Establishment of models and data tracking for small UAV reliability

Abstract

This thesis surveys existing reliability management and improvement techniques, and describes how they can be applied to small unmanned aerial vehicles (SUAVs). These vehicles are currently unreliable, and lack systems to improve their reliability. Selection of those systems, in turn, drives data collection requirements for SUAVs, which we also present, with proposed solutions. This thesis lays the foundation for a Navy-wide SUAV reliability program.