant [ethylenediamine-tertraacetic (EDTA)] concentration (0.01–0.5 M), pressure times, and application of consecutive batches washing. Results from the bench-scale study showed that up to 70 % of Cu can be removed from the sediments when 10 atm of pressure was applied for washing. The efficiency dropped to 55 % when the pressure dropped to 6 atm. Under the same operational conditions, the optimal cyclic washing time was 60 min. Results from the particle size analyses indicate that the mean particle size dropped from 100 to 50 μm after the pressure-assisted cyclic washing. Thus, cyclic pressure caused the fracture of sediment aggregates resulting in the exposure of Cu to chelating agents. With the assistance of pressure cyclic system, the total washing time and the amount of added chemical agent used can be significantly reduced.

While GPS offers high accuracy positioning, its application is constrained by indoors or under shaded space. As GSM BTS deployment is strictly and regularly allocated, it fits mapping coordinates for localization if signals can be properly received and identified. The proposed method formulates an algorithm to calculate the received signal strength (RSS) from vicinity base transceiver stations (BTSs). An intersecting area can be determined as the reference locations in positioning. To support this study, a BTS database should be offered from system provider. From several experiments, the performance and reliability of mobile positioning is improved from a previous work for faster solution and better result. With plenty BTS data, the positioning accuracy can be guaranteed. The proposed method is feasible and valuable for indoor applications.

The Salt-water River watershed is one of the major river watersheds in the Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Water quality and sediment investigation results show that the river water contained high concentrations of organics and ammonia–nitrogen, and sediments contained high concentrations of heavy metals and organic contaminants. The main pollution sources were municipal and industrial wastewaters. Results from the enrichment factor (EF) and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) analyses imply that the sediments can be characterized as heavily polluted in regard to Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn, and Cu. The water quality analysis simulation program (WASP) model was applied for water quality evaluation and carrying capacity calculation. Modeling results show that the daily pollutant inputs were much higher than the calculated carrying capacity (1050 kg day−1 for biochemical oxygen demand and 420 kg day−1 for ammonia–nitrogen). The proposed watershed management strategies included river water dilution, intercepting sewer system construction and sediment dredging.

The Kaoping River Rail Bridge Constructed Wetland, which was commissioned in 2004, is one of the largest constructed wetlands in Taiwan. This multi-function wetland has been designed for the purposes of non-point source (NPS) pollutant removal, wastewater treatment, wildlife habitat, recreation, and education. The major influents of this wetland came from the local drainage trench containing domestic, agricultural, and industrial wastewaters, and effluents from the wastewater treatment plant of a paper mill. Based on the quarterly investigation results from 2007 to 2009, more than 96% of total coliforms (TC), 48% of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and 40% of nutrients (e.g. total nitrogen, total phosphorus) were removed via the constructed wetland system. Thus, the wetland system has a significant effect on water quality improvement and is capable of removing most of the pollutants from the local drainage system before they are discharged into the downgradient water body. Other accomplishments of this constructed wetland system include the following: providing more green areas along the riversides, offering more water assessable eco-ponds and eco-gardens for the public, and rehabilitating the natural ecosystem. The Kaoping River Rail Bridge Constructed Wetland has become one of the most successful multi-function constructed wetlands in Taiwan. The experience obtained from this study will be helpful in designing similar natural treatment systems for river water quality improvement and wastewater treatment.

Controller Area Network (CAN)-based data bus developing from microprocessor has presented its function capability for small aircraft applications. Due to CAN access, microprocessor needs to cooperate with CAN controller. While C8051F060 microcontroller has embedded CAN controller, CAN avionics design becomes much simplified with better reliability. This paper presents a prototype fabrication and verification for CAN avionics on electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) for small aircrafts. The C8051F060 electronic board is designed as bus nodes to connect to sensors and actuators for operation. With a full function development and implementation, the test result verifies the performance has improved with better reliability.

With the advent of high fuel costs, it has become increasingly important for airlines to concentrate on their core business on maximizing operational capacity with minimizing costs and financial risk. While different operation models of maintenance strategy have been presented, the Overall Care Model operated by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is closely developed for airline customers. This paper investigates the feasibility of applying Overall Care on domestic airline new fleet. TotalCare provides a single source solution which ensuring the lifetime support for the engine, from the time the engine is delivered to the customer until the engine goes out of service. The goal is achieved through sharing of knowledge, expertise and experience between airlines and OEM providers. The feasibility of TotalCare to newly formed fleet is surveyed to summarize some possible actions to new organization and management to meet the performance requirements.

The Kaoping River Basin, located in southern Taiwan, flows through approximately 171 km and drains toward the South Taiwan Strait. It is the largest and the most intensively used river basin in Taiwan. However, due to the concentrated rainfall in the wet season, short rivers and rapid flows, poor flow conditions, uneven time distribution of flows, and rapid rise of flow peak cause the unevenly distributed water resource in this region. Based on the results from the water resource analysis and water demand evaluation, a shortage of water supply in the basin would occur in 5 years. Sustainable water resource management strategies have been proposed to effectively utilize the limited water resource in the basin. The proposed strategies include construction of water collection gallery system, installation of riverbank infiltration system, installation of groundwater recharge and extraction systems, recycling the effluent from the secondary wastewater-treatment plant, and replacement of old water supply pipes. These measures are more sustainable and more environmentally acceptable compared with other traditional construction measures (e.g., reservoir and long-distance water transportation conduit). Results and experience obtained from this study will be helpful in developing water resource management strategies for other similar river basins.

Kaoping River Basin is the largest and most intensively used river basin in Taiwan. In this study, 14 types of land‐use patterns in the basin are classified with the aid of the Erdas Imagine process (Erdas, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia) and ArcView geographic information system (GIS) (ESRI, Redlands, California). Results from GIS identification and field verification indicate that orchard gardens, rice paddies, and sugarcane fields dominate the farmland areas in the basin. Investigation results indicate that nonpoint‐source (NPS) pollution has significant contributions to the suspended solids load to the Kaoping River during the wet season. The average suspended solids concentrations increased from below 64 mg/L in dry seasons to more than 1700 mg/L in wet seasons. The Integrated Watershed Management Model (Systech Engineering, Inc., San Ramon, California) was applied to simulate the water quality and evaluate the NPS suspended solids load to the river. Modeling results show that forestation and land‐use management are feasible best management practices for NPS suspended solids reduction.

The Houjing River watershed is one of the three major river watersheds in the Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Based on the recent water quality analysis, the Houjing River is heavily polluted. Both point and non-point source (NPS) pollutants are the major causes of the poor water quality in the Houjing River. Investigation results demonstrate that the main point pollution sources included municipal, agricultural, and industrial wastewaters. In this study, land use identification in the Houjing River watershed was performed by integrating the skills of geographic information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS). Results show that the major land-use patterns in the upper catchment of the Houjing River watershed were farmlands, and land-use patterns in the mid to lower catchment were residential and industrial areas. An integrated watershed management model (IWMM) and Enhanced Stream Water Quality Model (QUAL2K) were applied for the hydrology and water quality modeling, watershed management, and carrying capacity calculation. Modeling results show that the calculated NH3-N carrying capacity of the Houjing River was only 31 kg/day. Thus, more than 10,518 kg/day of NH3-N needs to be reduced to meet the proposed water quality standard (0.3 mg/L). To improve the river water quality, the following remedial strategies have been developed to minimize the impacts of NPS and point source pollution on the river water quality: (1) application of BMPs [e.g. source (fertilizer) reduction, construction of grassy buffer zone, and land use management] for NPS pollution control; (2) application of river management scenarios (e.g. construction of the intercepting and sewer systems) for point source pollution control; (3) institutional control (enforcement of the industrial wastewater discharge standards), and (4) application of on-site wastewater treatment systems for the polishment of treated wastewater for water reuse.

This study investigated the feasibility of applying ozone (O3) to reduce the color content of wastewater caused by two commercial reactive dyes (Blue-19 and Orange-13). In the bench-scale experiment, experimental parameters including pH, ozone dosage, and reaction time were evaluated in a 14-L reactor to obtain the optimal operating conditions. Results show that ozone dosage and pH dominated the effectiveness of the decolorization process. The color content could be reduced from 2000 to 200 ADMI (American Dye Manufacture Institute) values within a reaction time of 30 min with the ozone input rate of 2.66 g/h. The pH values of 3 and 10 favored decolorization of Blue-19 and Orange-13, respectively. This was due to the effects that reactive and oxidizing species of molecular ozone and hydroxyl radicals were predominant at low and high pH, respectively. Moreover, molecular ozone was more selective to certain dye structures during the oxidation process. Kinetic analyses show that decolorization of Orange-13 and Blue-19 followed first-order kinetics. The degree of decolorization was primarily proportional to the ozone dosage. Results from this study provide insights into the characteristics and mechanisms of decolorization by the O3 technique. Results will also aid in designing a system for practical application.

City traveler helper system (Wang and Qi, 2008) presented in our previous work is an application of location based service to aim at providing a comprehensive information service for exotic travelers. A potential problem of the system is that when the information database grows to a large scale, one location input would trigger a lot of relative information pushed to the client user to become very intrusive. In this paper, a new design concept based on Naive Bayes Classification algorithm is proposed by adding an information classification process into the system. This proposed new system aims to be approximately user preference aware and minimally intrusive.

The barometric altitude measurement using modern electronic sensors has significant error due to atmospheric pressure variations with respective to weather and time. Based on the altimeter setting concept, the barometric altimeter should be corrected according to hourly QNH data to maintain accuracy. This paper presents an airborne altitude measurement technology using barometric measurement and real time calibration through GPRS uplink. The proposed method is practical in correcting the time variant error of the electronic barometric altimeter automatically. After these corrections, the static and dynamic accuracy of the electronic barometric altimeter can be much improved into less than 2% errors in real time. The proposed system is suitable for ultra light aircrafts (ULA) or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).

In Taiwan, nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is one of the major causes of the impairment of surface waters. I-Liao Creek, located in southern Taiwan, flows approximately 90 km and drains toward the Kaoping River. Field investigation results indicate that NPS pollution from agricultural activities is one of the main water pollution sources in the I-Liao Creek Basin. Assessing the potential of NPS pollution to assist in the planning of best management practice (BMP) is significant for improving pollution prevention and control in the I-Liao Creek Basin. In this study, land use identification in the I-Liao Creek Basin was performed by properly integrating the skills of geographic information system (GIS) and global positioning system (GPS). In this analysis, 35 types of land use patterns in the watershed area of the basin are classified with the aid of Erdas Imagine® process system and ArcView® GIS system. Results indicate that betel palm farms, orchard farms, and tea gardens dominate the farmland areas in the basin, and are scattered around on both sides of the river corridor. An integrated watershed management model (IWMM) was applied for simulating the water quality and evaluating NPS pollutant loads to the I-Liao Creek. The model was calibrated and verified with collected water quality and soil data, and was used to investigate potential NPS pollution management plans. Simulated results indicate that NPS pollution has significant contributions to the nutrient loads to the I-Liao Creek during the wet season. Results also reveal that NPS pollution plays an important role in the deterioration of downstream water quality and caused significant increase in nutrient loads into the basin’s water bodies. Simulated results show that source control, land use management, and grassy buffer strip are applicable and feasible BMPs for NPS nutrient loads reduction. GIS system is an important method for land use identification and waste load estimation in the basin. Linking the information of land utilization with the NPS pollution simulation model may further provide essential information of potential NPS pollution for all subregions in the river basin. Results and experience obtained from this study will be helpful in designing the watershed management and NPS pollution control strategies for other similar river basins.