Catalog

Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations on Air, Sea & Land is the author’s fourth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems (CUAS). Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 2nd edition and Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations have seen considerable global recognition in the field.  (Nichols R. , et al., 2019) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020) (Nichols R. K., 2018)

 

The authors have expanded our purview beyond UAS / CUAS systems. Our title shows our concern for growth and unique cyber security unmanned vehicle technology and operations for Unmanned Vehicles Systems in all theaters: Air, Sea and Land – especially maritime cybersecurity and China proliferation issues.  

Three different factors have spurred the authors into expanding our textbook offerings. First, unmanned technology has seen an economic explosion in production, sales, testing, specialized designs, and friendly / hostile usages of deployed UAS / UAVs / Drones / UUVs / UDV / UGTs (hereafter referred to as a group as UVs). There is a huge global growing market and entrepreneurs know it. Small UV companies have been reproducing like rabbits. Many companies are exploring / creating new, unique, and profitable unmanned technologies for  all military branches, LEO, commercial, high-mountain and deep-sea rescue, and recreational purposes. Covid-19 has brought a new dimension to UV planning and designs for medical and rescue missions.

Second, hostile use of UVs is on the forefront of DoD defense and offensive planners. They are especially concerned with SWARM behaviors in the air, over land and a new threat of underwater.  The influence of IoT, AI and Cyber technologies has complicated the defense planning mission.

Third, UV technology has outpacing our first and second editions plus our textbook on CUAS. Everyday our writers group read / discussed new UAS / UV developments in navigation, weapons, surveillance, data transfer, fuel cells, stealth, weight distribution, tactics, GPS / GNSS ( and replacement technologies) elements, SCADA protections, privacy invasions, legislation, big-data usage, terrorist uses, cryptographic protections, pressure protection for deep water exploration, maintenance, rescue or intelligence gathering; ASW, and defense; specialized software and security protocols and more. As authors we felt compelled to address at least the edge of some of these new UV developments. It was clear that we would be lucky if we could cover some of the more interesting and priority technology updates for the various UV AOs.

Expanded purview means more experience was needed to write our newest work. We are privileged to add to original writing team of Nichols, Ryan, Mumm, Lonstein, Carter, and Hood new SMEs in the various UV technologies: Mai, Jackson, and Shay. Their extensive backgrounds are found in our tribute to the authors in a latter section.

Here is an outline of topics in our latest work:

SECTION 1: UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS

 

Chapter 1 Information Advances, Remote ID, & Extreme Persistence ISR [Ryan]

Chapter 2 : Unmanned Aerial Vehicles & How They Can Augment Mesonet Weather Tower Data Collection [Mai]

Chapter 3 Tour de Drones for the Discerning Palate [Nichols]

 

SECTION 2: UNMANNED UNDERWATER SYSTEMS

 

Chapter 4 Underwater Autonomous Navigation & other UUV Advances [Mumm]

Chapter 5 Autonomous Maritime Asymmetric Systems [Hood]

Chapter 6 UUV Integrated Autonomous Missions & Drone Management [Mumm]

Chapter 7 Principles of Naval Architecture Applied to UUV’s [Jackson]

 

SECTION 3: UNMANNED VEHICLES FOR GROUND / LAND OPERATIONS

 

Chapter 8 : Unmanned Logistics Operating Safely & Efficiently Across Multiple Domains [Lonstein]

Chapter 9 Chinese Advances in Stealth UAV Penetration Path Planning in Combat Environment [Nichols]

 

SECTION 4: UNMANNED VEHICLES WEAPONS FOR C4ISR & POPULATION TRACKING  & CONTROL

 

Chapter 10 UAS, the Fourth Amendment and Privacy [Shay]

Chapter 11 UV & Disinformation / Misinformation Channels [Ryan]

 

SECTION 5: UV GEOPOLITICAL & LEGAL ADVANCES

Chapter 12  Chinese UAS Proliferation along New Silk Road Sea / Land Routes [Carter]

 

Chapter 13 Automaton, AI, Law, Ethics, Crossing the Machine – Human Barrier [Lonstein]

Chapter 14 Maritime Cybersecurity [Nichols]

 

Unmanned Vehicle Systems  are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. Unmanned Vehicle (UV) Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land discusses state-of-the-art technology / defense issues facing U.S. UV system researchers / designers / manufacturers / testers.

 

 

We trust our newest look at Unmanned Vehicles in Air , Sea and Land  will enrich our students and readers understanding of the purview of this wonderful technology we call UV.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure. The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. This textbook will fully immerse and engage the reader / student in the cyber-security considerations of this rapidly emerging technology that we know as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The first edition topics covered National Airspace (NAS) policy issues, information security (INFOSEC), UAS vulnerabilities in key systems (Sense and Avoid / SCADA), navigation and collision avoidance systems, stealth design, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms; weapons systems security; electronic warfare considerations; data-links, jamming, operational vulnerabilities and still-emerging political scenarios that affect US military / commercial decisions.

This second edition discusses state-of-the-art technology issues facing US UAS designers. It focuses on counter unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) – especially research designed to mitigate and terminate threats by SWARMS. Topics include high-altitude platforms (HAPS) for wireless communications; C-UAS and large scale threats; acoustic countermeasures against SWARMS and building an Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) acoustic library; updates to the legal / regulatory landscape; UAS proliferation along the Chinese New Silk Road Sea / Land routes; and ethics in this new age of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI).

This book focuses on three important elements in the development of cereal and legume crops in semi-arid West Africa. The first section illustrates the socioeconomic factors that affect the food system for these crops and contains an overview of crop production and consumption in the region. Then, important inputs that affect system productivity are presented: preferences for new seed varieties, yield response to fertilizer, counterfeit herbicides, climate information, and the way farmers develop expectations about the weather events that shape cropping outcomes. The final chapter of section one is dedicated to understanding urban consumer preferences for processed food products derived from pearl millet.

The second section addresses the state of the art of phenotyping and the modeling of crop adaptation to dryland farming systems. Chapters in section two focus on the regional network for phenotyping, high throughput phenotyping in field situations, root architectures, and crop ideotypes. In addition, empirical evidence is presented on root and soil interactions and the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs to assess sorghum physiology.

Finally, the third section investigates the genetic diversity and improvement of dryland crops. Chapters in this section focus on biodiversity and agricultural system sustainability, orphan crops such as fonio, and the utilization of a regional germplasm collection in the improvement of cowpea, groundnut, pearl millet, and sorghum.

SPACE SYSTEMS: EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND OPERATIONS is our seventh textbook in a series covering the world of UASs / CUAS/ UUVs. Other textbooks in our series are Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD); Disruptive Technologies with applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries; Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land; Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations;  Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 2nd edition; and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the Cyber Domain Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 1st edition. Our previous six titles have received considerable global recognition in the field. (Nichols & Carter, 2022) (Nichols et al., 2021) (Nichols R. K. et al., 2020) (Nichols R. et al., 2020) (Nichols R. et al., 2019) (Nichols R. K., 2018)

Our seventh title takes on a new purview of Space. Let’s think of Space as divided into four regions. These are Planets, solar systems, the great dark void (which fall into the purview of astronomers and astrophysics), and the Dreamer Region. The earth, from a measurement standpoint, is the baseline of Space. It is the purview of geographers, engineers, scientists, politicians, and romantics. Flying high above the earth are Satellites. Military and commercial organizations govern their purview. The lowest altitude at which air resistance is low enough to permit a single complete, unpowered orbit is approximately 80 miles (125 km) above the earth’s surface. Normal Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite launches range between 99 miles (160 km) to 155 miles (250 km). Satellites in higher orbits experience less drag and can remain in Space longer in service. Geosynchronous orbit is around 22,000 miles (35,000 km). However, orbits can be even higher. UASs (Drones) have a maximum altitude of about 33,000 ft (10 km) because rotating rotors become physically limiting. (Nichols R. et al., 2019) Recreational drones fly at or below 400 ft in controlled airspace (Class B, C, D, E) and are permitted with prior authorization by using a LAANC or DroneZone. Recreational drones are permitted to fly at or below 400 ft in Class G (uncontrolled) airspace. (FAA, 2022) However, between 400 ft and 33,000 ft is in the purview of DREAMERS.

In the DREAMERS region, Space has its most interesting technological emergence. We see emerging technologies and operations that may have profound effects on humanity. This is the mission our book addresses. We look at the Dreamer Region from three perspectives:1) a Military view where intelligence, jamming, spoofing, advanced materials, and hypersonics are in play; 2) the Operational Dreamer Region; which includes Space-based platform vulnerabilities, trash, disaster recovery management, A.I., manufacturing, and extended reality; and 3) the Humanitarian Use of Space technologies; which includes precision agriculture wildlife tracking, fire risk zone identification, and improving the global food supply and cattle management.

Here’s our book’s breakdown:

SECTION 1 C4ISR and Emerging Space Technologies. C4ISR stands for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and  Reconnaissance. Four chapters address the military: Current State of Space Operations; Satellite Killers and Hypersonic Drones; Space Electronic Warfare, Jamming, Spoofing, and ECD; and the challenges of Manufacturing in Space.

SECTION 2: Space Challenges and Operations covers in five chapters a wide purview of challenges that result from operations in Space, such as Exploration of Key Infrastructure Vulnerabilities from Space-Based Platforms; Trash Collection and Tracking in Space; Leveraging Space for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management; Bio-threats to Agriculture and Solutions From Space; and rounding out the lineup is a chapter on Modelling, Simulation, and Extended Reality.

SECTION 3: Humanitarian Use of Space Technologies is our DREAMERS section. It introduces effective use of Drones and Precision Agriculture; and Civilian Use of Space for Environmental, Wildlife Tracking, and Fire Risk Zone Identification.

SECTION 3 is our Hope for Humanity and Positive Global Change. Just think if the technologies we discuss, when put into responsible hands, could increase food production by 1-2%. How many more millions of families could have food on their tables?

State-of-the-Art research by a team of fifteen SMEs is incorporated into our book. We trust you will enjoy reading it as much as we have in its writing. There is hope for the future.

Disruptive Technologies With Applications in Airline, Marine, Defense Industries is the authors fifth textbook in a series covering the world of Unmanned Vehicle Systems & Operations On Air, Sea, Land;  Counter Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies and Operations;  Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain: Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 2nd edition; and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the Cyber Domain Protecting USA’s Advanced Air Assets, 1st edition; have seen considerable global recognition in the field. (Nichols R. K., et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2020) (Nichols R. , et al., 2019) (Nichols R. K., 2018)

The authors have expanded their purview beyond UAS / CUAS / UUV systems which they have written extensively about in our previous four textbooks. Our new title shows our concern for the emergence of Disruptive Technologies and how they apply to the Airline, Marine and Defense industries.

There is a difference between emerging technology trends and disruptive ones. Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized, such that they are figuratively emerging into prominence from a background of nonexistence or obscurity. Some sources say that emerging technologies are taking over the world by a storm and if misused, it could turn out to be our worst enemy.

Disruptive technology is one that displaces an established technology and shakes up the industry or a ground-breaking product that creates a completely new industry. (Rouse, 2021)

That is what our book is about. The authors think they have found technology trends that will replace the status quo or disrupt the conventional technology paradigms.

The authors have written some explosive chapters in their Book 5. Dr. Hans Mumm has written about the Advances in Automation & Human Machine Interface. Wayne Lonstein, JD has given the reader a solid look at Social Media as a Battleground in Information Warfare (IW). CEO Bart Shields has delivered a viable, less risky, more robust  cyber-security alterative / replacement for the popular Blockchain Algorithm and a clean solution for Ransomware. Professor Randall K. Nichols has written about the Advanced Sensor Technologies that are used by UUVs for munitions characterization, assessment, and classification.  He reports on their counter hostile use of UUVs against U.S. capital assets in the South China Seas.  In a second chapter, Professor Nichols has challenged the status quo and debunked the climate change fraud with verifiable facts. In his third chapter, he explodes our minds with Nightmare Technologies that if they come to fruition may do more harm than good.

Dr. Mark Jackson has written authoritatively about Propulsion and Fuels: Disruptive Technologies for Submersible Craft Including UUVs. CEO Randall Mai has penned a chapter to Challenge the Ammunition Industry by Grassroots use of Recycled Metals.  Captain John Paul Hood writes about the changing landscape of UAS regulations and drone privacy laws. 2021 will prove to be most challenging for owners and manufacturers of UAS. CEO & Dr. Suzanne Sincavage and Professor Candice Carter have teamed up to scare the pants off of us – especially during the COVID-19 pandemic – by detailing  Bioterrorism Risks, Biodefense, Threat Agents and the need for advanced sensors to detect these attacks.  Their chapter is truly a wake-up call.

Drone Delivery of CBNRECy – DEW Weapons: Emerging Threats of Mini-Weapons of Mass Destruction and Disruption (WMDD) is our sixth textbook in a series covering the world of UASs &  UUVs. Our textbook takes on a whole new purview for UAS / CUAS/ UUV (drones) – how they can be used to deploy Weapons of Mass Destruction and Deception against CBRNE and civilian targets of opportunity. We are concerned with the future use of these inexpensive devices and their availability to maleficent actors. Our work suggests that UASs in air and underwater UUVs will be the future of military and civilian terrorist operations. UAS / UUVs can deliver a huge punch for a low investment and minimize human casualties.

Repeating, we are concerned with the future use of these inexpensive devices and their availability to maleficent actors. As I write this description, we are on the 56th day of the savage invasion of Ukraine by Russia under President Putin. The Russian drone fleet numbers are above 500. They have had five years to grow their fleet. Russia currently uses them for domestic security, Syrian operations, and defense.  (Facon, 2016) In the conflict, Russian troops seriously outnumber Ukrainian forces. However, on February 8, 2022, a Forbes report stated that Ukraine used 20 Turkish TB-2 drones to hit Russian targets and offset some of Russia’s enormous military advantages. (Malsin, 2022) According to Fox News, on February 27, 2022, President Putin ordered nuclear deterrent forces status raised to “special combat readiness” (Colton, 2022)

News like this in just one conflict suggests that UASs in air and underwater UUVs will be the future of military and civilian terrorist operations. UAS / UUVs can deliver a huge punch for a low investment and minimize human casualties.  Our team believes that China is watching both the United States’ Neville Chamberlain appeasement strategy and the aggressive nature of Russia in its full-scale invasion of its neighbor. This portends that Taiwan is the next meal on the global plate. Unfortunately, two other state actors have season tickets: Iran and North Korea. Iran’s drone fleet is impressive and has caused other Gulf states’ inventories to escalate (UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Israel) (Barrie, 2021). North Korea (NK) lies about its air power. However, one report states that NK will have drones with stealth capability. (Choi, 2021) Maybe. According to Datablog, the US has the most drones and is best equipped for warfare. China, of course, might dispute these statistics. (DATABLOG, 2012) However, carrying a big stick doesn’t count anymore in the UAS’s future military play without the will to use it.

Our Wildcat team is composed of some impressive SMEs. We divided the work into four sections. Section 1 covers Chemical, Biological, Radiation, Nuclear, Explosive (CBRNE) weapons and payloads delivered by unmanned vehicles. Here we look at the technologies and damage delivered by drones as mini weapons of mass destruction and disruption. Chapter 7 concentrates on Deception and how drones can be used in PSYOPS and INFOWAR. Section 2 concentrates on Directed Energy Weapons (DEW), projectiles payloads, satellite killers, port disrupters, and cyberweapons against CBRN assets. Section 3 looks at policy considerations, risk assessments of threats and vulnerabilities of drone-based WMDD / DEW, practical crime scene investigations for hot zones, and unique challenges of responding to bioterrorism and chemical threats and attacks delivered by drones. Our final Section 4 concludes with social networking implications and DRONESEC security and tracking tools of the trade.

Over two years of solid research by a team of eleven SMEs is incorporated into our book. We trust you will enjoy reading it as much as we have in its writing. There are nightmares aplenty.

 

Social imagery, the visuals shared by users via various platforms and applications, may be analyzed to elicit something of massmind (and individual) thinking. This work involves the exploration of seven topics from various subject areas (global public health, environmentalism, human rights, political expression, and human predation) through social imagery and data from social media. The coding techniques involve manual coding, the integration of multiple social data streams, computational text analysis, data visualizations, and other combinations of approaches.

The e-book MARIANNA KISTLER BEACH MUSEUM OF ART: PEOPLE AND SPACES was created by the Board of the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art and published by New Prairie Press of Kansas State University in 2021. The purpose of the book is to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the art museum’s opening on the K-State campus in October 1996. It includes articles about the people who are honored by named spaces in the museum. Their contributions allowed the museum to become a reality, including an addition to the building that opened in 2007. When Jon Wefald became president of K-State in 1986, the university was the only institution in the Big 8 Conference without an art museum. First Lady Ruth Ann Wefald took the lead in obtaining the supporters and funds to establish a home for the institution’s impressive art collection. The most notable contribution came from Ross and Marianna Kistler Beach whose generous financial support made the building possible. In 1991 they provided the lead gift for an art museum that would be named in honor of Marianna to commemorate the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary. After the book’s introduction by Linda Duke, the museum’s executive director, Ruth Ann summarizes the difficult journey to establish an art museum. It is followed by an account of Marianna’s many accomplishments. The remainder of the publication contains 23 articles — written by board members of the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art — devoted to the people for whom spaces in the building are named. Photographs are included of those who are honored and spaces in the building including galleries, educational wing, theater, offices, and work and storage locations. The diverse group of people and their contributions have made the museum what it has become during its 25 years — a vibrant place for the collecting, studying, caring for, and presenting the visual art of Kansas and the region. Editors of the e-book are Anthony R. Crawford, Marla Day, Martha Scott, and Marlene VerBrugge, board members of the Friends of the Beach Museum of Art.

This book focuses on three important elements in the development of cereal and legume crops in semi-arid West Africa. The first section illustrates the socioeconomic factors that affect the food system for these crops and contains an overview of crop production and consumption in the region. Then, important inputs that affect system productivity are presented: preferences for new seed varieties, yield response to fertilizer, counterfeit herbicides, climate information, and the way farmers develop expectations about the weather events that shape cropping outcomes. The final chapter of section one is dedicated to understanding urban consumer preferences for processed food products derived from pearl millet.

The second section addresses the state of the art of phenotyping and the modeling of crop adaptation to dryland farming systems. Chapters in section two focus on the regional network for phenotyping, high throughput phenotyping in field situations, root architectures, and crop ideotypes. In addition, empirical evidence is presented on root and soil interactions and the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs to assess sorghum physiology.

Finally, the third section investigates the genetic diversity and improvement of dryland crops. Chapters in this section focus on biodiversity and agricultural system sustainability, orphan crops such as fonio, and the utilization of a regional germplasm collection in the improvement of cowpea, groundnut, pearl millet, and sorghum.